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Was this a geek test?
Absolutely. I knew we had some closet Trekkers out there somewhere.
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One slight problem with that. $100 in silver is about 7 oz... Gold bullion is even worse. Today you could get about 1/10 oz of gold...
Again, we have confusion about then-money and now-money. This time, I was thinking more along the lines of "enough bullion to convert into $100 worth of period money". Say, enough raw gold to make 5 double-eagles out of. Pricey, sure, but not as pricey as period coins and notes.
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...You have to remember at that time platinum had no real uses and was valued at less than a dollar an oz. It was cheaper than silver...
Which highlights to me perhaps the most lucrative destination for a time-travelling numismatist. Russia was (and still is) one of the few sources of platinum, and the Russian Empire in the 1830's and 1840's was the only place and time that has ever seen circulating platinum coinage. It would be especially lucrative if you could convince them to take some hyperinflationary Russian banknotes from the late Empire and Revolutionary periods (which you can buy here today very cheaply) in exchange for a few 3, 6 and 12 ruble platinum coins. Especially some scarce date ones.
Maybe that's why they're so scarce today; them pesky time-travellers done gone and taken them all.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Posted 01/26/2008 1:40 pm
