Star Trek - Identify Roman Augustus coin which appeared on television program

WillieBoyd2

I run a "Coins in Movies" and "Coins on Television" website and sometimes receive emails with questions.

A man wrote to me recently with an interesting question:

I am searching for a movie or a TV series episode that I saw many years ago (more than 20 if I can calculate correctly) and shows a guy (captain of a space-ship?) sitting behind a desk and playing in his hands with a cistophoric tetradrachm of Augustus.

I've attached a picture of a similar coin in my email.

Attached picture

I do remember an original Captain Kirk Star Trek episode set in a Roman Empire.

Can anyone help him find his program?

Sergey74

As i remember in the film "Screamers» one man showed the roman coin in his hand. In Russia it called "Крикуны". It's fantastic in space, another planet, not bad for those times (1995).

Sapyx

"Bread and Circuses" (Episode 54, in Season 2 of the Original Series) was "the Roman Empire episode" of Star Trek. Not based on time travel (surprisingly), but a "parallel Earth" elsewhere in the galaxy where humans exist and the Roman Empire never fell.

But I don't remember seeing any coins in it. Certainly not a closeup of a coin.

IVB

@Sergey74 said:
As i remember in the film "Screamers» one man showed the roman coin in his hand. In Russia it called "Крикуны". It's fantastic in space, another planet, not bad for those times (1995).

Sergey, you are right. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0114367/mediaviewer/rm2872904192/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

WillieBoyd2

Thank you for the information.

I sent the "Screamers" information to the man who wrote to me.

WillieBoyd2

I received this email this morning:

You don't know the amount of joy and relief that you gave me today!
Do you know the feeling when you cannot remember something that you should remember?
Like an itch that you can't scratch? I have that for at least a couple of years now.
Thank you so much!

Sergey74

That's good, now he can sleep well). I have a list of the best films for me so as not to forget the titles.

WillieBoyd2

This story gets more interesting.

Peter Weller, the star of "Screamers", has a Ph.D. degree from UCLA in Italian Art History.
He is a collector of ancient coins and once owned a Roman Eid Mar denarius.
It is possible that the ancient coin shown in the film belongs to him.

Bailathacl

RoboCop collected ancient coins? Ok, that IS cool.