The 1963 film "From Russia with Love" features British gold sovereigns and belly dancer costume coins. The film was based on the popular "James Bond" book by Ian Fleming and starred Sean Connery as the British secret agent and Daniela Bianchi as Tatania, a Russian girl he meets. James Bond travels to Istanbul, Turkey, to meet Tatania, a beautiful Russian embassy worker. She is going to give him a coding machine. Early in the film, Bond is given a special attache case which includes, besides a variety of weapons and gadgets, fifty British gold sovereigns. Later at a Gypsy camp he watches a "belly dance" performance with the performer wearing coins.

Kronstein is a chess master who is playing in Venice Italy for a championship. A waiter delivers a glass of water to him.

The message reads "YOU ARE REQUIRED AT ONCE." The logo of the octopus is for Kronsteen's employer SPECTRE which is the "Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion", an international criminal organization. Kronsteen hurriedly wins his game and leaves for SPECTRE's headquarters on a boat. There he meets Rosa Klebb, a Russian army officer, and the group's leader Blofeld, who is not shown.

Blofeld wears a ring with the SPECTRE logo. His friend is a white Persian cat.

Kronsteen has designed a plan to steal a Russian coding device called the Lektor and then sell it back to them. Rosa heads to Istanbul and to the Russian Consulate where the Lektor is kept.

Rosa recruits Tatania, a beautiful Russian code clerk, to meet British agent James Bond.

A message is sent to Britain that Tatiana wants to defect and bring a Lektor machine with her, but she will only defect to Bond. The British are not sure if the offer is real but order Bond to meet the girl. He is given a special attache case for the job by it's designer.

The case has a trick lock, a number of weapons including a rifle, and fifty British gold sovereigns which can be used internationally for payments and bribes.

The coins are attached to a strap holder.

Queen Elizabeth II's "young head" portrait is visible on some of them.

A British gold sovereign of Elizabeth II:

A sovereign is a British gold coin originally worth one pound or 20 shillings. It is the same size and weight as a United States $5 gold coin, 1/4 troy ounce. This one is dated 1963, the year this film was released.

Bond visits Miss Moneypenny, the administrative assistant, to pick up his ticket to Istanbul.

She knows about his mission and wants to go with him. Bond flies to Istanbul and is met by a local agent with a car.

Bond is taken to meet Kerim Bey, a local man who works for the British. Grant, a muscular employee of SPECTRE, arrives to assist Rosa.

Another shot of the Istanbul skyline, this time the Hagia Sophia church.

The original church was built in AD 537 during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian. It was a Christian church until the Moslem conquest of AD 1453 when it became a mosque. The modern Republic of Turkey opened it as a museum in 1935. Hakim takes Bond to a Gypsy encampment where there are belly dancers and fighting women.

The tradition costume includes thin brass imitations of gold coins. Bond checks into his hotel and finds Tatania in his room.

He's always cautious around women. Later he visits the Hagia Sophia to meet her again and pick up some information.

Grant has been busy also and kills a man in the church. Bond and Tatania take a boat trip on the Bosphorus

The building behind them is the Dolmabahçe Palace, the last Sultan's palace of the Ottoman Empire. Bond is able to steal the Lektor coding device, then meets Tatania at the Sirkeci train station. They are going to take the famous Orient Express train into western Europe.

Bond and Tatania are posing as a married couple on the train.

They are accompanied by Kerim and his son, along with Grant. Grant kills a British agent who was supposed to meet Bond and impersonates the agent.

Bond spots Grant's deception, they fight, and Grant overpowers Bond and holds him with a pistol.

Bond offers Grant the gold sovereigns.

Grant isn't interested in the money but opens Bond's attache case anyway, exploding a bomb concealed in it. The men fight again and this time Bond comes out on top.

Bond finds Tatania, they get off the train in Yugoslavia and hijack the truck that Grant had parked there. SPECTRE sends a helicopter after the pair.

Bond manages to shoot it down with the attache case rifle.

SPECTRE's chief is unhappy and calls Krebb and Kronsteen to his boat. He removes Kronsteen from his position fatally.

There is a medieval drawing of the Devil on the wall to the right of the door. Rosa is put in charge of the attempt to retrieve the Lektor and SPECTRE's navy is sent after Bond.

Bond and Tatania take the Lektor and head to a Venice hotel for a "honeymoon."

Rosa Klebb, posing as a hotel maid, attacks Bond and he and Tatania manage to overpower her.

Mission accomplished.

Sean Connery as James Bond
Daniela Bianchi as Tatiana Romanova
Robert Shaw as Grant
Lotte Lenya as Rosa Klebb
Pedro Armendáriz as Kerim Bey
Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny
Director: Terence Young
Writers: Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, Ian Fleming (novel)