So a node doesn't save anything?  What would be the importance of an earlier node aside from the cool factor?  Wouldn't the node still be able to sign for transactions with coins related to said node?  I have an idea which transactions were ones that I made.  For example, a set of transactions that occurred around July '09 where I consolidated 200 addresses into a 10k coin address for the "cool" factor when a friend of mine asked if it was possible to put that many coins into one address.