# What is the oldest posession you own? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 28, 2008, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523 "2008-09-28T01:37:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/1 "2008-09-28T01:37:35Z")
For me, it’s a Websters dictionary from 1934. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/2 "2008-09-28T01:40:57Z")
An ammonite fossil, at least 65 million years old. Aside from that, a Winchester Model 1892 rifle made in 1897. ---
**Author:** ![Danalan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@Danalan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danalan)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/3 "2008-09-28T01:51:09Z")
I’ve got a Norse knife that my great-great grandfather found. He was plowing his fields and it turned up in a furrow (on the old family farm in Norway). He passed it to my grandmother, she brought it from the ‘old country’, and it’s come down to me. It’s impossible to date exactly, but surely was buried before 1100 AD. It’s likely from 600-800 AD, but could be much earlier. ---
**Author:** ![gardentraveler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gardentraveler/32/3576_2.png) [@gardentraveler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gardentraveler)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/4 "2008-09-28T01:51:40Z")
Family bible from my paternal grandmother’s family. Late 1800s. It contains a drawing of Pope Leo XIII, who was elected Pope in 1878. Grandma wrote inside that it belonged to her great grandmother, so it’s possible that it was published not too long after he became Pope. (Grandma was born in 1902.) ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Tonya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/4491bb/32.png) [@Queen\_Tonya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Tonya)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/5 "2008-09-28T01:55:28Z")
My oldest personal possession is a glass beer mug from high school, class of 88. It was a prize for selling M&Ms for choir or something and has survived every move and even a house fire. I love that mug. I’m not much of a collector though I did nab an original copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves from 1973. I was helping a friend pack up her deceased mother’s belongings and was thrilled to find it languishing in a box in the attic. I gushed ecstatically about it’s significance and the friend just stared at me nonplussed. She was mystified by my fascination but happy to give it to me. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/6 "2008-09-28T01:55:30Z")
I have a piece of petrified wood, Lake Powell area, I think it is of Mesozoic timeframe in origin. ---
**Author:** ![truthbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@truthbot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthbot)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/7 "2008-09-28T02:21:47Z")
I have a Knightia fossil from the Eocene Age. In the family heirloom category I have a silver trinket box that came from my grandmother. She got it from her mother. It’s good honest English silver, circa 1840. I once held the world’s oldest known footwear (pair of sandals). I was on a jury in a ‘grave-robbing’ trial and the sandals were part of the evidence. The sandals were estimated to be 10-12,000 years old. I didn’t own them, but _I got to touch them!_ It gave me awe-inspired goosebumps at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/8 "2008-09-28T02:48:20Z")
Hmmm, I have no idea how old some of the rocks are in my yard, but as far as “possessions”, I’d also have to say my family bible, that dates to the mid-1800s (I’m too lazy to get up and look). ---
**Author:** ![luv2draw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@luv2draw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/luv2draw)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/9 "2008-09-28T02:48:25Z")
My father’s small prayer book from when he was a child in Catholic school. Dated 1926 and written in Polish, printed in Czechoslovakia. I cannot read a word but I have fond memories of my Dad reading it to himself in church when I was a little kid. It’s kind of falling apart… sigh… I keep it right here on the table where I have my computer. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/10 "2008-09-28T03:10:35Z")
I might have a book or two from childhood, but the oldest item I know of for sure is my bong. It’s great – ceramic, nice stash holder, carb,… They just don’t make them like that anymore. I’ve shopped to find a replacement, but I can’t find one good enough. It’s 30 years old. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/11 "2008-09-28T03:14:25Z")
Several chunks of magnetite from the Gunflint iron range in Minnesota, about 1.88 billion years old. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Onimous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@Ann\_Onimous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Onimous)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/12 "2008-09-28T03:27:17Z")
A brooch, given to my grandmother as a wedding present in 1943. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/13 "2008-09-28T03:31:02Z")
A Roman coin featuring Nero’s likeness. (_ca._ A.D. 54-68) Or maybe an arrowhead. Who knows how old one of them might be. Oldest _family_ heirlooms are tintypes of my great grandfather and great-great grandmother, _circa_ 1861. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/14 "2008-09-28T03:31:21Z")
A Civil War saber, supposedly from the Battle of Little Rock. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/15 "2008-09-28T03:44:59Z")
The wife. 😃 But seriously, I have an actual photograph of one set of great-grandparents from the late 19th century in rural Arkansas. And one of another great-grandfather circa 1900. That one’s a great photo. A stereotypical Ozark Mountain hillbilly, he has his coon dogs around him and powder horn strapped on, holding his squirrel rifle. He could be Jed Clampett’s good buddy. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/16 "2008-09-28T03:50:40Z")
My dining room table is the same dining room table my dad had in his house when he was a kid in the 50s. I am pretty sure that’s the oldest thing in my house. I have an old cricket bat too but I am not sure of its age. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/17 "2008-09-28T04:02:41Z")
Pieces of petrified wood, lava, etc from various spots in the Southwest A trilobite fossil An 1810 large head cent ---
**Author:** ![Merhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Merhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merhouse)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/18 "2008-09-28T04:04:09Z")
I have an antique desk, and also an antique buffet that is probably close to if not more than 100 years old, but I don’t know for sure. As someone who much prefers more contempory furnishings, I can’t explain why these two pieces are so special to me, but they are. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/59ef9b/32.png) [@FlyingRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRat)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/19 "2008-09-28T04:46:44Z")
I have a chunk of quartzite from the Blue Ridge Mountains with the fossilized tracks of tube worms in it (doesn’t look like much unless you know what it is). 600+ million years old. As for human artifacts, we have a Song dynasty ceramic bowl (probably Southern Song, from the 1100’s-1200’s). It’s nothing too special to look at-- small, plain, white, and rather rough. It was likely one of the type that was made by the thousands for civil servants to eat their lunches out of. I also have a little (misshapen and tarnished) silver ring with a glass stone in it, from the time of one of the sieges of Vienna in the 1500s-1600s. It’s exactly the type of ring that a poor soldier might give to his “best girl”, which makes me smile. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/20 "2008-09-28T05:20:38Z")
I have a child-size wooden rocking chair that belonged to my great-grandmother. I also have some of her jewelry and photos of her wearing it. The oldest possession in my family is a daguerrotype in a velvet-lined daguerrotype case, dating from the 1860’s. Unfortunately, we’re not quite sure who the two children in the picture are, although we have a few guesses. Family possessions also include my great-grandfather’s World War I draft notice and several stocks and bonds from before the Crash. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523.md?page=2)