Re: What would make you believe?

On Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:30:21 -0800, Erik Max Francis <max@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:

>Wildepad wrote:
>
>> It's not the effect the one bill, counterfeit or not (it could be a
>> relic), would have, it's the problems you would have explaining
>> why/where/how you acquired it, and it would negate your being able to
>> claim the prize (any impropriety in the purchase is cause to deny the
>> payout). 
>
>You act as if $1 is extremely hard to acquire in the modern world.  Walk 
>up to someone and ask for it.  

That's a complete non-starter. 

In some areas, shopkeepers immediately contact the police if they see
someone panhandling. Is this one of those areas? There is no way of
knowing.

In some areas, neighborhood watch people report any strangers who walk
into the area without seeming purpose. Is this one of those areas?
There is no way of knowing.

etc. etc. etc. 

While the total chance of the contact person being approached by the
police is probably less than 0.1%, any such incident would be fatal.
Without a traceable id, and speaking less than fluent English, he
would be detained, missing his mark for the transit home. 

Without any knowledge of the society he's in, or understanding what's
expected of him, he'll probably spend the rest of his life bouncing
from jails to nut huts and back again.

What a way to recruit contact personnel! "Earn big money for little
work! (Disclaimer: Job may result your being incarcerated in a cruel
and demeaning manner with no hope of returning home.)."


And before you say: "well, educate him" -- that's also a non-starter.
We know so little about daily life in the 15th C. that anyone we'd
send back would be in constant danger, and there's been none of the
loss of knowledge that mankind being reduced to a thousand would
create. 


>Or, just as trivial, bring something back 
>with you and sell it.

A complete non-starter.

Where do you sell something? A pawnshop seems likely, but they
wouldn't necessarily know if there's even a pawnshop in that town, let
alone if there's one within walking distance.

Also, pawnshops are required in most states to record the id of all
sellers. Since the contact person can't have a traceable id, and may
not even understand what is needed, many pawnshop owners would
immediately contact the police (either because they're obeying the law
or because they fear it's a trap).

While there are pawnshops that don't ask questions if the value of the
item and the amount you're willing to take for it are far enough
apart, there is no way of knowing, from a distance of more than a
century, which ones those are. 


>Further, you seem to think that individual bills are far more traceable 
>than they invariably are.

In the event of a lottery win, they might easily check the bill that
night or the next morning to see if it was counterfeit. 

One method sometimes used for that is to check the serial number
against the currency database. While they'd be looking for the numbers
used on past counterfeit, if it's found that the bill was either
already destroyed or that it hasn't been released yet, there would be
hell to pay. Considering the short life of bills, their having one
that was in circulation at the proper time is about 1 in 3.

And, yes, they could isolate the bill fairly easily -- by simply
watching the security tapes, they would see when it went into the
register and how many bills went in/were taken out after that.

Such things are far more traceable than you might suspect -- it's only
a matter of how much effort that is brought to the investigation.
--