What is the oldest thing you have in your house?

[hbk4894]

the oldest thing i have is a cook book that i have had since 1990/2000 , also have school reports from primary school so 2001/2002 , also have my high school reports from 2004 and a cook book they give you in high school from 2004.

 

[gleem]

I'm pretty sure it is me.

 

[dipole]

A fossil that must be in the 100 million year range.

 

[zoobyshoe]

A fossil that must be in the 100 million year range.

I'll see your fossil and raise you all the matter of everything I own, which is probably as old as the Universe itself.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I have an 1851 edition of a school boys Latin-English dictionary.

 

[phinds]

I'm pretty sure it is me.

Yep, me too

 

[wolram]

I have some Roman coins.

 

[diogenesNY]

Probably some really cool rocks that I have picked up off the ground or dug up from a nearby railroad cut: North Carolina citrines, smoky quartz, rose quartz, some really pretty granites and some other really interesting rocks. Mostly metamorphic.

diogenesNY

 

[Orodruin]

I'll see your fossil and raise you all the matter of everything I own, which is probably as old as the Universe itself.

I could have sworn I had some hydrogen atoms lying around ... Of course, it is difficult to tell if they are really that old or if they are just recent copies from cosmic rays ...

 

[Ophiolite]

House: 180 years old
Fabric of house: granite stones, 400 Ma
Content natural: Lewisian gneiss samples, approximately 2,500 Ma
Content manufactured: the 10th Edition of Darwin's Journal During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle Round the World, and The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle, both published in 1891.

 

[Mark44]

I have a few things that are older than I am:

• A book on differential equations with a copyright date of 1897 (1904 printing)
• A Boy Scout handbook from about 1920
• An "regulator"-style clock that my wife got from her father - no telling how old that thing is

My oldest motorcycle is a bit younger than I am, 1946 Harley Davidson WL

 

[leroyjenkens]

I'm sure I have some US coins that are almost 100 years old.

 

[Astronuc]

I have some old coins, but other than those, I'm the oldest thing in the house - well except for the house itself.

 

[osotou]

I'm afraid for me, it's just cockroaches. I mean, not these in particular, but they've been around for 320 million years or so!

 

[ABDUL RAFAY]

Being every thing made of atoms, everything of house would extend back to the existence of Earth which is origin of every matter.. Even before the Earth it was the part of sun..

 

[turbo]

I have some native American stone artifacts. Spear point and some arrowheads. They are tucked away in a sturdy safe - not that thieves would have any clue what they are.

 

[davenn]

I have some Roman coins.

yup likewise
will see if I can "dig" them up for a photo

here is one of the older fossils from my collection
A trilobite from ~ 350 Ma

Dave

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I have a 3 cent Victoria coin from 1889, but I can't find any information about it.

 

[davenn]

ahhh found them :)

 

[zaria]

The oldest thing I have in our house is a cassette player from my aunt during 80's.

 

[davenn]

OK some more really old things I have ...

meteorites ... here's a link to my www site with pix and info on them

http://www.sydneystormcity.com/meteorites.htmcheers
Dave

 

[BobG]

I have a can of garbanzo beans in my pantry that expired in 1963 (have no idea when it was bought).

Funny thing is I've always wondered why I always seem to have a can of garbanzo beans in every house I've lived in when I don't even know what they're used for. All this time, it must have been the same can.

 

[Orodruin]

I have a can of garbanzo beans in my pantry that expired in 1963

I don't even know what they're used for.

Garbanzo is just Spanish for chickpeas. They can be used in soups, stews, or salads. You can also make hummus from them. I would say this calls for an experiment!

 

[nuuskur]

An old "Raketa" vacuum cleaner from the 70s if I'm not mistaken. Made in CCCP :D

 

[russ_watters]

After subtracting the rocks and coins and prints of old photos* (who doesn't have them?), I didn't think I had anything interesting, but then I remembered the next oldest is probably the nightstand my dad made in junior-high woodshop. He'll be 71 next week.

*Still, the photo of my great-great-great grandparents and family hiking in full 3-piece suits and dresses is pretty cool.

 

[dlgoff]

I'd like to see pics of some of the goodies.

 

[DennisN]

I'd like to see pics of some of the goodies.

Me too . E.g. Roman coins would be nice to see... and old books/equipment. Pictures, please...
EDIT: Oops, sorry, I just noticed some have posted photos already in the thread, very nice, very nice!
EDIT 2: I like history, but I don't think I have any remarkably old stuff lying around, but I will think about it, and post a picture of the oldest thing I've got. I guess it might be a stamp or some book, we'll see, I have to think about it for a while...

 

[DennisN]

Ok, had a look in the archives . The oldest (manufactured) thing I've got is probably this stamp, a four schilling banco blue, from 1855 (and part of the first issued stamp set in Sweden). The picture reveals that it was stamped in 1858 (stamp is upside down):

It's not worth a fortune, less than $100 if I remember correctly. Regretfully it's not the famous Treskilling Yellow (but it is from the same set of stamps).

I also looked through my books, and the oldest book(s) I've got is coincidentally a set of six history books (Swedish history), printed in 1877. They are in pretty good shape. I bought them (a real bargain) because I liked how they look. Here they are (and the bottommost photo shows they were printed in Stockholm 1877):

As a sidenote I know that the history book set is worth more than the stamp above (but not a fortune).

 

[e.bar.goum]

I'm fairly sure the oldest thing in my house is a rather nice piece of Banded Iron Formation that is about 2.4 billion years old. (It's hard to get a good date, but BIF's were abundant around the time of the great oxygenation event).

(Banded iron formation is just about the coolest rock out there, IMHO).

 

[zoeschmoe]

I think probably photos from around 1930 I think :)

 

[DennisN]

A sidenote to my previous post: While I was looking through my "archives" I found some science memorabilia from the 60s and 70s, I thought I might share another two photos I just took, since some thread readers may be interested in both science and history:

• First Man On The Moon/Moon Landing, First Day Cover (USA, 1969) - http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7620/16879655709_59fea3138f_b.jpg
  
• A couple of Nobel Prize First Day Covers (Sweden, 60s - 70s) - http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7597/16443431334_186be1d428_b.jpg

Just a sidenote though. I hope to see more photos of various old things from more members in this thread...

 

[Bandersnatch]

Spoiler

That is the oldest thing. Not just in my house, it is THE oldest thing. It was given to me just after I was born, and as far as I know the world hadn't existed before.

 

[Doug Huffman]

A fossil commonly found on my Niagara Escarpment property.

 

[Pythagorean]

Probably rocks my daughter brings in. Then... me I guess @ 34 years

 

[lisab]

Spoiler

View attachment 81625

That is the oldest thing. Not just in my house, it is THE oldest thing. It was given to me just after I was born, and as far as I know the world hadn't existed before.

That's adorable!

 

[PWiz]

I get a few million year old photons in my house every other night. But they don't stay :(

 

[AdityaDev]

My grandfather...
I was joking.
I have a cupboard which is more than 150 years old.

 

[BobG]

Probably rocks my daughter brings in. Then... me I guess @ 34 years

Rocks definitely aren't the oldest thing in my house.

I have three rocks that are 13 1/2 years old. I plucked them from a hole on Mt Etna shortly after its eruption. They were still very warm, even though solid.

I have a slide rule that's around 70 years old.

(We were hoping to take the chair lift to the peak. We didn't speak much Italian, but were eventually able to get the idea that the chair lift was closed that day. We exited the opposite side of the building we entered and saw the lift supports laying on the ground, having been toppled by the flowing lava. We were then able to deduce that the lift would probably be closed tomorrow, as well.)

 

[CWatters]

I have a rock from Vesuvius somewhere.

My father was there with the RAF soon after the eruption in 1944. We all climbed up in the late 1960's when I was about 8 years old. I went back to the area with my kids in 2003. I believe it's overdue for another eruption.

 

[zoobyshoe]

ahhh found them :)

View attachment 81538

Not to hijack the thread, but, hijacking the thread here, what does an "Ancient Roman Starter Pack" cost, and, that price being the case, are Roman coins worth more, less, or about the same as they were when originally minted?

 

[davenn]

gosh ... .from memory that pack of 11 coins cost me somewhere around AU$10 - 20 ... it wasn't a huge price to pay for some really old coins :)Dave

 

[Lisa!]

Dust on my desk

I have a 3 cent Victoria coin from 1889, but I can't find any information about it.

I can help you but I need to keep them for a while!

 

[zoobyshoe]

gosh ... .from memory that pack of 11 coins cost me somewhere around AU$10 - 20 ... it wasn't a huge price to pay for some really old coins :)Dave

So, I wonder what the modern buying power is compared to the ancient. When I saw that "Starter Pack," it occurred to me that there must be so many Roman coins still in existence that they are not particularly valuable at all. Given the 11 coins, the bulk of what you paid was undoubtedly for the silver one. But what you're really paying for is for someone to grade them, package them up, label them, advertise them, and ship them.

 

[DennisN]

gosh ... .from memory that pack of 11 coins cost me somewhere around AU$10 - 20 ... it wasn't a huge price to pay for some really old coins :)
Dave

Thanks to this post, I'm seriously thinking of getting such a pack, I really like such kind of things (by the way, I just googled for "Roman coins starter pack", and this thread came up as #4 on the list ).

 

[Cruz Martinez]

The oldest things in my house are this coin from 1943 and this watch whose date is unknown to me, but it surely is older than anything else around here (if anyone knows how to date a pocket watch let me know :D).

 

[thankz]

I keep it at my mothers house, got it when I was 2.

 

[Mark44]

I have a can of garbanzo beans in my pantry that expired in 1963 (have no idea when it was bought).

Funny thing is I've always wondered why I always seem to have a can of garbanzo beans in every house I've lived in when I don't even know what they're used for. All this time, it must have been the same can.

Garbanzo is just Spanish for chickpeas. They can be used in soups, stews, or salads. You can also make hummus from them.

BobG's garbanzo beans are so old, it would probably be better to make humus out of them.

 

[Mark44]

ahhh found them :)

View attachment 81538
According to the description in the paper for davenn's Roman coins, one of them is a silver denarius. Of interest, at least to me, is that if you buy nails at the hardware store, they will have sizes like 12 penny and 16 penny, but written as 12d and 16d. The 'd' in the size has its roots in the Roman coin, denarius. In England before about 1488, the penny size was the price, in pennies, of 100 nails of that size (http://sizes.com/units/penny.htm). Oddly enough, the "100" here was actually a so-called "long hundred" which was actually 120, at least according to this site: http://sizes.com/units/hundred.htm.

When I was in Yugoslavia in 1974, the basic unit of currency was the dinar. You can guess where that word came from. It's still the currency in Serbia and Macedonia (denar), but the other former provinces have different currencies, now.

 

[davenn]

According to the description in the paper for davenn's Roman coins, one of them is a silver denarius. Of interest, at least to me, is that if you buy nails at the hardware store, they will have sizes like 12 penny and 16 penny, but written as 12d and 16d. The 'd' in the size has its roots in the Roman coin, denarius.

Cool
love hearing about these oddball things ... thanks MarkDave