Even though philippes's ENVY thread was about MalÂ’s pistol, it gave us a good look at some of the currency used in the FIREFLY 'Verse.
Since IÂ’ve always liked old coins, the ones in PhilÂ’s post intrigued me. Just for fun, I enlarged the coin section of the "beauty" shot, did a quick search on eBay, and quickly IDed a coin---#8, the "junk" coin.
After a couple of hours I had identified 2 or 3 more, so I bid on them and managed to win the auctions; this started a 3 month obsession to compile a complete & accurate set. IÂ’ve been mostly successful; there are a couple of coins that I havenÂ’t been able to find exact matches for, but IÂ’m pretty much satisfied with what I've got.
Based on scaling the coins with my PAL comm unit, the coins are 1.5" in diameter (+ or- a hair), except for #16, which is 1.75".
As a bit of general background, the currency used in the world of FIREFLY is very similar to the money used in the American Old West; large-sized bank notes and big metal coins. In most episodes, Mal & Co are paid with bags of coins that usually have a folded wad of bank notes crammed in.
It appears that the coins used on the show are from the Chinese Republic period, around 1890s-1930s. Very cool coins, about 1.5" diameter, or roughly the size of an American silver dollar. IÂ’ve seen them referred to as "trade dollars", and some are even labeled "ONE DOLLAR".
This was a period when China was "Westernizing" and many of the coins have a very "American Civil War" look to them---portraits of men in military uniforms, crossed flags, etc. Other coins have more traditional Asian motifs on themÂ…. dragons, bamboo, etc. All in all, a good match to WheadonÂ’s vision of the future.
NOTE: I want to note that none of these are screen or production used—the coins in my pics are ones that I’ve purchased off eBay based on researching screencaps and the "beauty" pic posted in the ENVY thread. Phil was able to offer some additional info, and graciously gave me permission to use his "beauty" pic—thanks.
I should also point out that although I bought these in good faith as "old coins", it turns out they're counterfeits. I took a few in to a coin dealer, and he went ballistic on me, complaining about how the Chinese are flooding the collecting market with cheap knockoffs and screwing people out of money, and how I should call the district attorney about prosecuting, etc.
I would guess that the production team also used replica/counterfeit coins since originals can be expensive; I just hope they didnÂ’t get yelled at for buying themÂ…. :rolleyes
Anytime I refer to a coinÂ’s "number", itÂ’s from the cropped ENVY pic posted later in this thread--IÂ’ve added numbers to it, along with some info about each coin.
The one instance I can find where coins were actually seen on-screen (instead of just heard clinking in a pouch), is in the episode SAFE. I was able to pull some caps that show off one coin perfectly, and 2 others, not so good (but I'm 90% sure I've nailed them based on the ENVY pic ).
Here are the screencaps I was able to grab of the coins---the “fatman” (#13) is pretty obvious, but the other two are more questionable. I believe the dark colored one is the #7 copper coin, while the other is the very rare #9.
This gives a better look at the final set of coins (updated 11/24/05):
This is the cropped ENVY image I mentioned earlier; below that are my coins laid on top of a printout of the ENVY pic:
UPDATE 10/2/2005:</span> Just got another coin I thought would be better for #14, but in the comparison images, both coins look pretty good.... :unsure
<img src=\'http://propaholics.wolfchasers.com/maian_uploader/uploads/compare14.jpg\' border=\'0\' alt=\'user posted image\' />
Of course, it’s nice to have something to keep them in—thanks CC.
<img src=\'http://propaholics.wolfchasers.com/maian_uploader/uploads/SAFEcoinbag.jpg\' border=\'0\' alt=\'user posted image\' />
<span style=\'color:red\'>A very special thanks to Fried Mon Calamari for hosting all of these big pics.
Here are links to the best screencaps I could find of the bank notes--these are from THE TRAIN JOB, SHINDIG, and WAR STORIES. A little different from the movie bills....
THE TRAIN JOB screencaps
SHINDIG screencaps
WAR STORIES screencaps
[edit by Treadwell to change topic description only]
Since IÂ’ve always liked old coins, the ones in PhilÂ’s post intrigued me. Just for fun, I enlarged the coin section of the "beauty" shot, did a quick search on eBay, and quickly IDed a coin---#8, the "junk" coin.
After a couple of hours I had identified 2 or 3 more, so I bid on them and managed to win the auctions; this started a 3 month obsession to compile a complete & accurate set. IÂ’ve been mostly successful; there are a couple of coins that I havenÂ’t been able to find exact matches for, but IÂ’m pretty much satisfied with what I've got.
Based on scaling the coins with my PAL comm unit, the coins are 1.5" in diameter (+ or- a hair), except for #16, which is 1.75".
As a bit of general background, the currency used in the world of FIREFLY is very similar to the money used in the American Old West; large-sized bank notes and big metal coins. In most episodes, Mal & Co are paid with bags of coins that usually have a folded wad of bank notes crammed in.
It appears that the coins used on the show are from the Chinese Republic period, around 1890s-1930s. Very cool coins, about 1.5" diameter, or roughly the size of an American silver dollar. IÂ’ve seen them referred to as "trade dollars", and some are even labeled "ONE DOLLAR".
This was a period when China was "Westernizing" and many of the coins have a very "American Civil War" look to them---portraits of men in military uniforms, crossed flags, etc. Other coins have more traditional Asian motifs on themÂ…. dragons, bamboo, etc. All in all, a good match to WheadonÂ’s vision of the future.
NOTE: I want to note that none of these are screen or production used—the coins in my pics are ones that I’ve purchased off eBay based on researching screencaps and the "beauty" pic posted in the ENVY thread. Phil was able to offer some additional info, and graciously gave me permission to use his "beauty" pic—thanks.
I should also point out that although I bought these in good faith as "old coins", it turns out they're counterfeits. I took a few in to a coin dealer, and he went ballistic on me, complaining about how the Chinese are flooding the collecting market with cheap knockoffs and screwing people out of money, and how I should call the district attorney about prosecuting, etc.
I would guess that the production team also used replica/counterfeit coins since originals can be expensive; I just hope they didnÂ’t get yelled at for buying themÂ…. :rolleyes
Anytime I refer to a coinÂ’s "number", itÂ’s from the cropped ENVY pic posted later in this thread--IÂ’ve added numbers to it, along with some info about each coin.
The one instance I can find where coins were actually seen on-screen (instead of just heard clinking in a pouch), is in the episode SAFE. I was able to pull some caps that show off one coin perfectly, and 2 others, not so good (but I'm 90% sure I've nailed them based on the ENVY pic
).Here are the screencaps I was able to grab of the coins---the “fatman” (#13) is pretty obvious, but the other two are more questionable. I believe the dark colored one is the #7 copper coin, while the other is the very rare #9.
This gives a better look at the final set of coins (updated 11/24/05):
This is the cropped ENVY image I mentioned earlier; below that are my coins laid on top of a printout of the ENVY pic:
UPDATE 10/2/2005:</span> Just got another coin I thought would be better for #14, but in the comparison images, both coins look pretty good.... :unsure
<img src=\'http://propaholics.wolfchasers.com/maian_uploader/uploads/compare14.jpg\' border=\'0\' alt=\'user posted image\' />
Of course, it’s nice to have something to keep them in—thanks CC.
<img src=\'http://propaholics.wolfchasers.com/maian_uploader/uploads/SAFEcoinbag.jpg\' border=\'0\' alt=\'user posted image\' />
<span style=\'color:red\'>A very special thanks to Fried Mon Calamari for hosting all of these big pics.
Here are links to the best screencaps I could find of the bank notes--these are from THE TRAIN JOB, SHINDIG, and WAR STORIES. A little different from the movie bills....
THE TRAIN JOB screencaps
SHINDIG screencaps
WAR STORIES screencaps
[edit by Treadwell to change topic description only]
Last edited by a moderator:
