If you could go back in time...

DrPete

What year or time period would you travel to, and what coins would you bring back with you to 2004?

Russ

1964 through 1967. First strike proof and SMS Kennedy Halves.

Russ, NCNE

jbsteven

1793 with a pocket full of $100 bills. Just think of having 5000 MS Chains. Sell about 25 a year for the rest of my life.

kieferscoins

1986-1990 walking around coin shows and picking up samples for free

Cameron Kiefer

Betta285

1878 so i could meet George T. Morgan and have the first Morgan ever made.

Geoman

I would go back to 1916, and get a roll of each denomination and mint marks from cents through halves. I am missing most 1916 coins from my sets.

Bikingnut

1932, About 10 each 32D and S Washingtons. BU of course. Only 10, as I wouldn't want to devalue the other MS 32's here already.

braddick

I'd go back to 02/27/98, the day I met my wife. Nothing will ever beat that feeling of "knowing".

FullHorn

In order not to screw up the time/space continuem, you would have to at least take the same denomination/date back and then trade it for an upgrade or you could just go back to last week in the middle of the night in the Smithsonian and pick up some nice stuff. That of course
would depend on your time machine, if it could choose a location or not

coachleonard

I'd stop at 1878 Virginia City ( a LOT of gold and silver coins, many of them CC mint, floating around), and then on to 1798 Philadelphia (to make sure i get first dibs on 1793-97 issues)

BillJones

<< <i>1793 with a pocket full of $100 bills. Just think of having 5000 MS Chains. Sell about 25 a year for the rest of my life. >>



I think that you would have a hard time palming modern "lucky bucks" off on the folks who were alive in 1793. Paper money had a very bad reputation, especially paper money that the Continental Congress had issued during the Revolutionary War. In 1793 that currency was “not worth a Continental” and no one but speculators would accept it, and only then at very deep discounts.

Besides if you came back with 5,000 BU Chain Cents, it would not take long to dampen the market. For one thing you would have to keep your mouth shut about what you had. After 50 to 100 pieces appeared on the market there would be a huge effect on the prices. Five thousand coins would make them like the Randal Hoard coins with considerably depressed values.

I’d go back a few years later after the gold and silver coins had come out. I’d bring a nice back of raw gold or perhaps British gold that I would exchange at “bargain rates” for U.S. coins. I would not be a pig. I’d just get enough really nice examples to fill the type coins holes in my set, plus a few others for sale or trade.

Of course since I would be changing history, some collectors might wonder what happened to the coins that were once in their collections. With luck I’d get the pieces that were destined for the melting pot. Perhaps only a few bars of gold would mysteriously disappear from Fort Knox. You have got to be careful about what you do when you travel in time!

tjkillian

I'd go back to 1877 with a pocket full of whizzed/cleaned eagles and half eagles from 1861. I'd buy rolls and rolls of indian cents from the 1860's to 1877, all MS-65+ RED!!

Plenty of demand today to soak up a whole lot of them.

Tom

Oak

I'd get a job at the CC mint. I'd take the first of each batch. Yummy!

relayer

I'd just go back 1 week and take the last 7 days newspapers with me.

After the week was up, I'd have more money than Bill Gates and would buy all the coins I could ever want.

earlwbollinger

I'd go to 1856, and see how many Flying Eagles I could buy off the congressmen, and if I could get a few from the mint as well.
Then in 1857 see how many FE's I could buy outside the mint.
Then find good container and a safe place to bury them, so I could recover them when I returned to this timeline again.
I think coming back with a hoard of shiny brand new pennies would make everyone think they are fake.
It would be pretty cool to see how many other coins I could get as well.

BillJones

<< <i>1964 through 1967. First strike proof and SMS Kennedy Halves.

Russ, NCNE >>



It's probably easier to find those coins now than it was then, Russ.

For one thing, not many people cared about cameos and the like.

For another if you went though a dealer's stock looking for them, he would label you a "cherry picker" and become belligerent. Some of the old dealers were a crusty lot. I know because I dealt with some of them when I was a YN. Back then a Proof set was a Proof set was a Proof set, and if you wasted their time with foolish things like looking for accented hair and cameos, you stood a good chance of not being welcome.

cladking

I'd travel to 2002 to pick up all the great coins getting slabbed and then slip back to
my own time. You need to take plenty of spare parts just in case and don't stick around
too long or someone is going to wonder why all your brand new currency looks almost
forty years old and will carbon date it.

earlwbollinger

I'd just go back 1 week and take the last 7 days newspapers with me.

But when you came back, they'd arrest you for insider trading violations.

DesertRat

1804 - I need to get just one dollar

Betta285

D.Rat,
Don't you mean 1834

jeffnpcb

1889 in Carson City!

Only Cammie would go back in time to haul back plastic!

LucyBop

Honey, on my calender, the date reads 1958.

JamminJ

<< <i>I'd go back to 02/27/98, the day I met my wife. Nothing will ever beat that feeling of "knowing". >>





-JamminJ

DesertRat

D.Rat, Don't you mean 1834?

Nope. 1804 Draped Bust Dollar Of course I'd have to find one in PR-69/70 to make the trip really worth it lol.

Tootawl

I get to pick 2 dates:
1916 to get thousands of 16D dimes
1995 and get as many '95W SAEs (in the US Mint sets) as they made.

mgoodm3

Go back to Dahlonega and Charlotte with some raw gold and have them coin it for you. You choose the dates.

flaminio

San Francisco, 1915. Get me some of those big $50 commems for cheap .

Betta285

The 1804 Silver Dollar is one of the rarest and most popular of all American coins, despite the fact that none were made until 1834 and several were even made many years after that! Certain qualities of the known 1804 Silver Dollars (and other facts concerning their history) indicate that the first 1804 Silver Dollars were struck in or about 1834, when orders came from the State Department for special sets of coins to be struck for diplomatic purposes. Later restrikes were made sometime after 1857 (a unique example shows the undertype of an 1857 Swiss Shooting Thaler)!

Source

Conder101

I think I'll take 1796 - 97. And I'd take some gold and silver bulion back with me. Go to the Philadelphia mint, deposit it and have them strike up some coins for me. Take a look at your redbooks folks. Bring back a few Unc 1796 half cents, Unc 1796 quarters, 1796 and 97 halves, 1796 and 97 quarter eagles, half eagles, and eagles. Don't want to get too greedy or upset the markets in our current time so I'd only bring back no more than a half dozen of each. I'd also just pick up some miscellaneous handfuls of other mixed change from 1793 - 1797. Might send a letter to Jefferson and see if he still had any of the 1792 half dimes. While I'm waiting for my coins from the mint, work on upgrading my early date large cent variety collection.

jdimmick

I think I go to 1878 and pick up all the CC minted coins from the 1870's and be one happy camper!! Just take one MS specimen from each date and denom for each type.

jim

jcping

If I brought back the Brother Johnson 20$ with me, say to 1877, would I be sent to jail due to the "fake looking" double eagles that I were using