POTC Coins - What's the story here?

I have these four coins in little pouches that say "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "authentic coin from the major motion picture," but I can't seem to dig up any solid info on what they really are or where they came from. The coins are all identical (both sides shown below). They seem to be a very lightweight metal-- maybe aluminum with a "gold" finish?

I got them from my neighbor who passed away, so the origins are truly a mystery to me. I'm sure someone here knows all about it. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hi,

There is a couple currently on ebay I noticed, also Spooky has a couple he's a member here I'm sure maybe shoot him a line he might know a little more about them.

Gold Coins original / screen-used movie props from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of The Black Pearl (2003)

I have it too

They were Walmart giveaways when they sold the first movie on DVD.

Thanks guys!

aliensarchive said:

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They were Walmart giveaways when they sold the first movie on DVD.

Haha, not quite as classy as I was hoping, then.

So do we know if they were screen used or just somehow made in conjunction with the production?

ChickenHaunt said:

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Thanks guys!



Haha, not quite as classy as I was hoping, then.

So do we know if they were screen used or just somehow made in conjunction with the production?

I don't know for sure, but they do look similar to one I know for sure was screen-used for the first movie. I'll have to compare it when I get home. I worked on the Disney lot when they were filming the first movie, and got to tour the "cave" set where the treasure was kept after filming completed. There were literally thousands of lightweight prop coins on the ground, and I was allowed to remove one from the set that I still have at home.

Thanks Sarnoff!
That must've been awesome. What did you do for Disney?

ChickenHaunt said:

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Thanks Sarnoff!
That must've been awesome. What did you do for Disney?

Here are shots of my coin, 1 and 2. I don't know what metal it's made out of, but it's about as thin as the penny, and it is not magnetic.

Like I said, there were thousands of these coins on the "cave" set. I have no idea if the promo giveaways were from that lot, or additional coins that the production had made from the same batch but didn't make it to set, but it looks similar.

The "cave" set was huge. At the time, I was working as a PA on one of the TV shows that was filmed at the Disney studios in Burbank. A lot of PotC was shot elsewhere, but the cave had to be a built set... because there was a lot of water and the bottom had to be flat so that the camera guys didn't fall over

Rumor was it was the same soundstage that they used to film the asteroid in "Armageddon"... which required them to dig out 20 feet underground because the stage wasn't tall enough. So they charged Armageddon a million dollars or so to dig the set, then fill it up when they were done, then they charged PotC another million dollars to do the same thing.

When they first built the set, it caught on fire. The whole cave is made of styrofoam, which is cut with a very hot wire making slices in the foam, then they apply a chemical to make it hard as rock. One of the wires overheated the set and the whole thing nearly went up, they evacuated the whole Disney lot as a precaution and had to start over and rebuild the whole cave.

When production was done I got to walk around the set. These coins were scattered everywhere to make up the pile that the "hero" chest of Aztec coins was sitting on. It was not the Aztec gold, this was other booty the pirates had plundered. The Aztec gold and a lot of the nicer prop pieces had already been removed. The water had also been drained out by then. My coin was one of the many, many, many leftover uncollected pieces that apparently wasn't worth returning to wherever they came from (I don't know if Disney "minted" a special batch of these coins for the movies, or if they were just bought in bulk from a prop house).

Yeah, that looks the same to me. Thanks for getting pictures.

Awesome info! Thanks so much for sharing.

I hear had to dig down for Hitchcock's Rear Window on the Paramount lot, too, so the main action (and cameras) could take place at ground level.

I have a few silver ones of these that a picked up a while back which I believe came from a video store when it closed down... from what I understand they were included with the DVD, or a certain edition of the DVD. Mine don't have a bag tho.

The Walmart where I live is one of 11 in the US that didn't get the coins.
Had I known that I would have bought the movie for $3 less at Target.

They are supposed to be screen used.