The 1955 film "Tall Man Riding" is set the Old West of 1892. An old Mexican coin appears. The film stars long-time Western film actor Randolph Scott as rancher Larry Madden who returns after five years to seek revenge on the powerful rancher Tucker Ordway who drove him from the area after he started seeing Ordway's daughter Corinna. Soon after arriving, Madden encounters a Hispanic gunman known as the "Peso Kid" who is always fondling Mexican silver peso coins and dropping them near men he has killed in gunfights. Mexico did issue silver one peso coins in the 1890's but the Mexican coin shown in the film is a five peso coin from the early 1950's.

Randolph Scott immediately appears as Larry Madden, who has returned to the area.

Larry saves the man who married his former girlfriend from some men and then finds out who he has saved. He then sends a threat with the man to his father-in-law, the powerful rancher Tucker Ordway, who, five years before, ran Larry out of town for courting his daughter Corinna. Larry then heads to town and a saloon where he spots a man fondling silver coins.

Larry asks who the man "wearing out coins" is and is told that he is the "Peso Kid", a "rattlesnake." Larry also meets Cibo Pearlo who owns the saloon, and Reva, the saloon entertainer. He discovers that there is a feud between Ordway's ranch and local settlers or homesteaders, and that Cibo is backing the settlers as they spend their money in his establishments.

Larry tells everyone that he intends to get revenge on the rancher Ordway, either in a gunfight or some other way. Larry meets with a lawyer he hired some time ago who has discovered that Ordway doesn't legally own his ranch and that it can be opened to settlers. While out riding, Larry encounters Corinna Ordway, his former girlfriend. Her husband has been taken in for trial of one of the townsmen.

The local sheriff's deputy is one of Pearlo's men, and Larry beats him into telling the townspeople that the Peso Kid actually killed the man that Corinna's husband has been arrested for. The Peso Kid rides the husband and shoots and kills him. Larry takes the deputy to Ordway's ranch to tell Corinna, then meets with Ordway, challenges him to a gunfight, and then leaves. Later Larry finds the body of the deputy and spots something near it.

He picks up a silver coin, a Mexican peso.

The peso tells him who killed the deputy. A federal marshal arrives with some men and announces publicly that Ordway doesn't own his ranch and that it will be opened in a "land rush" to settlers shortly. Soldiers will guard the area to keep "sooners" from entering the ranch early. Cibo and the lawyer plot to grab the ranch buildings. Larry, Cibo, and the Peso Kid have all learned that Ordway is losing his eyesight and would no longer be able to survive a gunfight.

The Peso Kid rides up to the wagon and challenges Ordway.

The Kid hears something and then sees a peso laying on the ground.

Although the coin image is small, the the coin can be recognized as a Mexican coin with the image of Father Miguel Hidalgo, a Roman Catholic priest and leader of the Mexican War of Independence from Spain. The coin image is surrounded by a wreath, further identifying the coin as a Mexico five peso silver coin issued from 1951 to 1953.

A Mexico peso of this type dated 1953:

Silver, 40 mm, 27.75 gm

The Peso Kid realizes that someone behind him threw the coin.

The Kid pulls his gun but Larry is faster.

It is the day of the land rush and the prospective settlers are lined up.

Larry gets to the ranch house and stakes a claim notice, Cibo and the lawyer appear, and both foolishly try to shoot down Larry. Ordway and Corinna arrive and Larry tells them that he no longer wants revenge and will sign the ranch over to them.

Ordway asks Larry to stay and then so does Corinna.

Randolph Scott as Larry Madden
Dorothy Malone as Corinna Ordway
John Baragrey as Cibo Pearlo
Robert Barrat as Tucker Ordway
Paul Richards as The Peso Kid
Peggie Castle as Reva
Director: Lesley Selander
Writers: Joseph Hoffman, Norman A. Fox (novel)