This episode of the television program "Yancy Derringer" is about a Confederate half dollar which is part of a fictional Confederate treasure worth $500,000. "Yancy Derringer" was a half-hour television program which ran on the CBS television network from 1958 to 1959. The program was set in New Orleans, Louisiana, around three years after the end of the American Civil War. Jock Mahoney appeared as Yancy Derringer, an ex-Confederate Army captain, who is living in New Orleans. He is secretly working for John Colton, the Federal officer in charge of the city. X Brands appeared as Pahoo-Ka-Ta-Wah, an American Indian who is Yancy's companion and bodyguard. Pahoo can hear but does not speak but communicates with sign language. This episode is titled "The Loot from Richmond" and was first broadcast on November 20, 1958. Yancy and Pahoo meet a man named Emmet Proctor who is shot and dies. Yancy finds a coin in Proctor's hand, a Confederate half dollar. The coin leads to a retired Confederate General, his daughter, and some treasure hunters. The real Confederate half dollar is a well-known rare coin of which four were minted as gifts to Confederate officials. The coins had a United States seated liberty obverse and a Confederate seal reverse. In the program it is portrayed by a prop coin which may be a privately made Confederate General Robert E. Lee medallion with a Confederate seal reverse.

A man named Emmet Proctor approaches Yancy and tells him that he used to work for a Confederate General Stafford and that the General "has something so completely valuable it's frightening." Proctor is shot from ambush and dies.

Yancy and Pahoo find a coin in Proctor's hand.

Yancy calls the coin a "Confederate half dollar" but it does not match what a real one would look like. The prop coin used in the program might be this "Confederate half dollar" which has the head of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and a Confederate seal reverse.

Copper-nickel, 32.0 mm, 12.60 gm

Obverse: Head of General Robert E. Lee facing left, GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE / 1807-1870
Reverse: Confederate States seal with seven stars and a Liberty Cap

Copper-nickel, 32.0 mm, 12.60 gm

Obverse: United States 1861 half dollar Seated Liberty obverse
Reverse: Confederate States seal with seven stars and a Liberty Cap

This is a common item of which many have been sold via mail order, at coin exhibits, and as as a souvenir at Civil War historical sites. This particular replica was purchased at the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park in Georgia during a 1996 visit.

Yancy states: "A confederate half dollar, the rarest of coins which had never been issued to the public." Yancy brings the coin to the Federal official John Colton whom he is working for.

John tells Yancy "I've heard of it, but i've never seen one before, its a Confederate half dollar, only a few were minted, then the South ran out of bullion." Yancy asks John "What is the confederate treasure?" and John replies "Money, Yancy, Money, some 500,000 dollars of it, gold ingots, silver bricks, gold double eagles." John tells Yancy that the treasure was last in the hands of General Orville Stafford in Georgia. Colton gives John the half dollar. General Stafford is now retired living with his granddaughter in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Yancy and Pahoo go to visit him.

When he and Pahoo arrive they find a funeral in progress for the General. Earle Bartley (on the left) is the fiancee of the General's granddaughter Gloria. Yancy and Gloria know each other as he used to work for the General. Yancy goes upstairs and searches the General's wallet and finds some coins.

One is another Confederate half dollar and he compares it to the one he already has.

The coins match and Yancy wonders about this. Both he and Pahoo have taken a dislike to Gloria's fiancee as a "hustler." Yancy and Pahoo go into the house basement and find the general alive but tied up.

The general tells them thay Bartley and his partner Garber have taken the treasure to a riverboat. Yancy proposes that they meet the boat at a stop and get aboard. This requires a disguise for the general.

Yancy and Pahoo use makeup on the general and dress him in the uniform of a Union general. The three go to meet the boat and get aboard. In a room they find the coffin and Yancy opens it.

Yancy finds no body and no treasure. The ship is transporting bunches of cotton and Yancy suspects that the money is hidden in them. Bartley's assistant tries to shoot Yancy but is shot instead.

Yancy takes the general to see Gloria and they have a reunion.

Bartley has a crewman lower a bale (a pack of compressed cotton), sees Yancy, shoots at him and misses while Pahoo shoots at the cotton bale.

The bottom of the cotton bale opens and the money and ingots fall out.

Back in New Orleans Yancy reports the loss of the money to John Colton. In Colton's office are the General, Gloria, and Pahoo.

Yancy apologises "I was the one who told Pahoo to shoot the cotton bale.." Colton mentions salvaging the treasure and Yancy explains that "The river runs hard and fast will and will scatter the gold and silver." Colton states "That money was for a cause that's lost."

Yancy replies "Maybe it's better that it's lost too."

Jock Mahoney as Yancy Derringer
X Brands as Pahoo-Ka-Ta-Wah
Kevin Hagen as John Colton
Carl Benton Reid as Gen. Orville Stafford
Patricia Hardy as Gloria Stafford
Dennis Patrick as Earle Bartley
Director: William F. Claxton
Writers: Irving Wallace