What is the oldest thing you own?

[HisArpy]

In my case it's a late 1700's English tall clock. I have several old watches and clocks and things but that's the oldest.

Next oldest is another English tall clock - early 1800's. Then quite a few mid- to-late 1800's watches and wall/mantle clocks.

So, what do you collect that's old?

 

[Miles Long]

I think the oldest thing I own is an old floor lamp from the 1920s or 1930s. This reminds me I need to take it to a lamp store so they can repair the wiring.

 

[Farawyn]

My great great grandma's amethyst ring.
When I stopped wearing my wedding rings I needed a ring. It's a square cut, kind of large, in sterling silver. Not my style, but I love it.

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

[Farawyn]

I also saved my kids' umbilical cords and baby teeth.
But they are less than 20.

 

[coachdb18]

Ancient Roman pottery shards, there was a pottery mill on the site behind my home when I lived in Germany, got a lot of good stuff!

 

[midwestyankee]

My birth certificate.

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

[Blue]

The very oldest thing I have is an unusually spherical basalt rock from a 30mil year old lava flow north of where I am.

Not very impressive, so aside from that the oldest thing I can confirm the age of is my great great great grandfather's walking cane from 1907.

 

[SissySalina]

A pendulum mantel clock that's been in the fam for 3 generations.

 

[TheOldWidow]

A smaller 1" over all sized arrowhead, found in the field I was farming. It's a pink quartz, that's how I noticed it in the brown dirt. Meant for smaller game, birds?

 

[gracie920101]

3 complete Ammonites that are approximately 18-20" in diameter plus numerous 5-6" ones.
Silver dollars from early 1880s to 1920s.
My great grandfather's solid gold 36" watch chain but unfortunately the end pieces are missing so-just the chain.

 

[HisArpy]

One would assume that if the end links of the chain are missing, so is the watch. If so, that's a shame.

My oldest watch is in a 5 oz (very heavy) OreSilver case (this is just nickel by a fancy name). An 1872, 18 size (which means it's big) model BW Raymond by the Elgin Watch Co. It winds with a tiny key like a clock rather than by a winding crown (which it doesn't even have). It was certified for use on the railroad and was likely carried by an actual conductor or trainman just after the US Trans-Continental Railroad was completed in 1869. Very expensive in it's day for a working man's watch. The cost was something like 3 to 4 months wages or slightly more.

I have several other railroad grade watches besides this one. I like it because it's only about 7 years younger than the end of the civil war yet it's a marvel of microscopic engineering. And, it winds with a key which is always fun to explain to the curious.

 

[Conager]

Other than some (Cu,Al)2H2Si2O5(OH)4 ·nH2O that I am certain touched no other human hands but mine since its formation over eons of time, an 1895 couch.

 

[gracie920101]

One would assume that if the end links of the chain are missing, so is the watch. If so, that's a shame.

My oldest watch is in a 5 oz (very heavy) OreSilver case (this is just nickel by a fancy name). An 1872, 18 size (which means it's big) model BW Raymond by the Elgin Watch Co. It winds with a tiny key like a clock rather than by a winding crown (which it doesn't even have). It was certified for use on the railroad and was likely carried by an actual conductor or trainman just after the US Trans-Continental Railroad was completed in 1869. Very expensive in it's day for a working man's watch. The cost was something like 3 to 4 months wages or slightly more.

I have several other railroad grade watches besides this one. I like it because it's only about 7 years younger than the end of the civil war yet it's a marvel of microscopic engineering. And, it winds with a key which is always fun to explain to the curious.

Yes unfortunately that went to one of the sons and stays in their family.
J has his great grandfather's conductors watch. Elgin, of course. I can't recall exact year but 188? He also has a few collected and would be fascinated by your non-winder. I covet the one that is obviously a ladies watch (Waltham) as it's only an inch in diameter and in rose gold.

 

[Gotham_Central]

A fossilized fern leaf my Dad found in a working mine shaft about 300' down. No idea how old it is.

 

[HisArpy]

Yes unfortunately that went to one of the sons and stays in their family.
J has his great grandfather's conductors watch. Elgin, of course. I can't recall exact year but 188? He also has a few collected and would be fascinated by your non-winder. I covet the one that is obviously a ladies watch (Waltham) as it's only an inch in diameter and in rose gold.

I have one of these in 3/0 size. Fancy dial in a gold hunter-style case. Complete with a gold filled Chatelaine's chain necklace and the slide for it. I even have the original green velvet/satin box from 1910. It needs a cleaning and doesn't run at the moment.

 

[Blues]

A handful of Roman coins.

 

[Blue]

A fossilized fern leaf my Dad found in a working mine shaft about 300' down. No idea how old it is.

Any fossil at 300 feet underground is certainly in the multiple hundreds of millions of years old. Unless the ground has dramatically shifted due to an Earthquake, but since it was in a mine that's probably unlikely. So I think you win the oldest-item contest.

 

[MistressMoira]

A Victorian brooch.

 

[SquidProQuo]

Probably various wheat pennies I was given when I still was a numismatist (collected coins), as far as American stuff goes. I think I have old Chinese currency too, as well as a Roman coin or two.

 

[RubiDia]

An oil pastel of a circus clown done around 1940.

 

[RubiDia]

I take that back. I have some old bronze coins that I couldn't sell at a dealer.

 

[*professorx*]

Grandpas pocketwatch

 

[RubiDia]

So, what do you collect that's old?

Letters?