What is the oldest item you own?

[bbbamI]

Great items folks!

I dug through my old pics and found this one. It cracks me up! The second guy from the left is related to me.
Not sure how old it is.....

 

[Poundkey]

I guess it would have to be a black powder rifle tilled out of the ground by a road crew near Medina Texas. All the experts I've shown it to say circa 1850.

 

[REWahoo]

I guess it would have to be a black powder rifle tilled out of the ground by a road crew near Medina Texas. All the experts I've shown it to say circa 1850.

So that's where Old Betsy ended up...

 

[tibbar]

I have a Cherry wood blanket chest made around 1800 by my Great, Great, Great Grandfather. The tree was so old the boards are one solid piece, each board is 18 inches wide in the finished chest.

 

[bbbamI]

I have a Cherry wood blanket chest made around 1800 by my Great, Great, Great Grandfather. The tree was so old the boards are one solid piece, each board is 18 inches wide in the finished chest.

I hope you can post of pic of it...

 

[freebird5825]

I also have a full set of green depression glass that was my MIL's.

i am currently working on filling out an incomplete set of Anchor Hocking Ruby Red (depression glass) glassware that we inherited from dh2b's mom. his sisters insisted we take it home as an early early wedding present from the entire family.
in my recent jaunts to antique stores, i occasionally see the green depression glass too. this stuff is very hard to come by anymore.

 

[Achiever51]

Several Morgan silver dollars, the oldest from 1882.

My grandfather's oak desk, built in 1904

Family pictures from the late 1800s, just before they immigrated to the U.S. and

my favorite of all, my grandfather's Polish/English dictionary that he brought over from Poland in 1902

 

[SecondCor521]

Not very many old things in my house. My ex kept most of the antique stuff.

I've ended up with the following, excluding photographs and rocks:

Octagonal Ansonia schoolhouse clock, probably ca. 1900
My grandfather's oak desk, probably built in the 1920's
My other grandfather's resume from about the 1930's

My sister got the old (1600's) secretary from my great grandmother. My parents still have some old family stuff also, some of which I may inherit someday.

2Cor521

 

[bruce1]

I have a few fossils that I have excavated from my swamp and used for decorations. The oldest man made objects would be some English coins from the 1600's and 1700's. Possibly the most interesting is an 1880's pump organ.

Bruce

 

[aaronc879]

I have a gold $1 coin from 1879 givin to me as a gift for my golden birthday.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I had an original NES until I moved.

I hadnt thought about photos...I have a picture of my great grandfather dressed up in his army uniform Probably 80 years old. At least.

 

[harley]

My grandfather's oak desk, probably built in the 1920's

Is it a rolltop? We have one (huge and cool) that belonged to DWs grandfather. The family was going to throw it out after he died. We took it, stored it until we got a place big enough for it, had it refinished, and it's my pride and joy now. Not sure how old it is, but we found a receipt from 1922 stuck to the back of one of the drawers, so it's at least that old.

Other than that, we have a piece of mosaic tile from Pompei that we found in a pile of debris while we were there. Don't tell the polizia.

 

[SecondCor521]

Is it a rolltop? We have one (huge and cool) that belonged to DWs grandfather. The family was going to throw it out after he died. We took it, stored it until we got a place big enough for it, had it refinished, and it's my pride and joy now. Not sure how old it is, but we found a receipt from 1922 stuck to the back of one of the drawers, so it's at least that old.

Other than that, we have a piece of mosaic tile from Pompei that we found in a pile of debris while we were there. Don't tell the polizia.

No, it's just a regular desk with three drawers on the right and a return on the left, light oak color, all wood construction, simple styling. The return is broken so one thing I'd like to do someday is get that repaired.

I like it because it's large and also of course because of the sentimental value. My grandfather handed it down to my father, who used it for many years, and he handed it down to me.

2Cor521

 

[Gumby]

Spirifer fossils from the Devonian period: 350-400 million years old

My house itself: built in 1857

A US penny from 1859 (it is silver in color, not copper)

A 13 star US Navy small boat flag from the 1870's

A 38 star US flag from 1877-90 (I have a whole collection of antique US flags)

 

[USK Coastie]

1840 - 1850 Damascus wound shot gun my great great grand father gave his son to protect the plantation when he went off to the civil war. Also a barometer from the same period worked good until the movers spilled the mercury out of it.

Anyone need a Commador 64 with floppy drive and disks?

 

[kyounge1956]

The oldest thing I have with a date on it came to me in an unusual way. Years ago as a college student I got to go overseas for a year. I went to the U of Bath in the SW of England, but between the terms I took a short trip to the Continent. The details are fuzzy (this was 30 years ago after all) but at some time during that trip, I attempted to buy something from a vending machine, which ate my money. Someone came to retrieve my coins and discovered that some previous user had put in a small odd-looking coin, which jammed the mechanism. I asked for and was given this coin. When I looked at it more closely later, it turned out to be an old Belgian 1-centime coin that was minted in 1887!

Probably the oldest thing that has been continuously in the possession of my family since it was made (my Mom has it right now) is our family Bible. The first entry is the marriage of my great-great-parents, in 1853.

 

[kumquat]

I have watches that belonged my father,FG, GGF, going back 6 generations. Oldest has a paper in it stating it was given to an ancestor, by his father, when he came to this country in 1830.

 

[ziggy29]

Oldest now, I believe, is a dime from 1840:

 

[freebird5825]

Great items folks!

I dug through my old pics and found this one. It cracks me up! The second guy from the left is related to me.
Not sure how old it is.....

cool picture! i looked up the derby (bowler) hat online to see if it could help date the picture. no luck...there's nothing else distinguishing in the pic to tell the year.

 

[Khan]

A 1937 class ring from Windham High School (upstate NY). My mother got it from a guy she dated when she was 15.

 

[Rustward]

Interesting thread.

Other than some fossils, minerals, and petrified wood, an 1876 quarter.

 

[travelover]

Oldest now, I believe, is a dime from 1840:

Wow! I guess I'll keep quiet about My PCJr.

 

[Urchina]

I've got a $2 bill from 1918 that came to me from my great-grandfather.

Also, I've got my great-grandfather and great-grandmother's pocketwatches. I haven't had them dated, but my guess is late 1890s.

I also have some antique ivory carvings of the Buddha and Confucius, probably from the early 20th century.

Oldest, though probably are some postage stamps from the early 1800s, thanks to a passion for stamp collecting I had in second grade (and never got rid of)

 

[Maurice]

I have the dollar bill (silver certificate) my Sister had in her hand when she went to the store in 1941 to purchase milk for me. She was hit by a speeding car and killed that day. My Father carried it in his wallet until the day he died - it was my only inheritance from him and I will pass it on some day.

Oh my! What a tragic story. How old was she?

 

[bbbamI]

cool picture! i looked up the derby (bowler) hat online to see if it could help date the picture. no luck...there's nothing else distinguishing in the pic to tell the year.

I went through some archived emails and found that John, my relative, was born in 1877. He looks pretty young, so I'd guess circa 1897.