The Time Machine

[GDJMSP]

Let us suppose that we have access to a time machine. But there are certain limitations on its use. We can each only make 3 trips - and each trip can only be for a duration of 3 hrs.

 

Now given those criteria - to what years in time would you go back to for the purpose of obtaining coins for your collection ? Now which coin or coins will you obtain on each trip - and why ?

 

Also bear in mind - the year or years that you choose will have direct bearing on what coins will be available to you. For example - if you choose to visit 1875 - any coins issued after that date will obviously not be available.

[jtryka]

What a fun thought! I admit I sometimes daydream about stuff like this. My first trip would be to October 1932 with 3 series 1928 $100 bills and buy the following for my Saint set: 1920-S, 1921, 2-1927-D, 1927-S, 1929, 1930-S, 1931, 1931-D and 1932. My next trip would be to 1917 with $15 in series 1917 FRNs to buy a roll of 1916 SLQs in BU (more to finance my collecting today!) and my final trip would be to 1795 just to talk to the founding fathers and maybe pick up some early stuff in exchange for some 1780s darkside I found on eBay.

[Rickdogg]

I'd take a trip back and destroy all coin making.

[Gunsmoke]

Saw a similar Twilight Zone episode. The guy got back in time and didn't have any current currency to pay for anything.

 

Think I'd get a 1933 Saint. Probably be able to buy any coins I wanted after I sold it today.

[GDJMSP]

Ahhhhhhhh - very perceptive Gunsmoke I was not sure if anyone would arrive at that conclusion so I did not mention it. Was kind of a test - you passed

 

But for the purposes of this exercise or dream if you will - let's assume that the time travelers did think of it before leaving on their trip. At the very least - they would only waste 1 trip. After that they would know to obtain current currency for the time period.

 

Which is why I set the trip limit at 3. That way everybody would be sure to get in at least 2 productive visits

[jtryka]

Did you miss the part of my post where I mention bringing back Series 1928 $100s to 1932, and series 1917 FRNs to 1917, and old darkside to 1795? Of course I thought about how to pay for stuff, since most 18th century merchants didn't take Visa.

[Coinosaurus]

Carson CIty. 1870. Nuff said

[GDJMSP]

No jtryka - I did not miss it. I meant to mention you as well in my reply post - but as often happens - my mind outran my fingers on the keyboard. My apologies

[Guest]

Here are my three choices.

 

1913 for the liberty head nickel.Only 5 known. I would get one of those cheap nickels at the time.

 

1933 would be my second choice and I would get one of those cheap gold eagles at the time.Only 3 known.

 

2000 for the Minute Man only 12 known. I do have eight of the twelve cheap coins at this time.

 

COINHOLEIO

KINGKOIN KING OF KOINS

 

[EVillageProwler]

1. 1870, SF Mint, to obtain all those ultra rare gold and silver 1870-S coins. I'd get as many as I can carry back with me of all sorts.

 

2. 1873, SF Mint, to obtain as many 1873-S dollars (and whatever else) that I can carry back with me.

 

3. 1933, Philadelphia Mint, to obtain as many pristine 1933 Double Eagles and Eagles as I can carry back with me. I'd focus on the double eagles, of course!

 

EVP

 

[Guest]

First Trip : Carson City Nevada 1893

Second Trip : San Francisco 1855

And Last but not least : Philadelphia 1792

 

 

[jtryka]

The only problem I see with going back to 1933 for the double eagles is that they were never released, not even in 1933, so you could get one then bring it back for your own personal satisfaction, but you could never sell it, or even show it to anyone without it being confiscated (there is still only one legal one to own!).

[Coinosaurus]

Well the thing is, if I were going back to Philadelphia in 1933, I would make darn sure to get a receipt from the Mint for the $20 in small change I forked over for the double eagle. I'm pretty sure that would stand up to a legal challenge. I believe Bob Julian identified a window of a couple weeks when he believed you could legally get 1933s at the mint by just showing up and exchanging $20 for them. Of course, no one has been able to prove that they actually made such a visit and did that.

 

As far as going back in time to get a 1913 nickel, I don't think that would work because they were all secretly made and were not available to the public. The cheapest way to get them would probably be to visit Samuel Brown (the person who likely coined them), claim you were from the federal government, and pretend to "arrest" him unless he handed over the 1913s

[shirohniichan]

Something that hasn't been addressed in many posts is how we would pay for the coins. The cheapest way to pay for coins in 1850's San Francisco or early 1870's Carson City would probably be with Carolus IIII Mexican 8 reales. Bullion traders sold them for a premium since they were popular for use in trade in China. After 1873 they wouldn't be worth as much since US trade dollars were available and silver prices dropped in 1876.

 

My plan would be to visit the Carson City Mint toward the end of 1873 to buy a complete year set of coins from that year and unreleased coins from years previous. I would take LOTS of 8 reales coins so I could buy up a lot of gold coins. In my next trip I'd take some less-than-choice double eagles I bought in Carson City and buy some proof and circulation sets of coins from the Philadelphia Mint in 1875. I'd have to time it just right so I could get both I/I and I/II trade dollars in unc and proof, as well as get some eagles. In my last trip to Carson City in 1876, I'd buy more year sets, a bag of 20 cent pieces, and a bag of unc trade dollars.

[gmarguli]

You could always bring a few bars of gold with you.

 

Oh hell, just steal what you want. You'll only be there for 3 hours.

[Gunsmoke]

Greg, you make a good point. Take a Uzi back with you and rob the dang bank of all the coins you want. Plus, since the people are in the past they are already dead so if you shoot them you really aren't doing anything wrong.

[Guest]

I'd go back to pick up gem original rolls of half dimes and dimes. Any period would be nice. For that matter gleaming red half cents and cents would be a better deal. Compared to say a 20-s Saint in MS64 that would cost 2000 cents. How about a roll of 1877 Indians? I like the leverage: 2000x$10,000= $20,000,000 in a $20 gold piece to break even. The pennies and half cents seem to have the leverage! You could bring back beat up or cleaned/damaged seated dollars for fodder. Or how about a damaged gold coin or salt water salvage for trade bait. Gee, one choice roll of 1877's would be worth a cool million and you only had to spend a buck. I wouldn't mind cashing in on a roll of 1901-s barber quarters either.

 

roadrunner

[Hoot]

What a fun question!

 

I'd take with me all of the raw gold I could lay my hands on for the trade, or perhaps as someone else suggested, old dark side material, e.g. Spanish milled dollars. I'd visit two dates in American history: (1) mid-January 1849 in Philadelphia to snag some of the CA quarter eagles. I reckon, however, any time around 1852 would be fantastic in San Francisco for all of the territorial gold; (2) Philadelphia in 1795 to snag any and all of the early denominations. My third choice would be one I'd have to study in great detail before I chose. Yet, I know that I would choose a time before 100 BC in the thick of the Mediterranean world. Fantastic fantasy!

 

Hoot

[chrisfuccione]

Gunsmoke you are wrong on shooting them because they are already dead. Because you never know what they might of done five or ten years later that might of not happened if you shot them. You might of shot your great great grandfather wich meant that you would not be alive today. Or shot a distance relitive of the person who invented somthing that changed mankind. So you see how that is the wrong thing to do. CHRIS

[Gunsmoke]

Chris, thank you for pointing out the error of my ways. The rest of you can be angry at Chris, because thanks to him, I am still here

 

How about if you could go back and only get one coin that you couldn't sell? Just one for your collection? Which coin would it be?

[Tradedollarnut]

A specimen 1794 dollar!

[jtryka]

one coin that I couldn't sell, easy, a 33 Saint.

[Gunsmoke]

Since I've started collecting bufs, I'd have to say the best 1937 D 3-legged buf nickel I could find.

[GDJMSP]

Some great answers folks - this has been a fun post

 

But in the original question - I asked why you would choose a particular time and/or coin. So far I haven't seen but a couple answers for that question. Can we expand our answers a little ?

[shirohniichan]

You could always bring a few bars of gold with you.

 

I thought of that, but if I only had 3 hours it might be hard to get someone to buy them without having them assayed first (and that would take too much time).

 

I'd go to the dates I picked so I could get year sets of coins that are WAY too expensive for me to get at all, let alone in freshly-minted gem BU condition. Of course, I'd get extras of the really rare ones.

[coppercoins-migration]

Two things...

 

#1 - Roadrunner - 1937D three legged buffalos were rare at the time they were minted. Considering they are a single die thing, and the 1995 DDO cent is a single die thing, imagine how hard it was to find a 1995 DDO in 1995. Best thing to do would be to go back to 1950 or some date like that and buy a 3-leg from a dealer for whatever they charged for them then...which would be much less than what they would charge you for them now.

 

#2 - For all who said they would pick up something "extra", or who said they would pick up a roll or rolls of high grade GEM material, what do you think would happen to the current values of those dates and mints if you suddenly had 40 GEM mint 1916 quarters to add to the pop reports?

 

Then there's always the conundrum that once you take something out of the past, wherever it was in present time, it would disappear from that place and become the ones you took from the past...three coins known, there were three coins. If you took one, one of the three known today would disappear from its current owner. Get where I'm headed? Don't take anything ultra rare, stick to the at-least slightly more common stuff....a million or more minted. Hope one of the ones out of the roll you took isn't a present day finest known. Thing is, you go to submit a coin you took from the future at the same time the present owner is reporting it missing....hmmm.

[coppercoins-migration]

Of course something I neglected to mention is that there are two different schools of thought on what would happen if someone travelled back in time and changed something. One school of thought centers on the idea that if you change it in the past, the present never happened and the whole time line from that point on would change somehow. Every action made could react in a different way...for instance, one of the quarters you buy in a roll would have ended up on the street, a kid picked it up not paying attention to traffic, was killed, and their brother became President because his little brother had been tragically killed. Anyhow, you get the drift...if the quarter was never on the street, our presidency would have been different. In this scenario my previous post would be null and void. If you took one of three that existed, it never would have existed in present day in anyone else's hands, so no problem.

 

The other school of thought is that if you go back in time and change something, you change your plane of existence, and the plane of existence for everyone and everything you come in contact with, but everything else is rather unaffected...Hence, if a dealer you never met had the finest known quarter in present day, you went back and got that quarter from the bank, the dealer's quarter would "become missing" in the present day. This is the school of thought I more believe in...either way, either one could prove to be dangerous.

 

I summize by saying that if I could travel back in time, even for a period of three hous, I would never do it....too dangerous. But if someone had me respond for hypothetical reasons, I would do something much more meaningful with my time than some selfish coin hunting. I would go back to 1936 and assasinate Hitler or something like that. I would go back to December, 1942 and jump in front of the bullet that hit my grandfather - you know, I didn't exist in 1942. If I got killed then, I still had a number of years left before I would be born, so getting killed to save someone else would be more or less a moot point. I would do something world changing and hope for the best, knowing that I have changed the course of a major event, hopefully for the better.

 

 

[EVillageProwler]

Charles,

 

Have you been reading too much sci-fi?

 

 

EVP

 

[coppercoins-migration]

Ahh, but this thread strikes a high note for me. I have had many dreams about doing just that, and have read up a little on the subject. Time travel, if it were possible in the first place, would be too dangerous for anyone sane to attempt once given the possibilities of what could happen as an effect. Too many variables we can't come close to understanding.

 

I realize this thread was likely originally meant in a more or less "simple what-if" manner, but some of the responses clearly show there's little true understanding of the ramifications of what technology like this could do to us...if it were possible in the first place.

 

As a final note, why not just go back a couple of days, find your way to West Virginia, stall the guy who won the Powerball (pull his spark plugs or something), and submit the winning numbers yourself? Wouldn't 117 million after taxes be enough to more than compensate for any of the above "what if" posts? That much money could easily buy a nearly complete MS date/mint set of all US coins put together...key word, nearly. You would affect much less of the present overall by having not travelled so far into the past, and you would still get the same basic things accomplished. That is one of the foundations of thought in time travel - the farther back you go the more dangerous it would be and the more things you would affect. Just like dominoes, and more dominoes added to the matrix with each day, month, year, you decided to travel backward. At some point you could easily obliterate the human race by knocking off a few dozen early humans.

 

I guess I'm letting my logic get the best of me. Perhaps I should have simply answered with,

 

1. August 2, 1909 : San Francisco. A bag of the new cents, and a bag of the old ones, paid for with those ugly colored Morgan dollars.

 

2. Late 1856, Phildelphia : grab up a few 56 flyers.

 

3. mid-1793, Philadelphia : find a dozen or so wreath and chain cents, and bring them back in their full red luster.

 

There...I did it. Is that answer better?

[GDJMSP]

coppercoins -

 

The two points you made in your first response were excellent. And just the sort of thing that I was hoping somebody would point out. Which was the reason I asked responders to explain why they choose a particular time & coin or coins. It makes perfect sense.

 

Of course your other replies made good points too. But the whole idea was for this to be theoretical and to be fun. Don't get me wrong - I'm not knocking your replies at all. Just explaining my intentions with this post. Still I loved your first answer.