The 1960 film "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is based on Mark Twain's famous 1884 novel of the same title about a 13-year old boy living in Missouri in the 1840's or 1850's. In the film the main character is given a coin painted gold to pass as a $20 gold piece. Real twenty dollar gold pieces are mentioned a few times in the novel. The film states that it is set during the late summer of 1851. Huckleberry Finn lives in the Missouri town of Hannibal with two elderly women who have informally adopted him. His father is living but is a drunk and a gambler who has no interest in the boy. Huck has picked up some bad habits including smoking and dishonesty. Huck eventually runs away from home and encounters the women's black slave Jim, who has also run away. Jim is hoping to get to a "free state", specifically Illinois, where he will be free. The two share a raft which heads south along the Mississippi River to the town of Cairo Illinois. Huck, who originally has grown up in the South and holds their beliefs about race, comes to recognize Jim as a man and helps him to reach freedom. The pair encounter various people on their journey including two confidence men, two sisters who have inherited money, and men looking for Jim to bring him back to slavery or worse. At one point in the film one of the confidence men gives Huck a $20 dollar gold piece which he discovers is a coin painted gold. The coin is portrayed by a modern New Zealand coin minted between 1933 and 1965.

Huckleberry Finn is first shown as a boy along the river. Then he is shown cleaned up with his adopted parents, the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson.

Mrs. Douglas owns a black slave named Jim who works around the house. The two women have been trying to "civilize" Huck and teach him manners. Huck's father "Pap", a drunk and gambler, shows up and wants Huck to live with him, not out of love but as a servant. However he offers to sell Huck to the two women.

Pap wants $500 for Huck and he suggests that Mrs. Douglas sell her slave Jim. Jim overhears the conversation and runs off, and Huck goes to live with his father. His stay with his abusive father is short and he steals a boat and launches it onto the Mississippi River. Shortly afterwards Huck encounters Jim who has a raft. Meanwhile Pap Finn has begun telling people that Huck has been murdered by Jim. The two are then joined by two confidence men who claim to be European royalty and call themselves the "king" and the "duke."

The two confidence men plan to pose as the long lost brothers of a wealthy man in the town of Pikesville. The Pikesville man is near death and has $3,000 in gold which he has left to his two daughters. The king offers Huck $60 to join them while Jim goes into hiding as there is a reward for his capture.

The older sister Mary Jane believes the men but the younger sister Joanna is skeptical. Huck tells Joanna that he came with the men from England across the Pacific. Unfortnuately for Huck, Joanna is well educated and has lots of books.

The confidence men are also posing as reverends and ask for the money to preach to the "heathen Patagonians."

She hands a bag of gold coins to the king.

The king changes his scheme and hands back the money. He suggests that the two girls come to England and live with the two brothers. The real brothers show up and the two frauds are forced to leave. Huck and Jim also leave and head to their raft, but out on the water the raft is hit by a steamboat. The two are taken aboard the boat, Jim is sent to the engine room and Huck becomes a waiter.

Unfortunately the king and duke are also aboard and are "working."

The men encounter Huck and to avoid problems they pretend friendship.

He gives it to Huck who looks at the gift.

Huck exclaims "a twenty dollar gold piece!." The men leave and Huck looks at the coin.

Huck moves the coin around with his fingers and gold paint comes off the coin

Huck exclaims "Slickers!." Confidence men sometimes gold-plated nickels (5 cent coins) to pass them as $5 gold coins but trying that trick with a larger coin is rare. Only one side of the coin is shown and it is a New Zealand half crown reverse. This type of coin was minted from 1933 to 1965 under three successive English monarchs.

A New Zealand half crown coin:

Silver, 32 mm, 14.14 gm

Huck and Jim make another landing and encounter a circus.

They are hired by the circus but the king and duke turn up and capture Jim to collect the reward. Huck finds the local sheriff and convinces him that the two men are actually anti-slavery abolitionists who are taking Jim to freedom.

Huck shows the sheriff the $20 gold piece as proof he was hired by the men. Jim is left on the Illinois "free" side of the river.

Eddie Hodges as Huckleberry Finn
Archie Moore as Jim
Tony Randall as The king of France
Mickey Shaughnessy as The Duke
Patty McCormack as Joanna Wilkes
Sherry Jackson as Mary Jane Wilkes
Neville Brand as Pap Finn
Director: Michael Curtiz
Writers: James Lee, Mark Twain (novel)