If you could bring back a single suitcase from 2007, what would you use to finance your numismatic purchases? Think carefully about this. If you wanted to buy up a bunch of 1793 Chain Cents, great...but with what currency that would be readily accepted and would cost you less to obtain here? I think for those coins, you might want to consider buying lower grade Reales.

Not too difficult - bring a suitcase of gold bullions. Those were the days where gold was treasured as real money. And then I might as well exchange such bullions for relatively unpopular coins back in those days, i.e. platinum coins that really did circulate or those massive Swedish, Russian copper plates.

Hey, wasn't there a time where aluminium was so rare that it was worn as jewellery at one stage? I can bring several foils of them and be a king

Isn't the cap of the Washington Monument made out of aluminum --that rare metal in the 19th century?

a bunch of $20 gold certificates... and make a stop by the bank... for some $20 gold pieces

Your post reminds me of the TV show Journeyman. The guy goes back in time each week. Well, in one of the earlier episodes he ended up paying for a taxi cab in the mid 90's with a $20 bill from today. Boy did he have to run fast, the taxi cab driver naturally thought it was counterfeit.

So I don't know what I'd bring. I guess whatever could pass as currency for the time period I am going back to.

Of course silver and gold would be a safe choice.

I would travel to the time of Harold I of England and would have to take back a lot of gold or perhaps sell an invention!

I would love to bring back many uncirculated examples of Harold's pennies.

Just go back to ancient Rome with a bag of salt......

Ca. 300 BC Syracuse, Sicily. I would be buying up hemilitrons, litrons, 8 Litrai, 100 Litrai etc.

Oh Jeez.. I need to stop thinking of such non-PC jokes.

I like the idea of selling our products to them - like many of our glass jars or glass windows. They had those then but not of such high quality.

I'd bring aluminum and aluminum foil. Prices during the mid 1800's was around $500 per pound. If you hit earlier don't know what kind of prices some would go for.

Spending a few hundred dollars on reales today could translate into a few bucks profit when you come back with a pocketfull of chain cents!

I'm with Mark, I'd take aluminum.

Fatcat

OOooh, I know. I'd get a whole bunch of flashy costume jewelry and demand an audience with the higher-ups. A many-faceted piece of glass the size of a quarter would go a long way with some monarchs... but I also like the idea of selling spices, too, though I might need more than a briefcase to carry it.

Been asked previously in other forums, other places, clubs, meetings, etc. When discussed in a scientific community all the problems with time travel pops up. If you, for example, could go back in time and regardless of what you brought with, it would not have been made yet so how could it exist in a time when it was not made. Even aluminum foil was once a substance in the ground. Now if you tried to take that back in time previously to it being excavated and processed into foil, when you get there it would not be there since it has not been made yet. If you took Gold of any kind with the same thing would occur. Possibly if you went back 100 years that Gold was just being excavated and it would not be available yet so when you tried to take it back it would not be there when you got there since it is being excavated as you get there. The same thing with the clothing you had on. It would vanish as you arrived since it was not manufactured yet. One logical point made in those movies called Terminator. They went back in time but could not take clothing since it was not made yet.
The worst thing is the Earth itself would not be in the same location as it is when you left here so you would arrive in outer space since the Earth could not possibly be in the exact location. This is a fact since the Earth, Sun, entire solar system moves in space.

I would like to take back something that was light and wouldn't take much room in the suitcase but would be very valuable. It would also have to be something that I could acquire inexpensively today. I like the Aluminum idea but you'd still have to carry a whole lot of it. Of course I would want to carry back smallpox and polio vaccinnes and some wonder drug antibiotics. Just think of the changes that one could make in the world by showing up in say 1877 with these marvelous medical miracles.

Back to the coins. I'd only need a few hundred dollars to make my purchases. Remember that supply is an important part of the deal and if you brought back too much you'd destroy the market. Of course just plain old gold at 23 dollars an ounce would make a nice profit.

Thing about aluminum, they knew it was there before 1850's just no real to refine it. 1827 or 1828 would have been a good year after it was "discovered". Even with "just" $500 worth can you imagine how many rolls of bank fresh coins you could get. Hey even toss in a few old ones.

As to not being able to bring something back. If you use the had not been made part, you could not go in the first place since you had not been made. Even being able just to see back in time with out actually going would be good. As long as you could pick times and places to watch. Now where did that "Lost Dutchman" go? Or those bandits hide their loot?

Salt.

http://sg.answers.yahoo.com/question/index...16175951AA7SVgd

Now that makes sence. True if you went back in time and you were not born yet you would probably just cease to exist. H0WEVER, to be able to see where people buried money, treasures, etc and come back here and dig it up. Now I like that. As recently attempted so many are still looking for Al Capon's supposedly hiddem fortunes. This way you could watch where he puts stuff and go get it before it is accidenly found. Just imagine if he put tons of coins away back in the 20's and 30's. All still almost new.

So, all my carefully laid plans to get rich are (once again) for naught!!