Coins in Movies - Buffalo Bill 1944 - Real Indian Head penny

The 1944 Twentieth Century Fox film "Buffalo Bill" is about the Western hero and Wild West Show promoter William Cody, known as "Buffalo Bill".

The film shows a real Indian Head penny, an unusual event at the time when the showing of actual United States currency or coins in films was prohibited by the US Treasury Department.

The film also shows a "Congressional Medal", later known as the "Medal of Honor", and some other old US medals.

The film starred Joel McCrea as Buffalo Bill Cody, Maureen O'Hara as Louisa Cody, and was directed by William A. Wellman

The film is set in the 1880's, there are many American Indians in the story and the film portrays them sympathetically

Cody gives a speech defending the Indian and accusing the businessmen of causing the "Indian Wars" for profit.


01. Buffalo Bill speech
Cody pulls an Indian Head penny out and tells the audience that:
"The only Indian you are familiar with is the one on the penny".
He then throws the coin onto the table.


02. The Indian Head penny on the table
The date on the coin appears to be 1880.

The Indian Head penny appears again when his estranged wife Louisa appears at a shooting gallery and dares Cody to shoot it out of her fingers


03. Louisa holding Indian Head penny


04. Louisa holding Indian Head penny closeup

Cody is invited to Washington, DC to receive the "Congressional Medal" for bravery during a battle with Indians.


05. Cody's Congressional Medal

Cody's friend Sergeant Chips hangs his service medals on a wall decoration.


06. Sergeant Chips' medals on wall

 

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Titanic - the coin Rose gave Jack was a 1912 Barber dime, purchased from Rare Coins Gallery in Glendale, California. After production, it was made into a keychain for James Cameron.

Picture of coin from the movie...

 

American Buffalo
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115530/

... also, in Cinderella Man, a Walker is used to apply cold onto facial swellings. You can see it being grabbed from the ice bucket in-between rounds.

 

Well I don't have a coin, so this token will have to do. I think it's from 1926.

 

I don't think that Indian is real. Look at the bottom of the date - it is straigtht across and does not follow the curve of the coin.

 

Indian Head pennies dated 1880 have straight across dates.

Some other years have curved dates.

 

Thx for the clarification. I tried to Google one to make sure before I posted, but I found a 1906 and that one was curved.....

 

I looked in my copy of the Red Book (2004) and could not find anything
about straight dates and curved dates.

It appears that 1872-1880 dates are straight, others are curved.

 

After watching this film, I had to go out and get one:



Indian Head penny 1880

 

accept it, it is true.

[what Willie said.]

 

Willieboyd2 - do i seea broken 8 variety in that date? The date is pretty small, i'd love to see a blow up of the date!

 

Does anyone know if the 1912 Barber dimes had already been released by April 10, 1912? Like now in 2014, no 2014 dimes seen yet almost end of March. Just curious if they made a mistake in the movie using a 1912 Barber dime.

 

The opening credits feature the 1905 IH cent at 0:54 seconds...

 

There are Indian Head pennies in "To Kill a Mockingbird" also.

 

'An American tail' which is a Spielberg cartoon from 1986 features a Morgan dollar. The coin is shown as a symbol for money and looks like the real deal.

 

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0090633/

 

Someone started a topic about Batman and it reminded me...

Batman - Harvey Dent/Two Face - Peace Dollar