# Your oldest possession **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 25, 2009, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584 "2009-12-25T21:53:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/21 "2009-12-26T03:52:10Z")
I have my 7 greats-grandfather’s will dated 1854. Plus a bunch of fossils. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/22 "2009-12-26T03:54:02Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > A fossilized trilobite from over 250 million years ago. If nature-made counts, I have a chunk of pirite… Man-made, the steamer trunk my great-grandfather bought when he went to medical school, c.1880. I’ve had it since I finished undergrad (1994), when my grandmother gave it to me. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/23 "2009-12-26T04:12:09Z")
[![](https://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff71/Drummerboy49/DogBank1.jpg) ](https://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff71/Drummerboy49/DogBank1.jpg) And we go _nowhere_ (“move”, I mean) without each other. Odddly enough, he never got named. Anyone wanna take a shot at it? No prize, just kudos. Thanks! Quasi ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/24 "2009-12-26T04:42:22Z")
The objects I have _owned_ the longest is my piggy bank or my stuffed rabbit, which my father brought me the day I was born. The oldest man-made object I own is probably either my grandfathers shaving kit (19th century), a book (also late 19th), or my 1896 Swedish Mauser. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Baldy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Gary\_Baldy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Baldy)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/25 "2009-12-26T04:48:45Z")
A Tribute Penny during the reign of Tiberius. ---
**Author:** ![rolandgunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cdc98d/32.png) [@rolandgunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rolandgunslinger)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/26 "2009-12-26T04:53:33Z")
My Gi Joe’s. I’ve had them since Christmas 1975. ---
**Author:** ![Mrs.Cake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mrs.Cake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs.Cake)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/27 "2009-12-26T05:25:24Z")
A necklace that is about 120 years old and half a dozen books from the mid to late 19th century. Also just got some very cool photographs of my grandfather when he was racing motorcycles in the early '20’s. Hoping to scan and post them and try to get more info on where they were taken. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/28 "2009-12-26T05:46:02Z")
Excepting things like fossils and mineral samples – well, I’m not sure, I have some coins and things from the 30s, some things of my great grandmother’s, an original copy of a report on an early project for the Montreal metro from the 1940s. The one I’d like to mention was that yesterday I was given a number of heirloom teacups that included one from the Queen’s coronation in 1952. ---
**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:** [December 26, 2009, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/29 "2009-12-26T06:12:54Z")
A brooch that was given to my grandmother on her wedding day: July 23, 1943. I pull it out and wear it three days out of the year: her birthday, my grandfather’s birthday, and their anniversary. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/30 "2009-12-26T07:30:14Z")
I have a flake of a nickle-iron meteorite that pre-dates the formation of the solar system, at 4.5 billion years. Yet all of us equal/beat even this, because we all have individual atoms in our bodies of heavier elements that pre-date the solar system, and in fact hydrogen atoms and protons and neutrons (or are hydrogen just one?) thereof that date back to just after the Big Bang. Unless you are a creationist and are not older than 6,000 years old. So I’ve got protons and neutrons dating back more than 13 billion years. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/31 "2009-12-26T14:25:57Z")
We have some Greek and Roman coins that are from about 300BC and 100AD respectively. Also a Roman bronze and glass finger ring from about 150AD. I have some prints from the late 1700’s/early 1800’s, a book of log tables from 1858 and a calculus book from 1861. The oldest furniture is our complete dining room set, which is from the 1920’s. ---
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/32 "2009-12-26T14:43:52Z")
The oldest thing I have is a Ruger Standard Pistol manufactured in 1968. Almost brand new compared to some of the stuff you guys have. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/33 "2009-12-26T15:00:36Z")
I bought for myself a small keychain 40 years ago this past summer which I have carried every day since. Still have a desk and night-table from my boyhood, which was my father’s, purchased for him about 1934. A book about 150 years old that was in the family. A prerevolutionary patch knife bought for me as an antique this year. A stone hand axe sold by a reputable dealer as about 20,000 years old. If I understand my cosmology right, I contain a few percent hydrogen dating from the big bang. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/34 "2009-12-26T17:06:55Z")
I’m typing this in a house built in 1743, so I guess that’s my oldest possession. My longest-held possession, oddly, is a (fake-for-tourists) samurai short-sword my stepfather bought me in Japan when I was eight. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/35 "2009-12-26T17:14:43Z")
A piece of Roman pottery, from about 140 A.D. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/36 "2009-12-26T17:46:43Z")
I have a small vial of “missing matter” from The Big Bang 😉 Seriously though, I’d say my oldest possession is the family heirloom Parker Brothers VH grade 12-gauge side-by-side shotgun made sometime in the late 1800’s, splinter fore-end, bright bores, and the case-hardening on the reciever is almost 100%, absolutely gorgeous firearm ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/37 "2009-12-26T18:05:28Z")
Some Roman coins of unspecified date. Other than that, some Morgan silver dollars from the 1800s in mint condition. My underwear. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/38 "2009-12-26T18:11:45Z")
I must not be doing this right. I’m 51, and have a bunch of hand tools I bought new when I was in college. So those are just over 30 years old. My executor will probably have to deal with them after I’m gone, so they’ll stay my oldest possessions. Other than those, everything I own is \<15 years old and probably 3/4ths of it \<8 years old. “Heirlooms” and “antiques” make no sense to me; that’s just a code word for obsolete stuff falling apart. Though the trilobite is cool; I’ve wanted to get one of those polished-stone-with-embedded-fossils things for awhile, but haven’t found the right combo of coolitude & price yet. ---
**Author:** ![Surly\_Chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Surly\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surly_Chick)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/39 "2009-12-26T18:26:39Z")
My house was built in 1750. I have some pot sherds and a bear claw from an archeaological dig in Albania (they were no longer in situ so of no value) but not sure when they’re from - it was a roman site so probably pretty old. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584/40 "2009-12-26T18:37:11Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I must not be doing this right. I’m 51, and have a bunch of hand tools I bought new when I was in college. So those are just over 30 years old. My executor will probably have to deal with them after I’m gone, so they’ll stay my oldest possessions. > > Other than those, everything I own is \<15 years old and probably 3/4ths of it \<8 years old. > > “Heirlooms” and “antiques” make no sense to me; that’s just a code word for obsolete stuff falling apart. > > Though the trilobite is cool; I’ve wanted to get one of those polished-stone-with-embedded-fossils things for awhile, but haven’t found the right combo of coolitude & price yet. This. I was greatly disappointed to find my TI 99/4-a sitting in a diorama of the late 70’s. I have one, in the original box, sans 2/3rd of the documentation, in my basement. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-oldest-possession/522584.md?page=3)