Ancient coins in 1975 film "The Man Who Would Be King"

[WilliamBoyd]

A pair of ancient coins appear in the 1975 film "The Man Who Would Be King" which stars
Sean Connery and Michael Caine as two former British soldiers who venture into
1880's Afghanistan to find a lost kingdom and appropriate a treasure.

The locals come to believe that Sean's character is a descendant of Alexander the Great
and appoint him their king.

It is based on the famous story by Rudyard Kipling and was filmed mostly in Morocco.

TOP IMAGE
Sean Connery is in a treasure room and holds up a coin.

BOTTOM IMAGE
The center coin appears to be an Alexander the Great tetradrachm,
but larger than a real one would be, obviously a film prop.

There is the reverse of a Roman appearing coin in the lower right of the picture.
It is upside down but I can make out "COS" and "S C", along with some wavy lines.

I identified it as a large Lucius Verus tourist fake from Dr. Ilya Prokopov's fake ancient coins page.

Album Link

[Enodia]

Ha!  i froze the picture in that exact same spot the last time my wife and i watched this movie (just a few months ago in fact). what a terrific film, with both Connery and Caine at their peaks.

i couldn't tell you anything about the tourist fake of Lucius Verus (although it looks to be the same piece), but i have often thought of having a collection of fake prop coins from movies, etc. there are definitely a lot of them out there, some so bad that you have to wonder "why didn't they just use a handful of real coins? they're certainly cheap enough."
but what i would really like to find is the Hekate amulet which is used in the scenes of young Caligula from 'I Clavdivs'.  anyone know where it is?  

~ Peter

[Reid Goldsborough]

The coin in the center of the frame is a copy of a Lysimachos tetradrachm, Lysimachos being one of Alexander the Great's successors. It depicts on the obverse a deified portrait of Alexander the Great wearing a Horn of Ammon  -- a ram's horn that's symbolic of Zeus, the mythology at the time being that Alexander was the son of Zeus Ammon.

I agree that it's an oversize film prop piece, maybe even made specifically for this film. It has a golden hue, but this is probably just the orange cast of the film. It's probably made of some white metal -- pewter or even aluminum. I also agree it would be cool to have one of these film prop copies, ridiculous though they might look to us sophisticated collectors, for the novelty of it.

[WilliamBoyd]

Got my own copy of this fake.

Lucius Verus Chariot Sestertius - Fake/fantasy

Obverse:
Laureate head right
L VERVS AVG ARM PARTH MAX IPP VIIII

Reverse:
Man driving chariot with four horses
Exergue: COS II / S C

Metal: Bronze
Diameter: 35mm
Weight: 18.10gm

[mihali84]

Great movie, even better cast.  By Jove is that Segunda! 

[Reid Goldsborough]

The most visible coin isn't an Alexander but a Lysimachos. It appears to be a movie-prop piece, a coin deliberately made (cast) in a pewter (tin) alloy for use in Hollywood (which look much like tourist fakes). This one does appear as well to use as its host coin a Bulgarian fake. We know it's an attempt to portray a Lysimachos tetradrachm because of the large horn on the head of the obverse subject, which is a deified image of Alexander the Great. Alexander wearing this horn of Ammon (Zeus) was the obverse device not only on the tetradrachms of Lysimachos but also on many of the coins of rulers who came after him. These coins like Alexanders were issued in many lifetime and posthumous varieties for many years.

[WilliamBoyd]

I have seen similar "ancient" coins in other films.

I guess that they appear well on the screen.

Added September 10, 2012:

There is a gold-plated version of the Lucius Verus fantasy coin in the 1988 film
"The Last Temptation of Christ".