# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/41 "2008-09-28T13:27:19Z")
A keyboard that originally came with a 286 – it’s as old as I am. Or possibly one of my pots: my dad may have bought it used before he even met my mom. ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/42 "2008-09-28T13:52:03Z")
Not counting fossils, a 1773 halfpenny. ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/43 "2008-09-28T14:06:19Z")
An English mezzotint from 1773 that satirizes the Macaroni trend in London. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/44 "2008-09-28T14:09:38Z")
Kumiss drinking dish, ca 14th century. Why? Well, it was the dish the goat statue (also Mongolian, unknown age) used to drink out of when I was at my Great Grandmother’s apartment and bored at the age of four. There were a lot of things I got from her, but that dish is what makes me remember her best. Oldest item made for the family? Scythe, pre-revolutionary war, family heirloom. Oldest bit of technology? Edison wax cylinder player, ca 1904, IIRC. Oldest book? Either Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates (First printing) or several bound collections of The Atlantic from Reconstruction. Oldest thing I bought with my own money: Somewhere, I still have a copy of Thriller on vinyl. Oldest coin: Roman, god knows how old. Really should look it up again. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/45 "2008-09-28T14:21:50Z")
Outside of some rocks and stuff, probably schoolbooks that belonged to my grandmother, born 1903. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/46 "2008-09-28T14:27:01Z")
Got an English History book published in 1808, but I have only had it about 20 years. I have a black cast iron pot that has been in my family since the late 1700’s. I didn’t get that until about five years ago. Got rocks, don’t bother with them, some are half a billion years old, one is only about six years old, I have had them for thirty years max. Tris ---
**Author:** ![Dublin11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Dublin11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dublin11)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/47 "2008-09-28T14:52:24Z")
My house was built in 1896; it’s certainly the oldest thing I own. ---
**Author:** ![3acresandatruck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/e79b87/32.png) [@3acresandatruck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3acresandatruck)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/48 "2008-09-28T16:41:42Z")
The oldest thing I can pin any kind of age on would be the limestone rocks that comprise the facing of my fireplace. They were quarried from the Plattin Limestone Formation which dates to the Middle Ordovician (about 461 to 472 million years ago). More to the point, I have a copy of _Kerney’s Catechism of the History of the United States_ (4th edition) from 1873, which originally belonged to my great great grandmother. There’s a jeweler’s workbench that goes back to the turn of the century, but the exact year’s indefinite. There’s a set of 25 volumes of _The Library of Valuable Knowledge_ from about 1913 that once belonged to a great-aunt. I have my great-uncle’s football helmet (well, headgear, anyway - it sure doesn’t look like anything we’d call a helmet today) from 1915. The oldest thing I own that’s been mine all along is a 50-year-old stuffed dog named George. Threadbare, lumpy, floppy, and eyeless now…but his nose still squeaks if you know how to squeeze it the right way. I have a 53-year-old car, but it doesn’t run right now. I have a 1936 Buick straight-8 OHV engine and a 1935 Plymouth flathead 6 engine. I don’t have the cars, just the engines; I thought they were neat so I nabbed them before they got scrapped (the cars were being hotrodded by friends). ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/49 "2008-09-28T18:10:25Z")
A godawful number of fossils that are likely in the 100MM+ range. A chunk of a meteorite which could be anything up to a billion years old. Limiting the discussion to manmade items: An clay oil lamp from pre-Roman times. Several coins from the empire. An 1600s letter of indenture written on leather complete with seal. Many old letters and diaries from 1700s and 1800s. I collect them. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Buttons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@Mr\_Buttons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Buttons)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/50 "2008-09-28T18:43:17Z")
An 1889 Silver Morgan Dollar Coin. I’m no coin collector, but when someone handed me that while I was working a cash register. I slipped that baby into my pocket in exchange for a paper dollar bill in my wallet. After cleaning it turns out it’s in Very Fine condition to boot. 😛 ---
**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, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/51 "2008-09-28T20:22:16Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > Edison wax cylinder player, ca 1904, IIRC. Ooooh, am I _jealous_! Does it still work? Do you have cylinders to play on it? There’s a couple folks out there who make recording blanks (brown wax, I think) and someday I would love to have an Edison player with a recording head and a box full of blanks… ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/52 "2008-09-28T21:54:59Z")
A sterling tea service and some silverware, the latter of which doesn’t all match because it came from both sides of the family. All this is from the late 1800s/early 1900s. A $5 gold coin dated 1900. Additionally I have a few pieces of furniture that my dad’s family had in his childhood, and a small bag of silver coins, mostly just dimes and quarters, but also including some old Mexican coins, and one really odd coin about the size of a quarter, having a dragon and some Chinese characters on it, and in English, “1 mace and 4.4 camarons” (or something similar). My brother has the drop-leaf side table that was transported across the Great Plains in a covered wagon, circa 1865. I have the 1934 Webster too, if you mean the giant unabridged one. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/53 "2008-09-28T22:05:06Z")
I have some atoms that have been lying around since a fraction of a second after the Big Bang 13 billion years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/54 "2008-09-28T22:13:49Z")
I have several silver dollars from the 1800. I’m not sure what is the earliest. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/55 "2008-09-28T22:24:12Z")
I have a 150 year old spinning wheel which, by the way, is still in fine working order (I just wish I used it more for spinning). I have several fossils in the 65 to hundreds of millions of years old range, including ammonites and various bits of amber ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_fight_the_hypothetical)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/56 "2008-09-28T22:28:49Z")
A carved Jesus (minus the arms) from a crucifix supposedly dating from the 1600’s. ---
**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/57 "2008-09-28T22:34:08Z")
I have a ceramic piece that was given to me by my grandfather as a wedding present. It was given to him by my grandparents on my father’s side on the occasion of my parent’s wedding. I think it’s neat. ---
**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, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/58 "2008-09-28T23:16:35Z")
> [@Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](#): > > A carved Jesus (minus the arms) Doesn’t that make him flop over? ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/59 "2008-09-28T23:37:35Z")
Besides me, a chunk of lava that I got from Mt. Etna and one from Mt. Vesuvius. A piece of the Great Wall of China that was brought back during WWII. A piece of window glass from a Roman ruin at Cimiez, Nice, France. Then a couple of books from the 1860’s, an advertising scrapbook from the 1890’s. Then several hundred vhs movies. And the cds. ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523/60 "2008-09-29T00:35:30Z")
Several 4.5 billion year old Gibeon meteorite fragments. Trilobite fossils - 300 million years, give or take a 100 million Some Roman coins, I don’t recall the exact age but it’s near 2000 years. Don’t have them yet, but one of us ( **madpansy64** is sister) will inherit a Civil War diary and a glass plate photograph thing. 1903 Springfield manufactured 1917. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-posession-you-own/465523.md?page=4)