# You're a time traveler to the late 1800s. What do you do for money? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 20, 2021, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546 "2021-05-20T13:06:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/61 "2021-05-21T17:11:11Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > When traveling geographically, we say have “visitors” and “locals”. When traveling in time, we have “visitors” and “\_\_\_\_\_\_\_”? Hmm. Gotta think about that one a bit. Synchronics ---
**Author:** ![FastDan1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fastdan1/32/427_2.png) [@FastDan1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FastDan1)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/62 "2021-05-21T18:02:28Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > When traveling geographically, we say have “visitors” and “locals”. When traveling in time, we have “visitors” and “\_\_\_\_\_\_\_”? Hmm. Gotta think about that one a bit. “currents” ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/63 "2021-05-21T18:06:46Z")
Something else to be aware of is to avoid standing out. So you may need to wear period clothes (including making sure that there’s no artificial fibers and the sewing looks authentic). And based on what I’ve read in time travel fiction, your dental work or other medical implants may mark you as out of time. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/64 "2021-05-21T18:49:58Z")
It’s ten times more likely that your accent, style of speaking, terminology, and mannerisms will mark you out as some weird kind of ill-bred foreigner. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/65 "2021-05-21T18:52:28Z")
Definitely. All of that is hard to mask. For example, it’s going to be hard not to say something when people express the sexist or racist attitudes of the period. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/66 "2021-05-21T19:36:57Z")
Opium? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/67 "2021-05-21T19:40:51Z")
Opium might be cheaper than it is now ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/68 "2021-05-21T20:27:17Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > It’s ten times more likely that your accent, style of speaking, terminology, and mannerisms will mark you out as some weird kind of ill-bred foreigner Which is why I wouldn’t go to the wild west, I’d stand out too much. I would sell my luxery toiletries in New York, London and Paris where I could be a dandy and hang out with royals in high fashion. If I had to live without air conditioning I’d need a line of antiperspirant which could be very profitable. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/69 "2021-05-21T21:05:44Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > Which is why I wouldn’t go to the wild west… Ah, good point! I’d been picturing the frontier, or small towns in the midwest, but a well-established Eastern city might make things easier. And a big city would have more entertainment and better food. Now, if only we could have a support group of time travelers there with us. We could meet for Tuesday night poker games and complain about the customs, and the smells. And share cautionary tales of how we almost got caught out… Look, if anyone here makes it back there, do send instructions to the rest of us, okay? _Mark your calendars: Dopefest on July 6th, 1897!_ ---
**Author:** ![steepone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@steepone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steepone)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/70 "2021-05-21T21:54:17Z")
How about gambling, take whatever cash you can reasonably get hold of that could be used in that time, study up on sporting results, election results etc before you go then start betting on them, you might need to start small but you’d soon build up a stake ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/71 "2021-05-21T22:23:32Z")
> [@solost](#): > > I still think that creating counterfeit notes would be doable. The anti-counterfeiting methods that the late 1800s Secret Service employed were probably relatively primitive compared to what we can do today. I’m just saying that the people in those days would have been suspicious because so much more counterfeit money was circulating at the time. We have a lot more security strips and watermarks now, but it wasn’t always so. And when I visited Gettysburg many years ago, I bought some “replica” type money. It’s printed on parchment or something and the money will have state names on it. In other words, there wasn’t a unified currency so spotting a fake was harder. Here’s some obsolete Alabama currency you can buy today. > **[alabama obsolete currency for sale | eBay](https://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_nkw=alabama%2Bobsolete%2Bcurrency)** > > Find great deals on eBay for alabama obsolete currency. Shop with confidence. It wasn’t just that a civil war was going on…of Lincoln, the article says > He signed a bill in 1862 establishing a national currency > **[The Plot to Kidnap a Dead President - The History Reader : The History Reader](https://www.thehistoryreader.com/us-history/plot-kidnap-dead-president-abraham-lincoln/)** > > One hundred and seventeen years after his death, President Lincoln still rests alone beneath 4,000 pounds of concrete and steel inside a tomb. Or does he? Quick tangent: I heard that when people got Louisiana’s money, a $10 bill had the French “dix” on it, from which we get the term “dixie.” Anyway there were probably lots of people who would have been unfamiliar with what to look for. But I think if I were attempting to bankroll my adventure, I’d find something that wasn’t illegal. Why risk getting caught if you don’t have to? More of the story of burying, reburying (five times?) Lincoln is in that link. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2021, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/72 "2021-05-22T08:05:12Z")
> [@solost](#): > > I see a lot of answers relate to exploiting knowledge of the future, which I acknowledged, but this is about starting out with enough to be well off. Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that I’m a historian, and I don’t want to, or am not allowed to screw with the timeline too much. So beating Levi Strauss to the punch and inventing solost Blue Jeans is out of the question. And introducing anachronistic future tech is a definite no-no. I want to stay under the radar as much as possible, but live comfortably. All right, so if you really want to make money, just set up a fraudulent company, sell a bunch of shares, pay executive shareholders a 200% dividend rate (eating all invested capital), and then close the damn thing. It’s the Gilded Age and stock fraud and speculation is rampant, and companies were not thought so much of as permanent entities but temporary cash generation machines which paid the shareholders as much of the companies free cash flow as possible, even if it debilitated the company. You then take your money and you invest it in companies you know are going to succeed: Westinghouse. Standard Oil. Coca-Cola (more a 1890s investment). Hollerith Tabulating (soon to be IBM). Edison himself starts a company which becomes General Electric. Standard Oil is really the gold standard here: you want to have as many Standard Oil shares before the 1911 Supreme Court breakup, trust me, but Coca-Cola _did_ finish the 20th-century as the most profitable company in terms of stock appreciation (of all companies which existed for the entire century). Or, hell, if you want to change history _just a little_, go down to Beaumont, Texas, and discover Spindletop 20 years early: [![Imgur](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51194073697_899af5a0cf.jpg "Lucas Gusher Beaumont") ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/68782016@N08/51194073697/) ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2021, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/73 "2021-05-22T13:49:07Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Hmmmm. I think I’d take pockets full of Penicillin and Viagra along with my knowledge of the fairer sex and work part time as a gigolo, serving the wealthy women of the day. ❤ Good luck not starving to death 🤣 > [@ParallelLines](#): > > If you want something that would at least break even with your inflation calculator, be untraceable, and be unlikely to effect the timeline (or get you caught for counterfeiting) may I suggest (as long as it’s prior to 1893) silver? I said in the OP that gold has outstripped inflation over the years, and I assumed silver has as well. If that’s not the case, then silver would be a great choice. > [@GreenWyvern](#): > > t’s ten times more likely that your accent, style of speaking, terminology, and mannerisms will mark you out as some weird kind of ill-bred foreigner. Just tell people you’re a city slicker from out east. > [@JohnT](#): > > All right, so if you really want to make money, just set up a fraudulent company, sell a bunch of shares, pay executive shareholders a 200% dividend rate (eating all invested capital), and then close the damn thing. Again, I’m asking what would be the most valuable commodity to take with you that you could spend, sell or trade from day one of the time jump. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2021, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/74 "2021-05-22T14:45:04Z")
I’d rob a train that was NOT owned by Mr. E.H. Harriman of the Union Pacific railroad. Then I’d use _just enough_ dynamite there, Butch. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2021, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/75 "2021-05-22T14:50:51Z")
Just to be different, I’m going to answer the OP’s question: Silver and/or gems. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2021, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/76 "2021-05-22T14:55:23Z")
Minor hijack. What if you go back too far and killing baby Hitler isn’t a option? Would it be moral to kill _Alois_ Hitler as a baby? (Hitler’s daddy, IYDK) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2021, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/77 "2021-05-22T14:57:33Z")
For seed money, I think gold and/or silver is your best bet. Yeah, yeah, you’ll get screwed by how much both have outstripped inflation lately, but long-term profits from knowing what to invest in should be more than enough to overcome that. And they’re easily convertible to whatever the local cash is, easily verifiable, and untraceable. Explaining how you got it is simple: You found a good panning spot, and no, of COURSE you’re not going to tell anyone where it was. Gems, especially sapphires, will also help, but they’re more difficult to convert (like, you might need to take a train to get to a town with a proper jeweler, and it’ll take them time to appraise them, and you’ll need multiple offers to be sure you’re not getting ripped off, and so on), and so you’re going to want some easy pocket money before you start working on cashing those in. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2021, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/78 "2021-05-22T15:01:31Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Again, I’m asking what would be the most valuable commodity to take with you that you could spend, sell or trade from day one of the time jump. Well, if the answer ‘knowledge’ isn’t applicable, then ‘gold’ is the choice. Silver isn’t bad, but gold is the answer here as it literally _is_ currency. And, IIRC, there was a general tightening of the Gold supply from 1860-1896, spurring the Silver movement, a supply shortage which wouldn’t be alleviated for America until the Klondike gold discoveries of the late 1890s. I literally do not need to worry about inflation if I went into the 1880s with gold because I would just convert my gold into dollars and, well, buy a bunch of Standard Oil, Westinghouse, GE, and Coca-Cola stock. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2021, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/79 "2021-05-22T15:25:03Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > For seed money, I think gold and/or silver is your best bet. Yeah, yeah, you’ll get screwed by how much both have outstripped inflation lately, but long-term profits from knowing what to invest in should be more than enough to overcome that. > [@JohnT](#): > > Well, if the answer ‘knowledge’ isn’t applicable, then ‘gold’ is the choice. Silver isn’t bad, but gold is the answer here as it literally _is_ currency. Good, then. That would certainly make things simple, just to take some gold with me. > [@E-DUB](#): > > Minor hijack. What if you go back too far and killing baby Hitler isn’t a option? Would it be moral to kill _Alois_ Hitler as a baby? (Hitler’s daddy, IYDK) For the last time, people, **no killing Hitler or any Hitler relatives!** I swear, you guys would make terrible time-travel historians. I’m revoking all time-travel privileges until you spend more time dwelling on the consequences of altering established timelines. Maybe read some Bradbury and Stephen King’s ‘11/22/63’’. 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2021, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546/80 "2021-05-22T18:34:25Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > > [@solost](#): > > > > Again, I’m asking what would be the most valuable commodity to take with you that you could spend, sell or trade from day one of the time jump. > > Well, if the answer ‘knowledge’ isn’t applicable, then ‘gold’ is the choice. Silver isn’t bad, but gold is the answer here as it literally _is_ currency. And, IIRC, there was a general tightening of the Gold supply from 1860-1896, spurring the Silver movement, a supply shortage which wouldn’t be alleviated for America until the Klondike gold discoveries of the late 1890s. > > I literally do not need to worry about inflation if I went into the 1880s with gold because I would just convert my gold into dollars and, well, buy a bunch of Standard Oil, Westinghouse, GE, and Coca-Cola stock. Yeah, I feel like you don’t need a ton of money, because once there you can use your knowledge of the future to make more. I still like meds as a long-term source of money, though. Sure, start with some silver to set yourself up. But you could make a decent living as a doctor, and explain that you learned your skills (and acquired your weird accent) somewhere in the far east. I suppose there’s a risk of saving a life that was supposed to die. But there are risks to investing in the stock market, too. Heck there are risks in killing a butterfly. If you REALLY want to be certain not to mess up the timeline, I think you need to avoid going there at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546.md?page=5)