This episode of the television program "NCIS" shows a rare United States coin, an 1870-S silver dollar. The CBS Television and Belisarius Productions television program "NCIS" is about a group of investigators working for the United States Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). The organization does police work similar to the FBI. This episode is titled "Ephemera" and was first broadcast on February 18, 2020. The story is about the investigation of the death of a retired naval petty officer and an extremely valuable rare United States coin, an 1870-S silver dollar. A retired navy petty officer is found dead in a car and is quickly determined to be a suicide. A navy museum docent informs the NCIS team that the officer left a rare coin to the museum which they would like to sell to finance their exhibits. The NCIS team soon finds out that the coin may have been stolen from a wealthy businessman whose daughter had been dating the navy officer in 1972.

Retired US Navy Master Chief Arturo Amador is found dead in his car along with a note to the NCIS. Jethro Gibbs is in charge of the team which includes Nick Torres, Timothy McGee, and Ellie Bishop.

Marie Stanhope, a docent for a navy museum, appears with a silver dollar. She tells Gibbs that Amador worked for the museum after he retired from the navy and left the coin to the museum.

Back at their office Torres pulls up a computer picture of a similar coin.

The coin shown is a United States Seated Liberty silver dollar dated 1870 and with an 'S' mintmark for the San Francisco Mint. The coin in the picture does not look like an actual Seated Liberty silver dollar. It may be a counterfeit manufactured from white metal.

She tells the team that only around 12 were minted and it would be worth over a million dollars. A Spencer Downing visits the office and tells them that the coin was stolen from his father, a wealthy businessman and coin collector, and that Arturo Amador was dating his sister Annie Downing in 1972 at the time that the coin disappeared. Spencer asks the team to return the coin to him. Dr. Donald Mallard, a team member, tells the group that to determine whether Amador was a thief they will have to go through the "ephemera" that he left behind.

The team pieces together the story. In 1972 young sailor Arturo Amador meets Annie Downing at a dance and both fall in love.

It is 1972 and Amador, a sailor, goes to see Annie's businessman father Spencer to ask him for his daughter. Spencer shows Amador the dollar coin.

Spencer insultingly tells Amador that it is a rare coin, but that "you are a common quarter." Back in the present, Marie Stanhope shows NCIS Bishop the museum.

Back in 1972 Arturo and Annie continue seeing each other until Arturo is ordered to go to Vietnam. Annie becomes seriously ill and her father, believing that she will get well, no longer opposes her marriage. However she dies. In the present there is a macabre scene when two team members view Annie's body.

The team members open Annie's coffin and take some tissue samples. They note that Annie is wearing a wedding ring. In 1972 Arturo (in Vietnam) was writing to Annie's aunt Bertha and when he returns Bertha gives Arturo his letters to Annie.

The postage stamp is a US six cent airmail stamp from World War II (issued in 1941). The team also gets the postage stamps from letters Annie wrote while in the hospital.

These postage stamps also appear to be World War II issue three cent "V for Victory" stamps. One of the investigators believes that Annie was murdered by a poison mentioned by Agatha Christie, an English mystery writer, in one of her books. The NCIS tests the stamps and find traces of the poison still on them which Annie ingested while (in 1972) licking the stamps. They also find a suspect.

Gibbs and McGee accuse Spencer of poisoning his sister to get control of their father's business. Annie's Aunt Bertha visits the office to tell her story.

Bertha, who sided with Annie in her marriage dispute with her father (Bertha's brother), took the coin after Annie died and gave it to Arturo. Agent Ellie hands the coin to Bertha.

This coin obverse looks like one from a Seated Liberty silver dollar. Bertha tells the team to give it to the museum.

Several of the program actors also had roles in "Flashback" scenes set in 1972.
Mark Harmon as Jethro Gibbs / Flashback Annie's Father
David McCallum as Donald Mallard
Emily Wickersham as Ellie Bishop / Flashback Annie Downing
Wilmer Valderrama as Nick Torres / Flashback Arturo Amador
Sean Murray as Timothy McGee / Flashback Spencer Downing (Annie's brother)
Maria Bello as Jack Sloane / Flashback Aunt Bertha
Director: Diana Valentine
Writers: Donald P. Bellisario, Don McGill, Christopher J. Waild, Kate Torgovnick May