Pirate Theme Skin

Overview

pirate tales sound track for circle of skellies; singing sea chantys, telling sea stories
pirate treasure trove - circle around the trove
pirate garb for skeletons in graveyard
fly Jolly Roger from Harbinger post.

Faux "gold coins" mail-ordered from Oriental Trading Company were cheap plastic, with a light metallic plating. They didn't make a nice "clink" sound when played with, but still would have made decent static props. But most of the "coins", although clearly only toys, had "COPY" molded into them. Ugh.
Faux "paper money" mail-ordered from Oriental Trading Company were smaller than regular U.S. dollar bills. If you got close enough to look at them, you could see that they were modern. If you stood far enough away to lose the modern look, you could hardly see them.
Plastic "gems" looked decent from the front, but were flat on the back.

All of these factors could be ignored or worked around if price were a primary object. But we wanted a bit more.

For 2006, we decided to graduate to a better grade of fake stuff.

In order to understand the wide variety of options at your disposal, try a web search for "pirate coins". We found:

We decided

Coins are metal reproductions of real coins from days of yore. They are mostly cast from zinc alloy and plated with fake gold or silver.
Flat-back fake gems can be used to build up bulk, but the gems on top of the trove are fully faceted gem cuts. Most are made from genuine semiprecious stones.
All swords are real metal, although not real sharp.
All guns are quality reproductions, suitable for close-up use in costumes. They are made from metal and wood; no plastic.