So I figured for our honeymoon, it might be fun to break with expected tradition and instead of going someplace far away, we decided to take a road trip to 1998.
But there is a dilemma, hotels and campgrounds don’t take reservations from the future because they can’t get the credit card authorization thingy to accept our cards (what with our joint account not existing for another decade and all). So I figure we should just bring a lot of cash. Would there still be enough cash around that was printed in 1998 or earlier for us to be able to pay for gas and campgrounds? I tried finding a currency exchange kiosk that can accommodate us, but they don’t have any here that deal with inter-timeline currency.
We don’t want anyone thinking our 2004 currency is counterfeit. What do we do?
Our guidebook says we’re not allowed to fiddle with history. Maybe that’s changed in the newer edition, but in the meantime we’re still aiming for “leave no trace” time hiking. Our friend is lending us his 1996 Mazda Protege. So we should fit in seamlessly. We’re just worried about how to pay for everything.
If you deposit a million dollars in the bank today, thanks to the miracle of compound interest, back in 1998, you should have maybe a few thousand ready for your use.
Buy anything silver or gold you can get your hands on. Not coinage though, get something without a date mark on it. Once you get there, head for the nearest pawn shop. I don’t know the precious metal price from '98 but don’t be surprised if you get hosed pretty badly.
They’re all stamped with “authenticity marks”. I bet I’ll have problems with them unless I can get some that pre-date 1998, and they may be unusual enough that it’ll be easy to find the same one in 1998, so there may be questions.
Beanie Babies may work out better, but I don’t want to ahve to worry about finding buyers when I’m on my honeymoon.
So really, are there enough 1998 bills around still today? Even for just a $500 dollar road trip? We can rough it to keep our budget low.
It’ll be hard to find 12-year old bills, since the life expectancy of a bill is only a few years (18 months for $1.) But you could load up on coins. I’ll bet if you buy a thousand dollars worth of quarters, you’d end up with a couple of hundred in pre-'98 coins.
Quarters. Lots and lots of quarters. Just go to the bank and get five grand worth of quarter rolls, and then sort through and pick out all the pre-1998 ones.
Then you take them back in time, roll them back up and change them at the nearest bank.
There’s a lot of old $100 bills floating around outside the US. Just take a trip somewhere and exchange your new, crisp $100 bills for old, worn $100 bills and you should be all set.
You can buy sacks (literally) of silver coins, like the old half dollars. They were (and presumably still are) a common thing to buy and sell as an investment.
They’re all stamped with “authenticity marks”. I bet I’ll have problems with them unless I can get some that pre-date 1998, and they may be unusual enough that it’ll be easy to find the same one in 1998, so there may be questions.