Using ATL money

How much inflation has occured may make things tricky. A $20 bill today is what most people use to pay for anything; but they weren't used for routine purposes 25 years ago and were just plain rare 50 years ago. In a TL where inflation has been held to its 1950s levels, or deflation has occured (early rise of the euro?), even a $10 might provoke close scrutiny. I don't think it's possible to hold it steady from 1929, but if it were, a $1 would be the only bill you could even try...
 
Harrison on a $50 instead of Grant is likely to be noticed, especially as REALLY large bills (i.e. those with a larger value than the $20 bills which are a dime (...okay, $240) a dozen at ATM machines) tend to be scrutinized more thoroughly, and a difference in portrait would be a glaring distinction (unlike, say, the wrong Secretary of Treasury).

The safer and more legitimate way, I think, to go about it (provided you KNOW you're making the trip to another timeline) would be to buy gold or silver bullion in your TL of origin and sell it in your TL of arrival. (Any spread in the buy and sell prices could be considered a travel cost or a currency exchange levy.)

This, of course, can severely backfire, if you buy gold here at $1400/ounce and when you go to sell it in the ATL you find out that gold never had its massive run-up and is only worth $500/ounce. Of course, that also assumes inflation's the same, and $500 there would buy you the equivalent of what $500 here would buy you....
 
Interesting reality check :)
My washing machine was rejecting a quarter I was putting in. Finally I looked.
It was a one franc coin.

I used to keep a Norwegian one krona coin around that my little brother had gotten as change in a store. The clerk hadn't noticed it was different from the Swedish (despite the Norwegian coin being slightly thinner and larger). One day after I'd been to the pub I noticed the coin was gone: I had used it to pay for beer. And once again the clerk hadn't noticed.

People don't look at coins too much.
 
There is a Sci Fi Story where a man gets a Wilson Dime in Change.
When He spends it at a Newsstand to buy his Morning Paper, He gets transported to the Wilson Dime TL. [Stand is exactly the same in both TL's]
Different cars, planes etc. He married the other girl, accepted the other Job.
He's Happy, But he keeps checking his Change for that elusive Roosevelt Dime.
 
This happened in "Journeyman". Main character travells back in time to mid-1990s (IIRC) and not knowing when he is he pays for taxi with money he has. Taxi driver notices something is wrong, tries to catcg him but fails. Some eps later this is brought up during investigation when some FBI agent mentions that main character paid with money that wasn't in circulation yet, but appeared later (they mention signature).

Anyway, if banknotes are about right (same size, overall design...) and small ones person could get away with it. However it also depends on time. Counterfeit protection may not be same for one. Composition of paper and ink for two, but that would take some time to become apparent, specially with small banknotes.

Not sure how strict policy in US is but here stores check €50 banknotes and higher, not smaller ones.
 
I think anything big, like design, portrait, country name, or "Silver Certificate" would be noticed very quickly.

I might notice some small changes, but most people won't. "When was Paul Krugman Secretary of the Treasury?" I once collected coins, and I still check coins and bills I get, especially old-looking ones.

Probably the least likely thing to notice would be a coin or bill from the future, if it was otherwise identical to the current coin or bill. "A 2015 penny?"

Even funnier, an ordinary-looking 2010 (or 2009) penny. :D (IOTL, in 2010, they changed the design (and in 2009, ran a line of commemoratives). One would actually expect a 2010 penny to look mostly just like a 2008 one - but IOTL it doesn't. ;))
In a similar vein, a non-state quarter from 1999 or later (even 2015).

In fact, a 2015 penny would be rather likely to be noticed, more so than just about everything else (up to, and maybe even including, say, a Clinton (or even McCain) presidential dollar).
The reason? Well, the Lincoln bicentennial should have happened ITTL as well as IOTL, and 50 years is a rather long time for a single design, really. So it would still be reasonable to change the design (even if without the commemoratives); if the POD is early enough, the design will probably be different, making the coin stand out - but even the OTL design, uncommon as it is so far, would be something to be noticed, after what looking for the date is almost a certainty.
Heck, I look at all coins I receive, and pick out everything I think outstanding... like an uncirculated-looking coin from 2007. Anything ATL would be immediately noted as such, unless it happens to look exactly the same as OTL, which BTW isn't as improbable as it sounds - but with roubles requires a rather late POD. (Well, either that, or really badly degraded so I can't tell the difference; but then, I wouldn't take such a coin anyway.)



...So what, how? :)
January First-of-May
 
Say someone is traveling to OTL from an ATL with a PoD post-1929 and using dollar bills to buy souvenirs. Assume that his one dollar bills are not changed in format since the 1929 design. How long will he be able to get away with this? Note that the bills will be of perfect quality...they will just have the "wrong" signatures and perhaps series dates. Do cashiers ever look at these things? What about bigger bills, if his TL has not redesigned them or he can get older bills with the old design? One thing that might give him away...the Where's George website. Any other comments?

Not so sure about this. IIRC the $1 bills were Silver Certificates through the mid-1960s. While they are similar to the Federal Reserve Notes, the seals were blue, not green. That would be a quite noticeable difference! FRNs were issued in denominations $5 and up from 1929, so they wouldn't be as problematic.
 
When I still worked at a group home, on of the residents was incensed that he had been given a counterfeit nickle in change.
It was one of the new nickles.
 
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