That's brilliant! And the Constantine art department has form for these kinds of shenanigans with McLaglan's Cough Syrup.
Constantine (2005) - Balthazar Coin
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That's brilliant! And the Constantine art department has form for these kinds of shenanigans with McLaglan's Cough Syrup.
I'm up for casting one or more. I'll be at the Bush concert in August. It'd be fun to give one to Gavin Rossdale as he says he didn't get to keep one. I'm hoping he will remember the front but it was 20 years ago. The right guy to talk to is Kirk Corwin. He seems to have been heavily involved in the Amulet of Protection / Tre-Foil necklace. I can't find any contact details for him. He may be retired at this point or just advising.
I think we can call the coin size 31-32 mm based on existing follis size and its bigger than a quarter, 4mm thick, cast, not struck, in a silver medal (not bronze). The back is a justianian follis, likely Justinian II given the stylized large X, the mint is Theup (?), the workshop is gamma(?). We can use the yellow render from page 1 as a good stand-in for the reverse side.
On the front, I believe the actual coin is shown at 1:10 in the bowling alley. I also believe the digital rendering was mirrored. Here is a screenshot assuming the top orientation is outward. Assuming Latin or greek characters, the letters are mirrored. Note the R and E on the left.
Flipped vertically, assuming top orientation is inward.
Mirrored
Mirrored and flipped
The outer ring could be greek lettering or cyrillic. On the interior ring, I have not identified the inner characters though. I was thinking its enochian and the center character is an Un. Enochian was used on the Amulet of protection. I've checked the various occult alphabets but nothing quite fits. I'm going back through the Constantine sigils.
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That's amazing laellee. The Constantine cough syrup was obvious. Your find is much more subtle.I'm glad you brought this up; Ironically, the first place I went after looking at Mach 's posting was IMDB to see who worked on the movie in props and design. I've seen this a whole bunch in movie props over the years, the people will incorporate their names or some equivalent identifier that really NOBODY should ever figure out unless they are crazy like us. My last one I think was while I was putting together a Mr. Jingles (Green Mile) prop set with his cigar-box 'house'. I had everything sorted EXCEPT that wooden thread spool he rolls around, I had correct vintage spools but none with the correct Kerti-Hindman manufacturer:
View attachment 1938554
After a lot of fruitless searching, I thought 'well why not reach out to the prop dept/art director/whatever on IMDB, maybe get a lead'... Lo and behold, in the cast credits I got my answer
View attachment 1938555
Thanks! I've gotten nowhere with that other scripting (the IHIAER/etc), nothing is even close to me looking through several appropriate languages.
I don't suppose there were any 'behind the scenes' special features or anything that ever popped up? I went back through screencaps and no luck.
The DVD iterations (4K and steelcase) seem to have the same special features. The only one that shows the props is Holy Relics. I'll watch it again. Kirk Corwin narrates. I couldn't find any other special features that show any close ups. The Balthazar office scene with Constantine doesn't have the coin but is a special feature.
I rewatched the Holy Relics video but nothing that I can see regarding the coin. The Hell Bible is an impressive piece of work and the team were deep into the lore. If they took the symbols on the coin from the an existing text, it will be hard to pin down which one.
I rewatched the Holy Relics video but nothing that I can see regarding the coin. The Hell Bible is an impressive piece of work and the team were deep into the lore. If they took the symbols on the coin from the an existing text, it will be hard to pin down which one.
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barbara Kyzinsk
New Member
Have you had a chance to view the full 2 hours of special features?
I only as because after continually asking for further details, trying to fact check them, telling it which ones are wrong (as was previously pointed out), and asking for further direct links to the information given, I fact checked everything and concluded that alot was from mixed up articles that were from forums that had claimed their information, but as had been pointed out, the interviews and articles did not exist, and some information it gave such as the "leah tookman prop master" and "gates of hell" featurette were for the Constantine TV show.
But, information I kept getting as answer became more and more detailed, was stating it was on a bonus featurette that was on the 4k release, it did say "4k Region 1 US Special Edition" as a specific, but from what I can tell the special edition and regular 4k release have the same 2hour set of featurettes and extras though, so I assume if it is on the new 4K disc, then it'd have to be in those 2hrs of special features, but I DO plan on ordering the 4K DVD to watch all the extras if you'd rather not risk it due to my previous post that I had wasted time with ( again I do apologize about that and completely 100% understand if you'd prefer I watch it just incase it doesn't have any coin info) as and had also found an interview with Frank Cappello where speaks about how he ended up doing the screenwriting, how the original script and overall plot was apparently way worse and more 'cheesy Hollywood religious junk' and how he incorporated specific ideas that he both made up, such as staring into the cat eyes and the water as a conduit instead of the 'terrible candles and pentagram every religious horror or occult film uses' to pass into hell, along with Johns suicide and revival being inspired from his father having a heart attack and declared dead, but they were able to revive him shortly after. He then claims that it 'changed' his father, who told him he began to have nightmares about hell and 'terrible thigs' and said that after his father said this, his mother told him that his father had a horrible fear of death because he was catholic and "knew where he was going" (due to her belief that he had killed people during the Korean War) with the overall character, world, and tone of the comics but said he didn't want to just copy the comics like some of the other writers and studio originally had planned to, and was apparently how he got the job as being the actual movie screenwriter. He also does mention the ComiCon Q&A Panel with Francis Lawrence, Akiva Goldsman, and Keanu Reeves, but says the original was removed and that they reshot it (not sure if I really believe that part with it being a supposedly life q&a), but he gives a ton of info regarding the film, the character, and alot of details about it but I was unable to finish the entire interview (about an hour and 20min long), but will try to finish it tonight to see if anything is mentioned about the coin. If you would like the link to the interview, lmk and ill sent it to you in a message as I don't want to post anything 'official' again without it being verified.
I also plan to try and contact him to see if he has any info on the coin so we can all finally have this mystery solved and hopefully a high-quality replica made
But, here is a reddit thread by Frank Cappello speaking about some of the things he talks about in that same interview, and answers various users questions;
I'm documenting here for future me so fair warning there will be a lot on false leads to follow.
The Sixth and Seventh books of Moses are interesting but seem to be more influenced by Hebrew. It does show several instances of the reversed R but nothing that matches.
The Dictionary of Occult Hermetic Alchemical Sigils & Symbols Fred Gettings1981 has a series of alphabets and scripts but none that exactly match.
The Grand Grimoire has a series of sigils for demons. These are interesting for the coins central figures.
The Black Pullet provides a series of inscriptions for magical talismans. These are in the correct vein the interior ring and central figures.
The Lesser Key of Solomon has similar circular design as the coin but the sigils are too geometric.
Satanism and Witchcraft by Jules Mitchelet as shown on the dash of Chaz's cab does not contain any sigils or designs.
The Sixth and Seventh books of Moses are interesting but seem to be more influenced by Hebrew. It does show several instances of the reversed R but nothing that matches.
The Dictionary of Occult Hermetic Alchemical Sigils & Symbols Fred Gettings1981 has a series of alphabets and scripts but none that exactly match.
The Grand Grimoire has a series of sigils for demons. These are interesting for the coins central figures.
The Black Pullet provides a series of inscriptions for magical talismans. These are in the correct vein the interior ring and central figures.
The Lesser Key of Solomon has similar circular design as the coin but the sigils are too geometric.
Satanism and Witchcraft by Jules Mitchelet as shown on the dash of Chaz's cab does not contain any sigils or designs.
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Yes, the only new title on the 4K disc is the Two Decades feature. Its a fun watch but no coin pictured or discussed. I have 4 copies of the DVD including older and newer versions. They are all the same features.
I've seen the Frank Capello's video he made in response to the recent comic con panel. I also listened to the podcast. His basic complaint seems to be that the politics of the set meant that while he created the 1st draft, he was shut-out of the production. I don't think he influenced the coin design. Kirk Corwin as prop master likely did.
NoiAlibi
New Member
About that Tre-Foil necklace — I actually saw it listed on a Japanese anime shopping site a while back. It was already sold out at the time, and if I remember right, one of the reviews said the quality wasn’t that great. Still, pretty cool that it was made as merchandise at all.
That movie really is full of hidden treasures.
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Oh wow, that's awesome! Thank you for sharing the image
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Starting into drawing the coin. Sizing is 1.22" or 31 mm - likely it was target sized to 1.25. This makes it larger than a US quarter and half dollar...larger than a Canadian Toonie as well. The sizing aligns with Gavin Rossdale's comment that it was larger than a quarter.
I had thought the coin was cast in silver but this picture looks bronze. It could be patina'd silver but going with bronze. I'll confirm with the dvd.
I had thought the coin was cast in silver but this picture looks bronze. It could be patina'd silver but going with bronze. I'll confirm with the dvd.
