Sahara (2005) - Coins in Movies

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Coins in Movies

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Sahara (2005)

Confederate $20 gold coin sparks treasure hunt in Africa

The 2005 film "Sahara" features a "Confederate twenty dollar gold coin."

The film stars Matthew McConaughey as Dirk Pitt and Steve Zahn as Al Giordino, two adventurers who head for modern Mali in Africa to hunt for a Confederate battleship which escaped from Richmond Virginia with gold in 1865.

They are joined by a woman doctor looking for the source of a disease.

At one point a "Confederate gold dollar" is found and a twenty dollar coin is shown.

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1. Title logo coin

This side is not used in the film.

2. Title logo coin

This side appears later in the film

3. Title

Along the way they encounter a brutal dictator, his soldiers, a corporate CEO who is running a hazardous waste plant, and some desert warriors.

They are led to the wreck by a gold Confederate dollar which Dirk buys from a local antiquity hunter. The story is sometimes serious and sometimes humorous, and might remind one of the old Bob Hope and Bing Crosby "Road" films of the 1940's.

The film characters talk about a "Confederate dollar" but the prop coin shown is a twenty dollar coin. It looks like two prop coins were used with different designs.

4. Treasure coins in tray

These appear to be Spanish cob coins or prop coin copies.

5. Dirk shows coin to his boss

Dirk tries to convince his boss, the "Admiral", to authorize him to look for the battleship.

Dirk is trying to convince the Admiral:

Dirk: "Admiral, have you ever seen a Confederate gold dollar?"

Admiral: "Dear God, don't start this again."

Dirk: "Of course not." "The Confederacy never made a gold dollar." "The mint was destroyed near the end of the war."

Admiral: "Dirk, I beg you on my hands and knees. Don't."

Dirk: "But not before Jefferson Davis had five samples made." "He gave four of those samples to his top generals:" "Lee, Jackson, Stuart and Johnston."

"Every time we come to Africa, out comes that stupid ship model." "Out come the old port journals." "Four of those samples have been found."

"But the fifth never was." "That one was given to an old family friend of Davis." "A brilliant young sea captain named Mason Tombs." "Captain of the CSS ironclad Texas."