anyone ever dream of going back in time to get coins?

Every now and then i like to think about going back in time to the late 1700's early 1800's and going to the bank and pick up a few unc rolls of half cents and maybe even a roll of 1793 chain cents. does anyone else think like this or should i seek help?

 

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ROF - Now that's a good one. Seeking help tho, I believe is not necessary. We all have our little dreams. Boy that would be fun! I have also thought about how they survived back in those days with no air conditioning. Living in Texas heat - I just wonder how those folks roamed the range in that heat, slaving in the gardens, etc. Boy I would like to have some of those gold pieces tho! Looks like you hit a hunnerd. Did you skip school today? :?

 

no, i just had to answer any question i saw and ask any question i thought of.

 

Re: anyone ever dream of going back in time?

You are wrong about one thing in your dream... they didn't had "mint rolls" back then!!!

 

Don't we all travel back in time when we collect or own anyway old coins? I often hold a 18xx Greek coin and think how my grand-grand fathers lived back then! Or a medieval coin stimulates imagination about dragons and princesses and knights!

 

If you visit RCC, there's a man named Ira who is rumoured to actually have a Time Machine! 8O

 

I often think about the converse. I would like to travel in time to the future. I wouldn't do it for real, unless I had the option of returning.

 

Hmmmm, never thought about doing that. I wonder if they will be using plastic, and no coins by then - depending upon how far you go. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm :?

 

Probably seek help!!!! I doubt you would be able to just walk into a bank and get a roll of half cents. But on the other hand if go back to a mere 1916. Maybe I could get a FEW rolls of 16-D dimes :lol:

 

If you get some dimes you have to send me 1 or 2 :wink:

 

Reverse Osmosis

I think about it the other way... Being a visitor to ancient times and spending Mercury dimes, Walkers, Large Cents, Half Eagles, ... Our 19th and 20th century Type coins are very classical. The Latin mottoes and legends would be intelligible: even "America" is Latinized. The numerals would be odd, but as long as the coins were copper, silver, and gold, they would not care.

If you look at a Ptolemy Tetradrachm and a Washington Quarter, you realize that the US Mint's designers only updated some very stable presentations. Double the thickness of the quarter, making it 12 grams, and it is the same coin.

I often see our basemetal sandwich quarters as "Folles of the Tetrarchy."

You could not take an Isabella Quarter to Spain 1492. They were a little narrow-minded at that moment. But you could take a roll of very Greek-looking $20 Saints to Alexander the Great to introduce yourself to him as an "ambassador" from "America" beyond the Pillars of Herakles.

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There are some "Alternate Universe" stories about numismatics. The most famous is "The Woodrow Wilson Dime."

And yes, there is an alternate universe story about a modern guy who meets Alexander and totally blows it. He comes back to a time when there was no American revolution and various areas of Pennsylvania are little fiefdoms of Leatherstocking warriors in the "20th" century.

So be careful what you wish for: you might get it!

 

"Every now and then i like to think about going back in time to the late 1700's early 1800's and going to the bank and pick up a few unc rolls of half cents and maybe even a roll of 1793 chain cents. does anyone else think like this or should i seek help?"

I like to think of going back to pre-Federal America and making a whole series of privately-issued coins that would WORK. The problem with all the failures including Federal money was that they all carried their "money of account" values. So you could have more than a penny's worth of copper in a penny and it would fail as a coin. The solution would be to do what Higley did: let people value them as they choose. Put only the weight (and fineness for silver and gold) on the coin.

I would make "13 Colonies" coins in copper, "pennies" that celebrated Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, and the other towns of the American states. They would be like Hard Times Tokens. No eagles, though: Ships. I like the Breton tokens. Speed the Plow... Pure Copper Preferable to Paper... Trade and Commerce...

 

bump-bump-bump...

Resurrecting a very old thread...yes I have often thought about how awesome it would be to go back in time to when all the coins were still silver, or back to 1893 in San Francisco, or Denver in 1916, or in 1932...oh well. Dream on I guess.

 

What would you buy them with ?

 

good question.

 

It might make more sense to gather up your coins and go into the future to sell them.

 

What you would have to do after you reached your destination in time is to establish yourself in a good community, find a good job, save your money and get all the townsfolk to trust you then rob their bank then run back to the time machine and POOF!!!! You're gone. Well, on second thought, ignore the "get a job" part.

 

I'd settle for going back to my wedding day, so I could change my mind !

 

ouch! low blow.

 

Thought experiment: You go back in time to 1900, get a job, ask for your pay in coins, come back to the future and see that suddenly some of your collection is missing?