Firefly: Original Coins of the Verse

[Friendly flyer]

All the identified coins I can find on ebay, are very expensive because most of theim are silver coins.

Indeed. If you want the actual antique silver coins you'll have to pay a fair bit. I own an original 1907 Piastre de Commerce, and it did cost a pretty penny. Also eBay is next to useless. Not only are the prices often inflated, quite a few if the "ancient Chinese silver coins" you can buy are fakes, so you end up with an extremely overpriced bit of pot-metal.

Since the screen used coins are fakes anyway, I see no reason to go for real antiques.If you google "replica Chinese silver coins", you'll find a lot of the 'verse coins to a dollar or two a piece. If you do a search for the exact term "Chinese Copper Coin China Currency Cash Miao Silver" you should find a set with enough screen accurate fakes to fill a very convincing money bag as seen in episode 5 "Safe" (and a fake 8 Reales, US and UK trade dollar and an oddball Chinese coin) for less than 20 dollar.

Personally I've used Aliexpress, which is sort of a Chinese eBay with free shipping for small packages. They are generally dependable, but the packages take a month to actually get here :unsure I started ordering a month ago, and so far I've got these (this is about 4 dollars worth of fake coins):

 

[Broilermaker]

yes aliexpress isnt to bad, i was having fun passing out Kuggerrands you should have seen the looks on my friends faces

 

[Friendly flyer]

A friend has allowed me to post photos of screen-used coins from Firefly. Here they are:

Philippes, do you know if these were all the coins used in Firefly, or just one of each kind of "dollar"? Thing is, if we believe the story of the prop dept just going down to Chinatown and buying cheap knock-off in the nearest tourist chop, I think I may have found the source for the actual in verse coins!

Now, bear with me:

14 unique "silver dollar" coins with Chinese characters
1 Japanese Yen coin (last row, coin no 4)
1 French Piastre de Commerce (1st row, coin no 3, sticking out like a sore thumb).
1 similar size copper coin, likely not part of the original "silver coin" set.

If these were just random fakes, you'd expect multiple copies of the same coin (like in the picture with the bowl and the tray, where most of the large silver coins appear to be "Fat Man dollars" (similar to coin no 2, upper row in the first picture). You'd also expect fewer different types of dollars, because the "Fat Man Dollar" and a couple of the dragon dollars by far dominates the Chinese silver dollar faker/replica market.

All this indicates to me that the coins came from a set of replicas of different turn-of-the-century silver dollar coins used in China, a set that includes the French and Japanese coins. Such sets are sold, and my guess is some shop-owner either sold the propmakers the set directly or had just popped one open and put the coins up when the prop dept came to the shop.

With me so far?

Having browsed the internet for the coin designs for a couple of weeks, I'm convinced the set offered here is the set those coins came from:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/174575830/20-pieces-of-chinese-copper-coin-china

You will notice there are 4 coins in this set that do not show up in the Philippes picture. Those are the Mexican dollar, US and UK trade dollars and a single Chinese coin. The first three makes sense if the prop dept picked them out of the lot to keep in the style of the verse (but missed the French one), and the Chinese coin can simply have been lost (or stolen, or sold before the prop dept people bought the set).

I have read the community guidelines to see if there's a ban on linking to a commercial seller, but i haven't found any. If I have missed a rule, I apologize.

 

[philippes]

I have no idea if these were all of the coins. This was just the material I was given.

Your theory about how this happened sounds plausible, but there could be numerous other explanations. Yours is as good as any, though.

 

[Friendly flyer]

Your theory about how this happened sounds plausible, but there could be numerous other explanations.

Sigh.

Having done a coin-by-coin photoshop comparison, I think I'll have to scratch my theory.

- The Piastre de Commerce in the set is marked 1905, while the one in your photo is a 1907.

- Your picture also two Chinese trade dollars (with "one dollar" on them) and a coin with an en face portrait and a Fatman-style wreath on the reverse lacking from the Etsy set.

- Going by the Chinese writing, only one of the two Fatman dollars from the Etsy set appear in your photo.

- A double dragon medal (actually not a coin) from the Etsy-set can be seen below a copper coin on the right side of the tray in the photos of your 2nd post, but not on the 1st coin set photo

There are probably more differences. I have ordered the set, so I'll make a better comparison when it gets here.

 

[robstyle]

I can guarantee 100% the coins were bought by the handful between a couple shops in LA's Chinatown, same with the Tallcards as there were more of those than seen on camera. To date most coins have been matched to the hero bag of coins used in the pilot episode, yet that wasnt every coin used in the series. On that note there were Tallcards custom created for the theatrical movie Serenity that I dont believe anyone has ever actually seen yet they were in the bar scene. Hopefully to end youre countless hours of searching, there was no theory in the coins in form of style, denomination or "sets". Next time im in Chinatown ill snap a picture so you can see how the FF coins were bought.

 

[Friendly flyer]

Hopefully to end youre countless hours of searching, there was no theory in the coins in form of style, denomination or "sets".

Too late, I already did the full comparison. I don't mind, they say nerding is healthy for the noggin

I didn't mean to imply that the coins were brought as a set, more that the various Chinatown tourist shops bought sets, and that's where the large "silver" coins come from (the other coins obviously was bought separately). I'm abandoning the idea though, as the match wasn't as good as I first believed. Here's the comparison (the coins Philippe posted with blue background):




It's still a decent "in verse" set. 12 of the coins are found in the hero-set (not all with same year), and another 5 looks perfectly at home in a 'verse setting.

 

[Friendly flyer]

Edit: Double post

 

[Mike J.]

...On that note there were Tallcards custom created for the theatrical movie Serenity that I dont believe anyone has ever actually seen yet they were in the bar scene...

Hey, ho, whoa, what? Custom Tallcards? Please elaborate


-MJ

 

[Friendly flyer]

I just wanted to copy another of Robstyle's pictures here. A few of the coins are a bit more visible here than in the image he posted in post #18




Source of original image here: http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=1681&page=17&p=2854681&viewfull=1#post2854681

I think I've got the large silver coins under reasonable control, but I've searched in vain for the large square holed bronze coins, and I still haven't found any cheap Chinese knockoffs of the smaller (half and quarter dollar/Jiao/Juan) coins.

 

[Friendly flyer]

Stuff

Robstyle, if I've understood things correctly, the wood-and-bamboo tray with the coins in the pictures Philippes posted is in your private posession, right? Based on the size of the large silver coins (who at least in theory should be 39mm across), the tray itself should be about 10 x 20 cm or 4 x 8 inches. Can you confirm that is approximately the correct size?

 

[robstyle]

I dont know what the dimensions of the tray is but give me a few days. Ironically the tray was from the film Serenity. The small coins with the square holes, if memory serves, were part of a string of coins. In Chinatown they sometimes string items up like wind chimes to catch shoppers attention.

 

[Friendly flyer]

I dont know what the dimensions of the tray is but give me a few days. Ironically the tray was from the film Serenity. The small coins with the square holes, if memory serves, were part of a string of coins. In Chinatown they sometimes string items up like wind chimes to catch shoppers attention.

OK. thanks!

Pardon if it has been covered in an earlier thread, but I'm new(ish) to this board. Were you involved in the production?

 

[robstyle]

I paint trash cans for a living.

 

[Friendly flyer]

While waiting for Aliexpress to send all the little bits of potmetal I've ordered, I've identified a few of the hero coins in the tray that does not appear in the picture in Philippes first post:



- The upper coin with the I Ching design is called a "Zhong Wai Tong Bao", I've no idea if it's actually a coin.

- The coin with the pagoda on one side and bamboo on the other is called a GuiZhou "bambo coin", from the interwar years.

- The coin with a geometric pattern is called a "double dragon coin" or "fantasy coin". It's not actually a coin, but a medal minted like a coin (and occasionally used as one).

 

[Friendly flyer]

Double post

 

[gyoung2993]

I got a few metal coins from a member here years ago...I got them somewhere , just need to unpack them and find out which ones , can't remember which member I got those from....not sure if they would be worth anything....but I need to try and find them , and get a photo of them. They were pretty hefty coins from what I recall

 

[Friendly flyer]

I just got the set I ordered off Etsy in the mail.

Overall, the replica quality is fair. The coins are nice and heavy. They are a bit thicker than an actual antique silver coin to give it the silver-like heft. The surfaces have somewhat heavy weathering, but looks good.

The 11 coins corresponding to the hero coin set per Philippes' photo (first post in this thread). Not all have the same year as the hero coins, and notice there are two fatman dollars (both different years from the one in Philippes' picture, sorry about the ugly table cloth):






Two coins not found in Philippe's 1st photo, but are seen in the bamboo tray (see post #55, above) are to the left on the below picture. To the right are are one tael and a "7 mace and 2 candarees" coin that I haven't been able to match to exact hero coins, but which both have the proper "verse" look. Notice the 7 mace and 2 candarees coin has identical reverse and obverse:






The four last coins are a tad too distinct to smoothly fit into a verse setting. Particularly the one with a car on it a bit funky, and the UK and Mexican trade dollars are a bit too recognizable:





I think I'll let the kids have them as pirate treasure.

Considering what i paid for them, I think this is a worthwhile set to get if you need a quick on-stop Firefly coin set. Here's the "acceptable" lot in a suitable bamboo tray with the money bag:

 

[Aldarith]

Hey folks,
Old thread but I feel I ought to put these here to keep them all tidy and together.
I bought these from a member on the Firefly Prop Forum, I believe the large one is from Serenity and the remainder are from the show but it has been a long time. Either way, these were all sold and warranted as coming from Firefly productions and are all 'canon' as a result.