Reverse order of custom taxonomy

I have a custom category taxonomy called “Year” which (currently) ranges from 1863-2012. I use the more recent dates more often than the older dates, so I’d like the meta box on the edit posts page to be in reverse order (DESC instead of ASC). Is there a simple way I can do this without seriously hacking the core?

While it’s possible to remove the meta box and add a new custom one, I’m hoping for something simpler/more elegant, like a filter on wp_terms_checklist or post_categories_meta_box or something.