Besides your diamonds what is the oldest item you own?

[stracci2000]

I forgot to mention all the assorted fossils I have strewn about the house.
Here's a fish fossil from Wyoming, 53-48 million yrs. old, Eocene period.

 

[december-fire]

Looks like a fossilized Ammonite. If so, could be up to 65 million years old. They went extinct with the dinosaurs and are a distant relation to modern Nautalis. Its hard to tell for sure as the shell should be divided into chamber - -but that's been lost with time.

Wow, I had no idea it might be that old!
Thanks for the info.

 

[Gussie]

I collect Early Staffordshire pottery (pre-Victorian) and have several pieces that date to the late 1700s, probably 1790 or so. I am an avid antiques collector and also have tons of stuff from 1800s. Furniture, Majolica pottery, Limoges porcelain, antique jewelry, ... My husband and kids think I must have been born an old lady!!

 

[december-fire]

I own something that's 4.54 billion + years old ... The earth under our house.

Even then the planet earth didn't pop into existence from nothing.
It consists of stuff that existed before earth formed into a planet.

Seriously though I have a couple old things I'm gonna photograph when I get time.

@kenny , so while I was in the photos/wildlife thread, your post appeared. I replied.
But your post isn't there anymore. Now I just look confused. Accurate description of myself, but something I try to hide.
Anyway, come post photos in that thread.
Go outside for five minutes and take a photo of the sky. Bet it feels good to do so.


Thread jack over.

 

[stracci2000]

I collect Early Staffordshire pottery (pre-Victorian) and have several pieces that date to the late 1700s, probably 1790 or so. I am an avid antiques collector and also have tons of stuff from 1800s. Furniture, Majolica pottery, Limoges porcelain, antique jewelry, ... My husband and kids think I must have been born an old lady!!

Ooh! I love the Staffordshire pottery! I have a few old pieces from 1830s and 1860s. I also have a small collection of Wedgwood Jasperware.

 

[AprilBaby]

I just remembered I have a small piece of a certain place gladiators fought at in a large city in a country famous for spaghetti and a piece of rock from Carthage in Tunisia.

 

[Bron357]

I have a piece of Stromatolite, a fossil of the earths oldest known organism. 3.3 to 3.5 Billion years old.
I have some cool specimens.

 

[kenny]

Isn't everything as old as the universe?
Stuff just changes form.

Even me.
I wasn't started 60 some years ago.
I'm just a continuation of my parents' bodies via a sperm and an egg, as were they, etc. etc.
Throw in some food and water and you get what we call a new human being.
That I'm a separate person with a beginning and an end is a nice handy idea ... but just an idea.

Even the gold in those coins existed before the coins were stamped.

It's all stardust.
We're all stardust.

 

[VapidLapid]

oldest and most valuable;
my dusty soul
also some meteorites
and original printings of Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience
and a first edition John Brown's Body
everything else is just fluff
lots of fluff

 

[Snowdrop13]

A beautiful blue Delft tile that dates from the 1600's, bought from an antique shop actually in Delft!

 

[valeria101]

Isn't everything as old as the universe?
Stuff just changes form

'Guess we are talking about older forms ...

Stuff as it were at the beginning of the universe - that's a hard sell !

 

[ihy138]

Love seeing everyone's entries.

My oldest possession whose date I can verify is a Georgian mourning ring in memory of Charles Radcliffe, Esquire who passed away in 1817. I found it at Bell and Bird.

 

[dk168]

A mechanical pencil and a sewing kit that I have since I was about 11 or 12.
My dad's tea set and cocktail set will be older, however I have no idea when he bought them.
DK

 

[lilmosun]

C
$20 and a $10? hard to tell the size from your pic.

Wish I can give you some better news but it is something that I would sell for its gold content.

The $20 contains .96 oz of pure gold, so you take $1270 spot gold X .96 = $1219 for the $20 gold piece and the $10 piece is worth half that.

TBH, I would only pay $1200 for the $20 and $600 for the $10 and probably still can't sell em for a profit.

Interesting....my grandmother had a bracelet made from 2 1/2 $ gold coins from the 1850's. My mother always hated it and lamented how the jeweler devalued them by soldering the links directly to the coins...so much so that she just gave it to me when my grandmother passed away. After reading this, I looked them up and found that while that the mint value is only about 2x the melt value. Phew!

I guess the oldest item would be some old Roman glass beads which are pretty common and inexpensive...they make them from broken vases/artifacts found at excavation sites. The item I've owned the longest would have to be a baby bracelet that my godfather bought for my baptism.

 

[athenaworth]

My step dad gifted me his great-grandmother's china when I bought my house. I'm not entirely sure of the age but it has to be over 100 years old. The second is my house which was built in 1924.

 

[Rockdiamond]

My 1957 Gibson Les Paul Jr- same vintage as both Kenny, and me

 

[Dancing Fire]

@Dancing Fire
I guess it would be these two coins that were my late Mom's (I don't know anything about them).

C
Just to give an example here is a couple of $20 gold pieces that I would sell at $1250 which is just $20 over its melt content of $1230 based on the spot gold of $1282.

I know most people think that old common american gold pieces is worth a fortune but that isn't true b/c many of these gold pieces are coming back from Europe by the truck load.