Wonder what coin has the most miles on it?

MGLICKER · December 28, 2013 11:44AM

For the sake of argument, it must have remained within the bounds of Earth's atmosphere, so the Mars 1909 VDB and anything floating around the space station is off the table.

Wonder if Renman has a pocket piece?

RedTiger · December 28, 2013 12:18PM

It is an interesting question. My first thought is pocket pieces for long time airline flight crew members. Next thought is military pilots, though flight hours are not what they used to be, and years spent flying is likely not that long a stint. If it is commercial airline or freight crew person's pocket piece, I would guess from a country that has non-union crews, because American union rules put hard caps on how many hours can be flown each month. A third thought is a pocket piece for a pro athlete or high profile politician or movie star. They can log enormous miles during a pro sports season, and the more famous athletes also do a lot of travel for pleasure, charity and promotion. It is similar with some entertainers, and politicians.

Certain long haul truckers might have an interesting log of miles too, but I would tend to think an experienced flight crew member could easily best most American truckers. In other countries, the distances are often shorter for flights, and land transport.

All right I did a few searches. There are humans that have traveled over 10 million miles, as airline passengers. Tops seems to be 15 million, but I'm sure others are trying to catch him. There was an entry for a pilot with 4000 flight hours, but even at 500 mph for every hour that is 2,000,000 (2 million). Oops (edited), it turns out that commercial pilots might average 400k miles per year. Multiply by a 30 career and that would be 12 million. Factor in higher loads in a foreign country and I'd guess there are some pilots nearing 20 million miles because they don't have union or FAA regulations limiting their hours.

So it is one of those pilots or one of these hyper-mileage airline passengers that has a pocket piece. Some airline passengers have done a million miles in a single year. What a way to go (literally). A million miles in a year is about 2700 miles a day, or about the equivalent of flying coast to coast in the U.S. every day for the entire year. Yikes! For some folks that would be what purgatory or hell is, flying coast to coast every single day, over and over again.

Yet more. There are some truck drivers with 2 million and 3 million miles. While they don't come close to the hyper mileage airline passengers or top pilots, that is a lot of ground miles.

Overdate · December 28, 2013 6:47PM

They need to put odometers on coins.

We're traveling around the center of the Milky Way at about 500,000 miles per hour. The older the coin, the longer it has been traveling at that speed. So the coin with the most miles is probably one of the earliest surviving coins struck by some ancient civilization.

OldEastside · December 28, 2013 10:25PM

I don't recall where I heard it, but I remember someone saying once that Bob Hope
used to carry around a Silver Dollar as good luck on his USO tours, whether or not
thats true......I don't know

Steve

SaorAlba · December 28, 2013 10:39PM

Didn't the astronaut Gus Grissom take a few rolls of dimes up with him in the Mercury space capsule? I believe some were found when the capsule was found a few years ago.

ricko · December 29, 2013 1:07AM

What I find intriguing, is how such a question even occurred to you.....

Cheers, RickO

EagleEye · December 29, 2013 1:26AM

If we include currency, I would say the specimen sheet of $100,000 bills the BEP has taken around to every ANA show since the 1970's.

messydesk · December 29, 2013 1:44AM

Probably some cleaned dreck that's been carted around the country every weekend for the past 40 years by some dealer who still has it in his inventory because he needs full retail for it because he was had when he bought it from another dealer who had been carting it around for the previous 40 years.

Unknown · December 29, 2013 2:26AM

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Alltheabove76 · December 29, 2013 2:28AM

There have been coins sent back and forth to PCGS enough times to have accumulate frequent flyer status easily.

renman95 · December 29, 2013 2:38AM

<< For the sake of argument, it must have remained within the bounds of Earth's atmosphere, so the Mars 1909 VDB and anything floating around the space station is off the table.

Wonder if Renman has a pocket piece?

>>

No PP. Sorry. But I do have about a pound of loose foreign change collecting in the bilges of my flight bag that I've had for a few years...1.4 million frequent flyer miles and probably triple that at the controls.

Alltheabove76 · December 29, 2013 3:15AM

<< 

<< For the sake of argument, it must have remained within the bounds of Earth's atmosphere, so the Mars 1909 VDB and anything floating around the space station is off the table.

Wonder if Renman has a pocket piece?

>>

No PP. Sorry. But I do have about a pound of loose foreign change collecting in the bilges of my flight bag that I've had for a few years...1.4 million frequent flyer miles and probably triple that at the controls. >>

That's very cool, but I think your math may be a bit off. If you flew 1.4M and were at the stick for 4.2 thats a total of 5.6M over what a 4 year period? To achieve those numbers in four years you would have to fly 3835 miles every single day for 4 years straight!

cladking · December 29, 2013 3:24AM

I'm guessing it's a 1919-S penny in VF that was dropped by a worker into the starboard wing of a
DC3 in 1935. The plane is still being flown as a transport in Uganda but most of its parts have been
canibalized from other planes.

The plane has always shown a slight preference for right hand turns.

cladking · December 29, 2013 3:33AM

Ya' can almost see it as it goes by if you look real quick;

1919-S cent

wiskerchew · December 29, 2013 3:37AM

Story on the Mercury dimes and Gus Grissom - interesting one:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/1999/jul/21/spaceexploration

wiskerchew · December 29, 2013 3:39AM

Wait, wrong link......

http://voices.yahoo.com/are-astronaut-gus-grissoms-lost-mercury-dimes-actually-427024.html

Baley · December 29, 2013 3:49AM

I thought the question of the title had to do with the wear on the coin, the number of times it was spent or otherwise handled.... something that would be apparent and convey with the coin.

Having merely travelled millions of miles on an airplane or spacecraft, a coin would be indistinguishable, in itself, from any other coin, and not be special, to me.

MGLICKER · December 29, 2013 4:47AM

<< What I find intriguing, is how such a question even occurred to you.....

Cheers, RickO >>

I was thinking about this Peace Dollar that Buzz Aldrin carried to the Moon. I stayed up all night debating whether I should try to win it. Just could not see paying $25K plus for the provenance. Glad I passed.

Text

renman95 · December 30, 2013 8:29AM

<< 

<< 

<< For the sake of argument, it must have remained within the bounds of Earth's atmosphere, so the Mars 1909 VDB and anything floating around the space station is off the table.

Wonder if Renman has a pocket piece?

>>

No PP. Sorry. But I do have about a pound of loose foreign change collecting in the bilges of my flight bag that I've had for a few years...1.4 million frequent flyer miles and probably triple that at the controls. >>

That's very cool, but I think your math may be a bit off. If you flew 1.4M and were at the stick for 4.2 thats a total of 5.6M over what a 4 year period? To achieve those numbers in four years you would have to fly 3835 miles every single day for 4 years straight! >>

You're right! Smoe of those ff miles get doubled or tripled depending on the status and/or promos…so tripling that would not be accurate. It's probably closer to 2-2.5 million total in that time period.

Wonder what coin has the most miles on it?

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