The popular director Tzavellas had an enormous critical and commercial success with The Counterfeit Coin and "it remains remarkably viable today for its deftness of touch" (NFT). Many well-known stage and screen actors appeared in this Sacha Guitry-type sketch film, a series of scenes (comic, satirical, dramatic, romantic) built around the characters who come into possession of a counterfeit gold coin. Like the earrings of Madame de..., the coin is at once a key "player" in the plot and a McGuffin that keeps the narrative in motion.