As you know, my History Ray has sent the coin hurtling back through time, changing history in the process. We're now stuck in an alternate timeline celebrating 300 years of the Hunt instead of 30. For some reason, I still retain knowledge of the original timeline, as do my assistants, and presumably you.
Though it's jumping around in time, the coin's still an MIT Mystery Hunt coin, and MIT Mystery Hunt coins have two inherent properties that we can use to find the coin and restore the past:
The Coin Makes Puzzles Happen. The Hunt archivists have shown me a round of puzzles from 2009 for which they don't have answers. It wasn't in the original 2009 Hunt; the coin must have caused it to appear. I've posted it on my personal site at www.mithunt300.com for your perusal. Your previous username and password should work. I suspect that the coin has warped into existence a new round of puzzles from the Hunt for most of the years it's visited, but now that we're in a timeline where the Hunt's been going on for centuries, it'll take a while to dig up all of the new rounds. I'm working with the archivists to search for more, but most of them are distracted trying to solve the puzzles we've found; if you find the answer to a puzzle, click the Check Answer button on its page and an archivist will call you. If your answer is correct, that should free up some people and we can find the rounds sooner.
The Coin Wants to Be Found. To that end, it's altered history in very specific ways so that the 2010 Hunt's metapuzzle solution once again tells how to find it. If we can figure out exactly how this universe's timeline differs from our own, you should be able to come up with the answers HQ really wants to hear. For each of the new rounds, the answer words and phrases lead to a metapuzzle whose solution will point to a change the coin caused in that year. In addition, it looks like the coin's also replaced most of the events we had planned for the weekend with new ones, probably to point to further changes. On my site, you will find a copy of the new schedule. Once you think you've found a historical change, call my lab at the number below. I'll do some research and send you whatever relevant information I find.
A note on anachronism and time warping: Remember, although the archive puzzles are styled to fit into their respective Hunts, they were created by an artifact from 2010. Don't be surprised if a puzzle that shows up in a past Hunt makes references to things that didn't exist in that time. Also remember that the archive puzzles were created by an artifact from OUR 2010, not the alternate universe 2010 that resulted from the changes in history. If you learn that the NFL was taken over by Donald Trump in 2003 in this universe and you find a football puzzle in the new 2009 round, you don't need to take that change into consideration when solving that puzzle.
One last thing - I've saved up enough power in my History Ray for one special reverse-aging blast. I can zap any one puzzle in the archives and reverse-age it all the way back to the moment when it was constructed, revealing its answer. It requires a lengthy prep scan, though, and a less lengthy but still non-trivial amount of calibration. If we've had access to a puzzle for more than five hours, you can call my lab and ask us to blast it. I'll begin the calibration process, and I'll call you back with the answer an hour later.
My lab's number is [removed now that the Hunt is over]. Be sure to keep this number handy; I expect you'll need to be in contact several times over the course of the next day or two to confirm historical changes, schedule meetings with us for interactive puzzles, or other reasons.
The universe is counting on you. Good luck!
-Professor Emit