The 1928 film "The Wind" stars Lillian Gish as a young Virginia girl who moves to a very windy part of the American Southwest to live with her male cousin Beverly and his wife. Letty, the young girl, is very pretty and attracts the attention of several men. A wealthy businessman wants her as his mistress and two cowboys want to marry her. The cowboys, as a joke, flip a half dollar to decide who gets her. This film was made before the US Treasury outlawed the use of real money in films in 1934 and uses a real Barber half dollar as the prop coin. The coin reverse or "tails" is shown in a man's hand.

Letty, a young girl from Virginia, is on a train headed to the Southwest to live with her cousin Beverly and his wife and family on a ranch in the town of Sweet Water. Wirt Roddy, a cattle businessman, introduces himself.

Letty mentions the wind and Wirt tells her about them.

At the railroad station, two cowboys, Lige and Sourdough, meet Letty to take her to the ranch.

Letty meets her cousin Beverly his wife Cora, and their three children.

Cora takes an immediate dislike to Letty.

The two men on the left are Lige and Sourdough. Cora's children are playing with a stereoscope, an antique viewing device.

The stereoscope here resembles the popular Holmes stereoscope, invented by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the father of the US Supreme Court Justice. Letty attends a local dance where the ordinary wind is interrupted by a tornado.

Everyone rushes for the tornado shelter and, while there, Wirt asks Letty to be his girl. She politely refuses when he tells her that he has a wife. The dance resumes and the two cowboys propose to Letty.

Lige hands Letty a coin and she flips it onto the floor. Sourdough picks up the coin, announces that "lucky" Lige has won, and holds it in his hand.

The coin shows the reverse of a "Barber" half dollar, named for the designer Charles E. Barber. These were made from 1892 to 1915 and were still in circulation in 1928 when the film was made. They are silver, 31 mm in diameter, and weigh 12.5 gm. They are also called "Liberty Head" half dollars.

A United States Barber half dollar:

The Barber half dollar was minted from 1892 to 1915.

At the house, Cora becomes upset with Letty.

Cora orders Letty out of the house, and, in desperation, Letty marries Lige. They hold a small wedding and head for Lige's cabin.

Lige roughly begins marital relations but stops when she refuses, then tells her that as soon as he gets some money, he will send her back to Virginia. A "norther", or stronger wind, is coming and the cowboys gather to round up wild horses, which can be sold to the government for three dollars a head. Wirt is injured and is brought to Lige and Letty's cabin. His recovery includes playing with the stereoscope.

Wirt begins eyeing Letty and then becomes aggressive.

His intentions become clear and Letty handles the situation.

Letty buries Wirt outside and then imagines that he has revived.

She watches as Wirt is uncovered.

Lige arrives home and sees the state that she is in. She tells him about the burial but Lige doesn't see anything and tells her:

Lillian Gish as Letty Marsh
Lars Hanson as Lige Hightower
Montagu Love as Wirt Roddy
Dorothy Cumming as Cora
Edward Earle as Beverly
William Orlamond as Sourdough
Director: Victor Seastrom
Writers: Frances Marion, Dorothy Scarborough (novel)