This one reminds me a little of the film "Somewhere in Time". Except that he is going forward in time, rather than backwards. Quite the Intriguing story I must say.:-)

Wow, I remember hearing this episode first run as an 8 year old child. I LOVED these programs as a kid and my parents would let me listen to them as I fell asleep - they'd be broadcast at 9:00 p.m. each night. LOL @ 1986 sounding futuristic. Interesting plot. Like he gets flashbacks from the future.

This soap opera takes place over a nine year period from 1977 through 1986. It chronicles the misadventures of a man, his wife, and ... his girlfriend. The weirdness starts in 1977 when his wife asks him for a quarter and he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a new quarter - with a mint date of 1986. Other strange things happen and he appears to melt down. Better to listen and judge for yourself what is happening here.

A man begins having visions of the future where he kills his wife. More disconcerting to him, he begins acquiring objects from the future.

I liked this one too. Good psychological thriller.

All ways nice to play around with conspiracies. Fun for fiction; sad that so many folks are deluded in real life by similar obsessions. The proof that the conspiracy is real . . . is that they've covered up all the proof; that's how good they are!! Always had a soft spot for tautalogies. Kinda neat in that a strange paranormal force seems to reinforce the conspiracy. Strange coin, strange coffee stain, strange gray hair, etc. And we have a return to a knife murder, so must be happy again. I really hate to say this 3 out of 4 weeks, but I didn't care too much for the show. So a guy in his thirties has to find another occupation; been that, done there. I managed it without turning lunatic along the way and butchering the neighbors. In my younger days I was a devote' of several screwball notions, most of them involved conspiracies of varying magnitude. You grow up . . . or you should anyway. Life is good and bad; big money probably does alot of things out of the public view that would disgust the average citizen; enjoy the wonder that the real factual universe can provide for you. This concludes Philosophy 101 for this afternoon; there will be a quiz when we next meet for class.

Interesting story Idea. The ending seemed obvious. Overall it was okay.

as with many of the psychological dramas, Sam Dann has chosen to present the listeners with an average guy who is being pushed to extreme comprehension of his world around him. simple, normal things like a quarter become larger than life. a subtle stain on a suit becomes a dweller iron that weighs his mind down like an anchor. and all the while, i kept wondering how i might react to these kinds of situations. once, a friend received a spoof newspaper that was dated 10 years in the future and had all sorts of ridiculous stories in it. but the odd thing about it was, that even though we knew it was a spoof paper, we both agreed that it would be kind of strange if any of the events came true. and while i agree that this was not the most inentive or freshly conceptual program we've had, i do stand by it as far as its attempt at provoking the listener to stay and learn. i listened to another show following this one and ended up turning it off because i found it too slow. but this one kept me interested. the ending was indeed a little flat ended, but i was not disappointed by any means. i'd give this one a warm 3.8 out of 5 rating. always enjoyable!

" . . . a subtle stain on a suit becomes a dweller iron . . ." I don't know what this means; enlighten me?

simply that the lead character dwells on the stain and its origin so much that it's heavy, like an iron or an anchor, that he nearly puts the beat-down on the tailor. sorry if my wording was fumbly!

Well, all I have to say is, poor old Larry H. Does he ever get to play a sane man? I would have said this to any actress cast at the time, "If you are cast with Larry, you will die, and he'll go nuts somewhere along the line.' All in all, not my favorite Dann story but I still wanted to sit unitil the end. Thanks for the post.

It does seem like Mr. Haines is either the poor, put upon husband (i.e. this episode or another fun one "Little Lucy's Lethal Libation") or even when he's seemingly more under control he's still playing a criminal of some sort ("The solitary", "Dairy of a madman"). If you want a nice little show where Mr. Haines' nervous mannerisms are on display yet lead to a happy ending, try his appearance as a plumber (I don't think his character was named "Mario") on the RMT episode called "Golden Time". Predictable (to use the term above) but cute. Wait a minute...what's this coin on my desk? The date says "2008"? What the...?

I don't feel the episode is as literal as Glenn F. does. For me,the conspiracy wasn't simply a corporate manipulation or the difficulty in starting over but the displacement of a person from every aspect of their life - personal,professional,down to their moment in time. Reality is blurred for the character as is the sequence of events in his existence. i found it an interesting episode.

ALSO...Larry Haines did play some more stable characters in his early days in radio. He even played Mike Hammer in THAT HAMMER GUY (if you can consider Mike Hammer stable).

I started listen to the mystery theater in my freshman year in high school in 1977. Wow what nights they were with my big head phones on at ten o'clock at night. Listening to KRLD out of Dallas Texas. That creaking door opening and E.G Marshall saying welcome! Ha! To cool. I listen now online every night. Very cool for an old hippie. Smoke a joint before sleep and listen. Indeed. Try it!!!

Hey m. snead, that was without one of the best comments I've ever read. Keep up the--listening?!. And the duby smoking.

One of the best episodes. Works on two levels: as a psycho-drama and as an allegory about the '70s-era push to get women in the workplace not only displaced men, but was of primary benefit to corporations (double the labor pool, pay half the wages to everyone). Well played, Mr. Dann.

At the very beginning he lies down to rest; could it all be a dream?

Sam Dann should have used a primer on U.S. coins before he wrote this episode. Larry Haines consults a coin dealer about the future-dated quarter dollar. The coin dealer professes to be "an expert only in numismatics," and then informs Haines that Washington quarters were made of silver up to 1963. After 1963, he says, quarters were made of a copper-silver alloy. Most Americans listening to this episode in 1977 would have laughed at Dann's and dealer's ignorance of coins. After 1964, dimes, quarters, and dollars were made not of silver, but of nickel & copper, the so-called "clad coins" still minted today. As explained below, by 1974 no US coins intended for circulation contained any silver. U.S. dimes, quarters, halves (50c), and dollar coins were minted from an alloy of 90% silver and 10% copper up to and including the year 1964. Then, LBJ pushed through the Coinage Act of 1965 which banned the use of silver for dimes, quarters, and dollar coins minted after 1964 and phased out silver in halves (40% silver, 1965-1970). Eisenhower dollars, minted 1971 through 1974, but only with the S (San Francisco) mintmark are 40% silver. In addition, after 1968, all silver certificates were no longer redeemable in silver, and the 25% gold backing of paper money was removed. JFK would resisted all this depreciation of the currency had he lived because JFK was a hard-money man, a firm believer in gold and silver backing of US money.

I rate this episode ★★★★☆ for GOOD. This Drama-Mystery, written by Sam Dann, should've been made for a TWILIGHT ZONE episode. What I liked about this, was our main character’s uncontrollable obsession with a quarter from the future. The storyline was great, until the last scene. If he didn’t want to commit murder, he should’ve stayed away still or even spend time on doing research about Time Theories on how to improve his life in the present to be better in the future and stop the Aurora Group. An alternate title for this would be “The 1986 Quarter.” One thing I found puzzling in this, was our Host’s Prologue where he mentions the Earthworm. I’m guessing E.G. Marshall was using the worm as a metaphor to describe its contributions in this world. In ACT-1, he introduces us to our main character who has a spouse, a home, and an occupation where his basic lifestyle routine is going to change. In ACT-2, he lets us know that there are a set of circumstances; the Old encountering with the New. In ACT-3, after hearing what our main character did, E.G. Marshall points out that everyman his has price & motive. In his Epilogue, he points out that this is a society where it’s winner take everything. A puzzling Prologue, but everything else that E.G. Marshall said was on point. The music & sound effects were on point as well. A variety of “Downhearted” music tracks were used to express what our main character was feeling. The sound effects of the doors, footsteps, newspaper rolled up, people murmuring at the diner, cups & tableware clinking, and dialing of the payphone were supportive. Now to save the best for last, our Cast: Larry Haines (as Zachery Taylor Eberhardt), Ann Williams (as Emma Eberhardt), Bryna Raeburn (as Stella & the Attorney), Joe DeSantis (as Ethan Allen Plotz, the Coin Expert, and Dr. Sammon), and Leon Janney (as Mr. Stebbins). These Actors & Actresses played their parts terrifically, especially Larry Haines. He is one of many actors on CBSRMT that could play a character who is edgy and paranoid. Check out Larry Haines’ performance in this. And check out some of his other great performances including #0167-THE BLACK ROOM, #0544-THE WITCHES’ SABBATH, and #0710-DEATH ON PROJECT X. Until next time…pleasant dreams. =0)

Love the cbsrmt ever since I was 7 years old. Now 47 and still listening! Being a kid and being with my older brothers laying on the front porch to sleepover night. Awesome program that I'll listen to until my last breath..

Interesting twilight zone ish story from the 1970's. I noticed just a small inconsistency in the details. If the wife could see these future objects such as the 1986 quarter, (in fact she was the first one to notice it, just seconds before she was to drop the quarter in the coin slot. Like who looks at the coin's date just before you are about to drop it in a slot?), then why couldn't the wife see the Exhibit A sign on the dagger? It supposedly came from the year 1986 as well. My guess is that the Exhibit A sign was only seen by the husband's clairvoyance or E.S.P. Yet the coin actually traveled backward in time and was physically there?

Milk machine in an apartment building!

Zachery Taylor Eberhardt cannot understand why the pocket of his new suit contains a 25-cent piece minted in 1986. But soon things begin to happen that give him an idea why. He loses his job when the Aurora group takes over his company; his nagging wife gets a job and lords it over him; he falls in love with a waitress; and, most significant of all, he dreams that he is an unfaithful husband in court in 1986, accused of having stabbed his wife to death.

This was a good one. I just listened to it on Monday

Zachery Taylor Eberhardt cannot understand why the pocket of his new suit contains a 25-cent piece minted in 1986. But soon things begin to happen that give him an idea why. He loses his job when the Aurora group takes over his company; his nagging wife gets a job and lords it over him; he falls in love with a waitress; and, most significant of all, he dreams that he is an unfaithful husband in court in 1986, accused of having stabbed his wife to death.

I can recall this episode with the phrase "the coin from 1986". Listening under the covers back in 1977 when I should have been asleep as a child, it really stuck in my head. I enjoyed how 40+ years later, I forgot how it ended so it was like it was brand new all over again. And unfortunately the Aurora Group is still around (in one form or another) !

This was a silly episode. It was like bad TZ comes to RMT. Point 1 - The guy was a young fellow when he got laid off. It's not as if he had invested decades in service to his company. So move on and forget about The Aurora Group. We've all done that. Point 2 - The coin dealer was dismissive of the quarter dated in the future. That would be very rare and valuable. The dealer who was first to discover that error might even have it named for him. Point 3 - Once we learned that the protagonist was experiencing things from the future, the murder plot became entirely predictable.