# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/21 "2008-09-28T05:24:17Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > The wife. 😃 And you’re still alive?! Amazing! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/22 "2008-09-28T05:45:23Z")
I have a hard copy of “Punch” from 1854. Also a Bible from 1863. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/23 "2008-09-28T05:55:27Z")
I have several letters written by my great great grandmother in the early 1920’s. A couple of photographs that are older still (one of my great grandfather circa 1904). ---
**Author:** ![Nymphadora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/aeb1de/32.png) [@Nymphadora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nymphadora)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/24 "2008-09-28T06:30:20Z")
An ammonite fossil An 1874 complete works of william shakespeare ---
**Author:** ![Nicolas\_Bourbaki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@Nicolas\_Bourbaki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nicolas_Bourbaki)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/25 "2008-09-28T06:33:56Z")
Fossils excepted, probably an early edition of _Huckleberry Finn_ from the 1870s-80s. Don’t have it with me at the moment, so I can’t look up the exact year. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/26 "2008-09-28T06:42:29Z")
[quote=“Johnny\_L.A, post:2, topic:465523”] An ammonite fossil, at least 65 million years old. I have one of those and also a flint arrowhead ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/27 "2008-09-28T06:45:03Z")
I have a commemorative John McCain coin from the year 3000 BC. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/28 "2008-09-28T07:05:09Z")
I have a student’s desk from the 1700s, beautiful wrought iron with wooden seat and writing surface, including an inkwell. And I have a 1799 “draped bust” silver dollar. And a wicker baby carriage, shaped like a swan, from sometime in the 1800s. I keep plants in it. And quite a few old books. ---
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Potato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Stealth\_Potato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Potato)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/29 "2008-09-28T07:18:14Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > A Civil War saber, supposedly from the Battle of Little Rock. Very nice. 😃 Speaking of Civil War memorabilia, I have a copy of _History of the Great Rebellion_, which was written and published in 1865, only months after the end of the war. It’s a very cool book, with highly detailed accounts of nearly every battle, sometimes including the names of the individual soldiers! Unfortunately it’s starting to show its age: the pages are quite brittle (though in fine condition otherwise), and the binding is rather worm-eaten. I probably have a few things that are a lot older, but none that are quite that interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/30 "2008-09-28T07:46:03Z")
I think this thread would benefit if we limited the field to man-made objects. Any rock shop has cardboard boxes full of various fossiles, petrified wood etc., xx million years old. Artefacts of great age are another story. My oldest man-made possession is a quartz core app. 8000 years old. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/31 "2008-09-28T08:06:52Z")
**Johnny L.A.** stole my answer but I have an ammonite ring that’s pretty old. However, if we’re not talking about fossilized items I have a couple of vintage handbags going back to about 1900 as well as some shoes and jewelry. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/32 "2008-09-28T08:39:53Z")
A large silver cup (looks like a trophy cup) that has been in my family since George III’s reign. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/33 "2008-09-28T08:40:05Z")
Buncha stuff, among which: an 1847 Old Farmer’s Almanac daugerreotype of my great-great-great-grandparents and my great-great-grandmother as an infant, ca 1863 a handmade Swedish wall clock dated 1803 (I don’t technically own this; my mom has it but I would like to get it when the time comes) several coins from the 17th and 18th centuries, oldest of which is from 1653 five letters home from a distant uncle (brother of the ggg-granddad mentioned above) written while in North Carolina fighting the Civil War. This set is kinda cool because I managed to actually dig up which regiment he fought in (the 16th CT) and found out he got captured and sent to Andersonville, which he survived; then to Florence SC (which he didn’t). ---
**Author:** ![Panurge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Panurge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panurge)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/34 "2008-09-28T09:03:32Z")
> [@Danalan](#): > > 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. I’ve got a stone axe found by my grandfather in the same way as described here. It is at least 4000 years old. We’ve got thousands of these here in Denmark - most farms will have a cupboard somewhere full of these things. They are usually found during the annual plowings. A friend of mine has an impressive 2-foot long one found by his great-great-grandfather over a century ago. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/35 "2008-09-28T09:24:40Z")
Of man-made things, a family Bible from the late 16 or early 1700s (can’t remember and it is in another country). Of natural things, a piece of lava rock from a volcano in D.R. Congo which could be millions or billions of years old as it came from magma which has been here since the Earth formed. ---
**Author:** ![katpohl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b782af/32.png) [@katpohl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/katpohl)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/36 "2008-09-28T10:46:58Z")
I have a 1/2 dozen flint arrow heads picked up around on the family ranch My house was built by my great grandparents in 1911 A school book called 'The history of Texas ’ copy writed in 1892 and a shed full of ‘younger’ stuff being stored while we remodel the house. ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/37 "2008-09-28T12:39:28Z")
A book on programming micro-computers such as the APPLE II, BBC Computer, dating from 1982. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/38 "2008-09-28T12:40:31Z")
A van Dyck print from about 1640, and a Burgkmaier print (one of the Weisskoenig series) but I think it’s more recent than it would initially seem (I suspect it’s a 1700s impression). We also have a cheap pilgrim-souvenir type print of Daian-ji temple but I haven’t the foggiest when it’s from-- maybe just 19th century. ---
**Author:** ![BlackNGold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BlackNGold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackNGold)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/39 "2008-09-28T12:45:22Z")
I carry an 1899 silver dollar with me all the time, and I’m really not sure why. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/40 "2008-09-28T13:18:22Z")
I have a grudge against my brother that I have had for 50 years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523.md?page=3)