This episode of the television program "Gunsmoke" shows a large octagonal coin or "slug", one of the California Gold Rush Octagonal Slug Medals manufactured around 1948. "Gunsmoke" was a one-hour television program which ran on the CBS television network from 1955 to 1975. The regular characters are Matt Dillon, the Marshall or Sheriff of the town of Dodge City, Kansas. Miss Kitty runs a saloon, Festus is Matt's deputy, and Doc Adams is the town doctor. The show was set in the 1870's to 1880's. This episode is titled "The Treasure of John Walking Fox" and was first broadcast on April 16, 1966. This episode is an 1874 story of revenge with Leonard Nimoy as John Walking Fox, an Indian who encounters some greedy cowboys and townspeople.

The opening sequence of the program was a classic.

This was Leonard Nimoy's last guest television appearance before his long run as "Mr. Spock" on "Star Trek."

John Walking Fox, an Indian, is the companion of a animal hide hunter named Jacob Beamus. They have been out hunting animal skins for a long period of time and are now camped near Dodge City. Three local cowboys led by a man named only Gainer enter their camp and harass John because he is an Indian. They don't see anything worth stealing and leave, the next morning the two men head into town to sell the hides. A fur trader named Aaron Tigue agreed to pay 50 cents a hide but now tells Jacob that the market is soft and will only pay him 25 cents a skin. Jacob pulls out a pistol to argue the point and Aaron then pulls his pistol and shoots Jacob fatally.

Marshall Dillon arrives and witnesses tell him that it was a self-defense shooting. John takes the body of his friend to the undertaker Percy Crump for burial and pays for an expensive coffin and funeral with a $50 gold piece. Percy takes the coin to Kitty's saloon and buys drinks for everyone.

The coin has a figure of a miner '49er and the legend: THE DAYS OF OLD / THE DAYS OF GOLD / THE DAYS OF FORTY NINE / CALIFORNIA The film prop coin is one of the California Gold Rush Octagonal Slug Medals minted around 1948 by the Irvine & Jachens Company of San Francisco, California. The medal legend is from an old song of the California Gold Rush, which begins:

An example of a similar medal:

This item was manufactured by the Irvine & Jachens Company of San Francisco, California. For more information on this item please visit: California Gold Rush Octagonal Slug Medals

Back in Dodge City at Kitty's Saloon, Kitty's assistant Festus bites the coin, it is real gold.

They look at it, and note the design of a Miner '49er and a Rattlesnake. Percy tells the saloon customers:

Festus bites it and hands it to Kitty. Kitty asks Percy where he got it and he answers "The Indian gave it to me." Kitty sends Festus and the coin over to Matt Dillon. Percy talks to the cowboys about the animal hide hunter and Indian being together for 10 years "I never seen a white man so took with an Indian, or vice versa."

The coin is sent to Marshall Matt Dillon, who shows it to Doc Adams.

Doc wonders how the two broke men got such a valuable coin. Doc explains that it was from a shipment of specially minted gold coins that a San Francisco bank sent to the east in 1850, and that the shipment disappeared "east of Pueblo" (Colorado).

John is still in the area waiting for the headstone for Jacob's grave to be finished. He is still camped in the woods when Gainer and his pals show up. They start to roughly interrogate John about the location of the rest of the coins, he tells them that there is a map but he doesn't have it.

Aaron Tigue shows up with a shotgun, chases the three men off, and takes John into town to check into a hotel.

John spends another of the coins at the hotel

The hotel clerk examines the coin.

Marshall Dillon calls on John at the hotel and asks him directly where he got the two coins. John doesn't answer directly, but supplies riddles.

The townspeople gather to talk about the coins.

John and Aaron are staying at the hotel in adjoining rooms. John has a "map" drawn on an animal skin, he puts it into a pillow. He then tells Aaron that he is going out for a while and asks Aaron to watch over his stuff. Aaron takes the opportunity to enter John's room, search it, and finds the map.

A crudely drawn map on the skin of a furry animal.

The three cowboys then enter the room, a gunfight ensues, Aaron falls out the window, dead. The cowboys head out to where John was camped and use the map to locate a place to start digging.

They uncover the coffin of Jacob Beamus, then the Marshall, Festus, and John appear, and a shootout ensues.

Gainer's two pals are killed and he is arrested. Later, the headstone is completed and mounted on the grave.

The grave marker reads "Jacob Beamus 1820-1874 R.I.P", thus setting the episode in 1874.

James Arness as Matt Dillon
Milburn Stone as Doc
Amanda Blake as Kitty
Ken Curtis as Festus
Leonard Nimoy as John Walking Fox
Richard Webb as Aaron Tigue
Director: Marc Daniels
Writers: Leo Bagby, Clyde Ware

I bought this "Lost Dutchman Mine" octagonal medal for $15 at a California coin show in October 2013.

It was a large octagonal medal which imitated a California pioneer $50 gold coin or "slug." I bought it because I had read the story of the Lost Dutchman Mine and I liked the design with a miner panning for gold on the obverse and a coiled rattlesnake on the reverse. After I paid for the coin, the seller asked me if I wanted to hear the story behind it. I said that I would and he told me that 500 of these were produced after one was used in a 1966 episode of the television show "Gunsmoke" which stars Leonard Nimoy as an Indian. After watching a DVD of the episode, I discovered that my Lost Dutchman Mine medal did not match the prop coin shown in the episode at all. At home, I looked up my medal on the Internet and found one similar story, which claimed that the medals were made for "Gunsmoke" fans or octagonal collectors. The "Lost Dutchman Mine" is a famous "lost mine" supposed located in the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix, Arizona, and is not mentioned in the episode. For more information on this medal, please visit: Lost Dutchman Mine Medal