Mad About Men (1954) - Coins in Movies

Swimming champion Caroline goes on vacation to Cornwall by the ocean. Caroline has a stuffy possessive boyfriend Ronald who she wants to get away from.

2. Cornish Riviera Train

This engine is now an antique.

3. Caroline reading a newspaper

On the train Caroline meets Jeff.

4. Jeff reading Caroline

Caroline stays at a local inn with a prophetic name.

5. Hotel sign "The Mermaid Inn"

In Cornwall she meets her distant mermaid relative Miranda, who looks like her.

6. Miranda meets Caroline

Caroline and Miranda trade places so that Caroline can go on a bicycling trip. Miranda impersonates Caroline and conceals her fish tail by telling people she had an accident and using a wheelchair to get around. Miranda has a mermaid friend Berengaria who is somewhat "goofy" and likes to steal clothes.

Miranda contacts a nurse Carey to assist her as they knew each other previously and Carey is familiar with the special requirements of mermaids.

Nurse Carey is reading a Western story magazine when she gets the call.

7. Nurse Carey reading a Western story magazine

The magazine she is reading is:

Ranch Romances First January Number (of 1954) "Bully of Burnt Bench" by Frank C. Robertson "Dusty Promise" by Ben Smith

8. Nurse Carey

To get spending money Miranda hauls up a box filled with jewelry and old Spanish gold doubloons.

9. Treasure box with jewelry and coins

The coins in the box are supposed to be Spanish gold doubloons

A Spanish doubloon gold coin:

10. Spanish gold doubloon (eight escudos) 1806 - Mexico City Mint

Gold, 38 mm, 27.0 gm

Back to the film:

She and Carey take the coins to a pawn shop and sell them to the owner. Carey warns her that pawnbrokers are sharks and Miranda replies that she is used to dealing with sharks.

11. Caroline and Carey at the pawnshop

This is a full-service pawn shop: The signs on the doors and windows read:

Cash Advanced on Plate-Jewellery Foreign Money Exchanged Best Prices Given / Old Gold / Antique Coins Dealers in Antique Furniture / Watch Repairs

The name below the window looks like "Harry Diamond & Son", a large chain of British jewelry shops.

The pawnbroker is young and handsome, Miranda gives him the full treatment, and wheels out with a load of cash.

12. Miranda gives the pawnbroker the "treatment"

13. The pawnbroker examines a coin

14. The pawnbroker hands over the money

Miranda sees a picture of Caroline's boyfriend and decides to find a better match for her. When the boyfriend Ronald turns up, she flirts with two eligible bachelors, Jeff Saunders and Colonel Barclay Sutton, in front of Ronald.

15. Caroline and two lads

Sutton invites Caroline to dinner, also along is his fiancee Barbara. He tells Caroline that he works in the sanitation department which dumps garbage into the ocean. Miranda obviously doesn't like that and she graphically dumps soup on Sutton.

Barbara doesn't like Miranda and while swimming discovers Miranda's true nature. She arranges for "Caroline" to sing at a charity concert and plans to expose her. Caroline reads about the concert and hurries home to switch places with Miranda.

Caroline ends up "lip-synching" while Miranda sings, Barbara tells the audience that Caroline is a mermaid, Caroline proceeds to hike up her dress showing her legs and doing a dance.

Things end happily with Caroline and Jeff in a rowboat kissing as Miranda watches them.