Ask Lemmy

I own some rocks that are likely billions of years old

I have three extremely good condition $2 US bills from the 50s before they started printing "In God We Trust" on them.

I own land. It's been there all along.

My house, built in 1880.

Petrified wood, about 225 million years old.

I've got some rocks on a shelf from the Permian. So a little older than 250 million years.

I have a pendant which is made of a tiny piece of Campo Del Cielo meteorite. It's several billion years old (4.5 according to wiki).

My birth certificate ☺️

A 17th century bible.

Blue Bear.

When I was maybe 3 (I don't remember personally, I heard this story years later), my sister who was 9 at the time had this stuff bear. Blue fur, not much special about it, just an average stuffed bear. One day I decided I liked the bear more, and declared it mine. I was 3, that's what 3 year olds do. A great fight ensued, but since I was the baby Mom told my sister to just let me have it. It was stolen a few times, and stolen back a few more times. And then hidden away for a great many years. Until one day in our 30s, going through my old toy box at my father's house, hidden under some old report cards and junk toys, laid Blue Bear. And a great fight ensued, only this time with words and the occasional hip check into the wall to grab and dash. My step mother stepped in to tell us the smarten up and just give me the bear. And that was the first time I actually appreciated my step mother for something. She bought my sister whiskey to make up for it, but we all knew who won that day.

Blue Bear now sits in my living room display case.

Your mom.

A tooth from a megalodon. Not sure how old it is exactly, somewhere between 3.6 million years and 23 million years.

1855 handbook from the freemasons detailing their rituals, imagery, ranks, and more.

What's left of my Bionicle collection.

My knees.

old as in the item's age or old describing how long I've owned it for?

first one is an enameled cast iron pot that my folks got decades ago, one of their folks had it - it's a really ugly 1960s orangish sort of red/brown. it's super old, but I've only had it for 5 or 6 years. damn thing is so ugly it just keeps getting passed down to whomever likes to cook.

2nd one is my can opener - got it in 1998, it's built like a tank. actually used to it hammer tent pegs into rocky soil when camping once.

License plates from 1925. I'm tempted to put them on my car in a year because they simply say 25 on them.

1929 My house
197X My keychain
1993 My first guitar
1995 My car

A cast iron pan that I inherited from my grandmother is around 100 years old.

Commemorative medallion from a battle in Sweden around 1640, cant remember exact year.

A chunk of amethyst mineral from Uruguay I got at a mining museum - millions of years old or possibly much more.

Little book full of German religious psalms and poetry, printed 1692. Not worth much really, but smells great and is fun to look at. Have to be careful with it though, quite brittle if still in good shape.

My grandfather founded a liquid propane company and I have the adding machine he used as a register. It may not be quite literally the oldest thing I own, but I consider it the coolest old thing I own.

The sides of it are plastic so you can see the mechanisms and it weighs a gazillion pounds. My wife hates it because we've moved it through three houses. I love it and will never voluntarily let it go.

A couple notable things:

1930s acoustic guitar

1880s-1890s cast iron scotch bowl

Family photos and photographic plates dating back to the Victorian

Hundred year old package of patchouli, which still has smell!

I think that would be the Pentax camera I have. It's from the 70's. Still functional, too.

Either the fossils I found on a beach in Estonia or rocks. Oldest man-made thing is maybe my antique closet from early 20th century.

A musical instrument (with some very old sheet music, an ancestor used to play piano for silent movies), a stamp collection (with lots of stamps, some from the 1800s).

I think... An old cookbook that belonged to my grandma before she passed away. Otherwise maybe a coin from Roman times.

My great-grandfather’s rocking chair. I don’t know the exact date, but it’s from the early 1900’s and was refurbished some time in the 50’s. Still in amazing shape and solid as hell.

Some old things I own:

1. A top I used to wear in school which I haven't thrown away because it still fits me and is in good condition. I have even worn it in recent times. It's close to 30 years old.
2. Last year I finally purchased a new laptop to replace my old one that I had been using since 2009.
3. I own a piece of clothing belonging to my grandma that she used to wear to parties. I wore it for a function in October. I don't know exactly how old it is, probably purchased in 1960s or 1970s.

A Japanese tea ceremony chest, which is mid-Meji period ~1890s and a book on hypnotism from 1906.

1958 suburban house

I found a 105 year old german artillery fuse cap with a metal detector some years back so maybe that. I have some old tools aswell but impossible to say how old they really are. Last summer I found a 100 year old coin too.

Coins, I suppose. I have some from the late 19th century so nothing crazy like the Roman stuff, although I'd love to have some of those ancient ones.

I have a decent amount of older family heirlooms, but the oldest thing that was only ever mine is probably my first passport. I was maybe 4 months old when I got it, and it definitely has the most/coolest stamps of all of the passports I've ever had. Of course I don't remember any of it, but I keep it in the hopes that someday one of my adult books will measure up.

Kitchen table is 1880ish? My mom got it from one of her first palliative patients who got it from their parents and had nobody else to leave it with when they passed. Use it daily and have it paired with some modern steel chairs ... it's a little eclectic around here.

I've got some straight razors as well. Pretty sure some of the Swedish ones go back to 1700s.

In daily use? My 1943 Epiphone Zenith arch top guitar.

I have a hand tool for scraping fish used by native Americans that I found in a sand dune in Florida. Quite old.

I’ve got a ammo box and a plane made out of bullet casing’s from World War 2 that used to belong to my grandfather.

My wife collects mechanical wristwatches. But since we aren't millionaires, she buys them in bulk lots online. Most times she'll get an interesting or semi-valuable watch or two. Usually broken or damaged in some way, but often within her ability to repair.

So. One day her watch haul included a double hunter pocketwatch whose maker's mark we weren't familiar with - "JW Benson". And inside the case was the text "Watchmaker by warrants to the Queen and the Prince of Wales."

Between those two, we managed to deduce that it had been manufactured sometime around 1880 (+/- a couple years. The company was bombed in WWII and a lot of records burned. IIRC, we had narrowed it to like a five year span, but the exact dates couldn't be determined beyond that)

Anyway. That watch - which still runs - is probably the oldest thing.