Bit (too many) Coins

[alatar]

Seems like every time I turn around, the TV's showing Dwarves and a Hobbit running from a dragon in a landscape littered with glittery coins. There are so many coins in DoS that Smaug can hide, undetected, beneath them. As the movie continues, we see multiple halls and rooms of Tolkien's fantasy filled with the same tokens.

The number and disposition of these coins is staggering, and each time I see the piles, I can't help but think about:

• Why aren't the coins stacked, or ordered in some way? It wasn't Smaug that created this disorder. If Thrór really needed to see a pile that big, couldn't it have been achieved with fewer coins piled atop empty barrels? Besides, as mentioned previously, allowing the King under the Mountain achieve the same title while role-playing Scrooge McDuck, why wouldn't he want them counted and collected so Thrór could know when some went missing?
  
• What purpose (besides showing that Thorin's grandfather was truly sick - and probably had a Ring - and that Peter Jackson is involved) would hoarding that many coins serve? Did the Dwarves use them as backing for credit? Other than making for some great indoor shield-sliding, can't see the purpose (especially with even more gold present in a dwarven statue).
  
• What could be done with that many coins anyway? As they obviously weren't in circulation, what effect did they have on the local economy? There appears to be so many coins, that, like when a government prints paper money without any backing, the value of each coin is diminished (like so many scenes in a trilogy that needn't have been).

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by alatar

Seems like every time I turn around, the TV's showing Dwarves and a Hobbit running from a dragon in a landscape littered with glittery coins. There are so many coins in DoS that Smaug can hide, undetected, beneath them. As the movie continues, we see multiple halls and rooms of Tolkien's fantasy filled with the same tokens.

The number and disposition of these coins is staggering, and each time I see the piles, I can't help but think about:

• Why aren't the coins stacked, or ordered in some way? It wasn't Smaug that created this disorder. If Thrór really needed to see a pile that big, couldn't it have been achieved with fewer coins piled atop empty barrels? Besides, as mentioned previously, allowing the King under the Mountain achieve the same title while role-playing Scrooge McDuck, why wouldn't he want them counted and collected so Thrór could know when some went missing?
  
• What purpose (besides showing that Thorin's grandfather was truly sick - and probably had a Ring - and that Peter Jackson is involved) would hoarding that many coins serve? Did the Dwarves use them as backing for credit? Other than making for some great indoor shield-sliding, can't see the purpose (especially with even more gold present in a dwarven statue).
  
• What could be done with that many coins anyway? As they obviously weren't in circulation, what effect did they have on the local economy? There appears to be so many coins, that, like when a government prints paper money without any backing, the value of each coin is diminished (like so many scenes in a trilogy that needn't have been).

Those aren't a billion gold coins, they are a billion little skulls painted gold, borrowed from the equally ridiculous skeletal avalanche scene in the Paths of the Dead during the RotK film.

[Galadriel55]

It's to prove a point, that money can accomplish anything...


...with CGI at its disposal.

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Those aren't a billion gold coins, they are a billion little skulls painted gold, borrowed from the equally ridiculous skeletal avalanche scene in the Paths of the Dead during the RotK film.

Or that.

[Tar-Jêx]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

It's to prove a point, that money can accomplish anything...


...with CGI at its disposal.

I agree with that. That CGI was ech.

[Andsigil]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

It's to prove a point, that money can accomplish anything...


...with CGI at its disposal.

They actually didn't CGI all of the gold coins. It seems they depleted the entire supply of gold spray paint in the country of New Zealand and had to send out for more:

The Hobbit used up all the gold paint in New Zealand

I thought that was a rather interesting tidbit of information when I first heard it.

[Aganzir]

Nothing is good enough for some people! The piles of gold is the only thing where PJ stayed true to Tolkien's original vision - even if, typically, he got a little carried away.

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Aganzir

Nothing is good enough for some people!

Too true. Not sure what I'd do if there wasn't anything to complain about.

The piles of gold is the only thing where PJ stayed true to Tolkien's original vision - even if, typically, he got a little carried away.

Even if to the letter of the book (and I can see a floor in that picture }, with all of the other changes PJ made, then if there were too many coins in the text, why didn't he dial it back?

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by alatar

Too true. Not sure what I'd do if there wasn't anything to complain about.

Complain that there's nothing to complain about, obviously.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Complain that there's nothing to complain about, obviously.

Complaining for complaining's sake is a basic human right.

NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Complaining for complaining's sake is a basic human right.

NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!

Is your lawn littered with gold coins?

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by alatar

Is your lawn littered with gold coins?

No. Unfortunately, I have not subscribed to PJ's Lawn & Landscape Services.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

No. Unfortunately, I have not subscribed to PJ's Lawn & Landscape Services.

Or the New Zealand paint supply.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Somehow the Appendices as published erroneously omit the entry 2952-2985: The Great Depression. Dwarven gold released from Smaug's horde causes hyperinflation and economic crashes across Middle-earth.