Ever wish you could take your collection back in time?

It's quite amazing how the value of money changes over time. Today I bought a German 1,000 Mark banknote from 1910. I paid about 20 cents.

In 1910, both Germany and the United States were on a gold standard, and the German goldmark was worth approximately $0.25. So my 1,000 Mark note was worth $250 in 1910! An inflation calculator tells me that $250 in 1910 is roughly equal to $6677 in today's money!

Now the depressing and remarkable part is that this banknote has trickled down through time until it is now worth only 20 cents. All the rest of that value has evaporated somewhere, presumably at some owner's expense, most likely in the hyperinflation a few years later.

In the same lot I bought a 50 milliarden (billion) mark note from 1923. I can't even imagine what it was like to live in a world where your money halved in value on a weekly basis.

Visit venezuela

Citeer: "Muenzenhamster"​Visit venezuela

​+1...

Citeer: "Jesse11"​In the same lot I bought a 50 milliarden (billion) mark note from 1923. I can't even imagine what it was like to live in a world where your money halved in value on a weekly basis.

​I remember reading anecdotal accounts from those who lived through the hyperinflation era of the Weimar Republic; by mid/late 1923 the mark's value would drop not on a weekly basis, but in the time it took to cross the street to buy something, so workers were paid their wages and spent them in the morning before the became worthless; and people's old life savings in Papiermarks (1914-1923) lost their value in the blink of an eye.

They even had this thing called 'zero syndrome' where 'accountants couldn't stop writing zeros'.

I do have 2 of those 1910 1000 Mark banknotes; if I had a time machine I would probably go back and attempt to exchange them for German Empire 5, 10, and 20 mark coins; trying to get some of the scarcer commemorative issues from the smaller states.

I've always found that period so fascinating. I can't imagine the stress of not knowing what your money will buy from moment to moment.

Citeer: "MonaSeaclaid" I can't imagine the stress of not knowing what your money will buy from moment to moment.

​While I cannot imagine what these people went through, I can assure you it's not the best feeling in the world specially for those on minimum wage and with a lot of responsibilities...

But based on some friends experience... silver, gold, assets and hard currency such as dollar or euros it's the best bet.

By the way, the thought of 'taking your collection back in time' to spend/exchange it at a profit for other items, reminds me of this scene from Back to the Future II, when Doc Brown pulls out a suitcase labelled 'Emergency Cash' filled with American banknotes from different times in history from the 1860s to 1985:

Citeer: "CassTaylor"​By the way, the thought of 'taking your collection back in time' to spend/exchange it at a profit for other items, reminds me of this scene from Back to the Future II, when Doc Brown pulls out a suitcase labelled 'Emergency Cash' filled with American banknotes from different times in history from the 1860s to 1985:
​

​Ha ha, I was thinking about the same movie, although I was thinking Marty missed a trick. Instead of having to wait around for the sports almanac predictions, he could have just bought a couple of 1,000 mark notes in 2015 for 10 cents each, brought them back to 1910 and exchanged them for gold coins!

I think this alone is proof that time travel can't exist.

Step 1 : invent a time machine
Step 2 : Find old coins in your change
Step 3 : Sell the coins for a profit in the 21st century
Step 4 : With these profits buy a piece of modern tech eg. phone, car, electric lightbulb
Step 5 : Sell these to an inventor for silver certificates
Step 6 : Cash them in in the 20's
Step 7 : Celebrate!!!

I thought about Back to the Future II as well. Love that movie.

I've been thinking about this. Taking coins back to the past would only dilute the pool and throw of mintage figures. I think this is more of a topic, as we demonstrated, on how each of us would use our current collection to better said collection overall using time travel.

My answer? I wouldn't trade any part of my collection. I'd go back in time, go on a crime spree, or pull a D.B. Cooper and bolt home.

Or buy up a bunch of stock in the American railroad, then sell it off right around August of 1929, cash out and party uppercrust 1920s-style for a month, set up some soup kitchens and foundations for the unemployed, and take the rest home.

Here's a question....if we took a pile of modern Chinese fakes back in time and spent them, would they become contemporary forgeries?

Citeer: "CassTaylor"​I do have 2 of those 1910 1000 Mark banknotes; if I had a time machine I would probably go back and attempt to exchange them for German Empire 5, 10, and 20 mark coins; trying to get some of the scarcer commemorative issues from the smaller states.

​Now that is exactly what I would do...I'd get my type set of 2,3 and 5 marks as well as some of the slightly earlier commemorative thalers. I just imagine some of them floating around in registers across 19th century Germany and I get giddy :)

Really cool thought.... I was reading online that a movie ticket in 1909 was $.25 usd. An oz of gold was $20.67.

If we can go back in time with our current AMOUNT of usd but spend it at the value of 1909..... wow, I would be buying gold indians, morgans, trade dollars and other early american coinage buy the hoards. Like that when I get spoofed back into reality of today I can take all that wealth and put it to good use.

Aaron

@Mona This brings up an interesting theory of mine... What if D.B. Cooper was actually a Doc Brown-esque banknote enthusiast from the 22nd, 23rd or whatever century who really wanted to get his hands on some late-20th century American money the cheap way?

Also raises the question as to how the Doc got his hands on all that old paper money... I'm assuming there's a few very confused bank tellers throughout the decades now.

I haven't wished to take my collection back in time, but I have often wished to be able to go back in time and pick up some rare coins just after they were minted so I could stick them in a safety deposit box for current era me to pick up at my leisure.

Just on the hyper-inflation Germany. I read somewhere that sometimes the price of a meal in a restaurant was more by the time you had finished eating than when you started.

Citeer: "CassTaylor"​@Mona This brings up an interesting theory of mine... What if D.B. Cooper was actually a Doc Brown-esque banknote enthusiast from the 22nd, 23rd or whatever century who really wanted to get his hands on some late-20th century American money the cheap way?
​
​Also raises the question as to how the Doc got his hands on all that old paper money... I'm assuming there's a few very confused bank tellers throughout the decades now.
​

​We already know that Doc isn't beyond bending the law or outright breaking it in the name of science. And all his talk of not affecting the timeline was pretty much only a show for Marty.

He may have stolen it. I wouldn't put it past him to Doc Brown Cooper his way into some extra cash. He's clever enough, cocky enough, and wild enough to pull it off. And we already know he likes to Easter Egg his initials through time, as he did when he hid the time machine in the old abandoned mine.

He could have also offered services for it, he is a skilled engineer/technician/mechanic/whathaveyou. But that's boring and time consuming when there's time travelling to be done!

He also could have done exactly what we've discussed here. We already know that he invented time travel in 1955, and that he knew for an absolute fact that he would achieve the goal. We also know that his family fortune was "squandered" chasing the dream. What if he just played the stocks using Future Knowledge, bought up old banknotes, hoarded current (1950s+) banknotes, and squirreled it all away for the day when he'd cheat death and become a time travelling madman?

My grandpa was in Germany around that time on business. He said you can have a wheel barrow full of paper money and the empty wheel barrow was worth more.

Hmm... not anything for my coins but taking my Pengo banknotes back in time for Hungary would be quite interesting.

maybe not my collection, but myself. to go back to the middle ages, the roman empire, ancient china and korea, the americas and the new african colonies to collect newly struck coins and fresh banknotes..mmm, what a dream..

1840. I could collect some of the Finnish kopek banknotes. 16 years later I would get unused 5 and 10 kopek stamps, and 8 years after that, the first markka coins, and in 1878 the first Finnish gold coins. A freshly minted 1 penni 1864. Almost surreal.

If I could go back in time, I would set the time machine's exit and entrance in the ship that carried the HK 1941 1 Cent and carry them back to 2018.

Also, I'd go to the Warring States period and obtain coins that do not look like coins :D