Back To The Future

The mid 20's. Coins were readily available at banks, and coins like early Mercs, early Wheats and Standing Liberty quarters were all in circulation+tons of key dates!! -PP

1909 in San Fransisco

or late 1700's near DC

I didn't realize that Chucky Cheese was founded in 1830

Not sure if I'd want to go anyways. I'm sure all those robots would be kinda freaky lookin

I'd choose somewhere we know little or nothing about.

Somewhere like the ancient Greek city of Helike, shortly before 373 BC. The entire city sank beneath the waves after a massive earthquake in that year, kind of like a "mini-Atlantis". At that time, coins rarely left the cities in which they were struck, so only a handful of coins from there have ever been found.

Choosing a place that gets wiped off the map shortly after your visit also reduces the risk of creating temporal paradoxes.

Of course, the few coins that have been found from Helike are normally pretty pricey. Selling just a couple should help pay for the trip.

Some previous threads on the theme of time-travelling numismatics can be found here, here and here.

Of course, if time travel really becomes possible, it may be an explanation of why rare coins are rare today. As I said in one of those earlier threads...

With the time machine dial set at 1847, I'd step onto the dusty streets of Honolulu. 100,000 pennies with the likeness of Kamehameha III were minted a year earlier but the Hawaiians eschewed the image of his likeness because it did not look like him. Compounding the dislike for the coin, the designer had mispelled a word. Whenever someone found this coin in their possession, they would toss it into the sea. Through word of mouth and posted ads I'd buy, beg, and collect them.

There is a lot more going back in time than you think.

For starters, are we using "Back to the Future" rules or "Terminator" rules. If we're using terminator rules, then we can't travel back to the future so you'll be stuck somewhere in the early 20th century with no TV, Elvis, or florinated water.

If we're using "Back to the Future" rules then we can travel fowards and backwards in time so we could go back to the present. So we can hoard all the key dates, rad older coins, and then travel back to the present so they'll be enjoyed, rare, and worth enough to make us all rich.

If were using "Back to the Future" rules, then I would go to 1933. Carjack a model T, stow away in the U.S. Mint, and get my hands on all the double eagles I could fit in my front pants pockets.

1933 Double Eagle - Most expensive coin in history. Sold for 7.6 million dollars. (I think)