Money talks; or at least, a shaken container of coins such as a Piggy Bank makes a distinctive jingling sound. This can show that money is there without seeing it; from checking one's pocket for a small amount of money to buy groceries, to shaking a sack of gold, to flaunt the proceeds of a large robbery. Charity collectors sometimes shake their buckets or collecting tins, to attract people's attention; some children enjoy hearing the "plink" of a coin landing among many others.
The sound of jingling coins can be part of the Rule of Perception. When stage magicians want the audience to believe that coins have dropped into a container, the coins must be heard to do so, even if they are not seen. This can overlap with So Much for Stealth, if a thief draws attention to themselves with their jingling money.
Compare Hear Me the Money, where a character discerns the amount or authenticity of money by listening to noise made by flicking a wad of notes, or coins dropping. This trope is about when the presence of money is indicated by the sound of jingling coins.
Examples:
Advertising- An advert for a "2 in 1" washing powder shows the money saved by buying this instead of two separate products, ending with somebody patting a small pile of pennies, with the distinctive jingling sound.
- ASDA (UK Supermarket) had a long running advert where people tap their back pockets twice with the sound of coins to suggest you got more change back from ASDA due to their lower prices.
Films — Animated
- In Robin Hood (1973), The Sheriff of Nottingham loves to shake the money inside his purse and hear it jingle. He's also made aware that the blacksmith is hiding spare coins in his leg cast by their jingling, so he "helps" him put his foot up and get the remaining coins.
- Pinocchio: Honest John drops his money bag on the table, with a little tinkle. The coachman looks disapproving, and then drops his own much bigger money bag with a crash.
- Shrek 2: When King Harold offers his money bag to Puss in Boots, he drops his loaded money bag on the table. Puss greedily slashes the bag open with his sword, causing money to jingle all over the table in the darkened room.
- Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted: In order to show Vitaly that they can simply buy the circus in order to use it as their transportation, Skipper has the chimps shake a bag of coins and gems, which make a satisfying jingle.
Literature
- Danny, the Champion of the World: When Danny asks if his father has money with him to buy raisins, his father replies by jingling the coins in his pocket.
- The Famous Five: In Five on a Treasure Island, Julian jingles his money as he runs to catch the ice-cream man.
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: As Harry is walking to his hearing, he passes Cornelius Fudge talking to Lucius Malfoy. He hears the clink of coins from under Malfoy's cloak, implying he was about to give Fudge a bribe.
- Tom Thumb: In an audio cassette of Tom Thumb, the line "he sold Tom for a great deal of money" is followed by the sound of jingling coins.
Live-Action TV
- Our Miss Brooks: In "Old Marblehead", a Sound-to-Screen Adaptation of "Mr. Conklin's Carelessness Code". Mr. Conklin jingles the coins in the tin with which he to collects the fines he levies under his "carelessness code". More notable in the radio original, for obvious reasons.
- The Crystal Maze: During a game where a contestant must stuff handfuls of money into the mouth of a statue, Richard O'Brien says "I can hear the sound of money, a bit like mummy's bedroom, late at night".
- Fawlty Towers: In "Communication Problems'', Basil says "We'll have a whip round!", and furiously shakes a charity collection box upside down. The money is only heard, and not seen.
- Fort Boyard: If a team does not win the gold, Boyard tosses them a small bag, with the sound of rattling coins, which are not seen.
- Grange Hill: A bully makes Justin Bennett jump up and down to find out if he is carrying money, before intimidating him into handing over the coins jingling in his pockets.
- Mr. Bean: Mr Bean tries to beat a fairground arcade machine by taking a run at it, and throwing his whole weight against it. He smiles happily as he hears the sound of lots of coins falling; then he is faced with a grinning young boy who has seized the money, and is gleefully shaking his clothes full of it.
Video Games
- Dungeon Crawl: If you worship the god of greed Gozag Ym Sagoz, it is possible to bribe the monsters in a level with gold, so they turn neutral, or even fight on your side. If you succeed, each bribed monster "looks satisfied, and jangles a coin purse".
Western Animation
- American Dad!: In "Office Spaceman", Roger sells photos of an alien (himself without a disguise) to a newspaper. He asks to be paid in Sacagawea dollars so that he can taunt homeless people by walking past them with coins jingling in his pockets.
- From A Charlie Brown Christmas:
Lucy: Boy, what a sound! I love hearing that old money clink! That wonderful sound of cold hard cash. That beautiful sound! Nickels, nickels, nickels. That beautiful sound of plinking nickels!
- The Daffy Duck cartoon "Robin Hood Daffy" has a wealthy nobleman ride his tiny burro along a road, with his coin pouch a-jingling the whole way. So inept is Robin Hood that the nobleman goes completely unaware of the many attempts to rob him of his coin purse.
- The Silly Symphony short The Golden Touch opens with King Midas singing about how much he loves his gold. He then takes a handful of the gold coins he was counting, pours them into his shirt and then shakes, presumably to enjoy the sound of the coins jingling.
