The oldest I can think of is a Bayonet from a French rifle back in 1800's. I don't currently have a picture of it but it was designed so it could be taken off and used as a stand alone weapon with a small hand guard and handle. Looks like a long slender short sword but is only sharp at the tip. It's very similar to this pic I found on line.
She just turned 57 her last birthday. Thought about trading her in on a new model but, I'm afraid that I'd end up dead.
------------------ Ron
Isn't it strange that after a bombing, everyone blames the bomber, his upbringing, his environment, his culture, his mental state but … after a shooting, the problem is the gun?
My Uncle Frank was a staunch Conservative and voted straight Republican until the day he died in Chicago. Since then he has voted Democrat. Shrug
I think WillieGoat wins! Hahah... I definitely can't beat that.
I have a couple of cool things that I've gotten from family over the years.
The oldest thing is probably a ~1780 US half-penny... might be ~30 years off, give or take. Beyond that, I've got some very old books from the 40s and 50s, usually about communism and populism (due to my grandfather's work back in the day). I've also got my grandfather's WW2 bayonet. But he was in the NAVY, so not really sure why he has an Army bayonet, maybe got it from someone.
I have some US Calvary harness chain that's been dated to the late 1800s and a hand operated corn mill that's about as old. Several pieces of horse drawn farm machinery from early 1900s. Quite a few coins from different places--a gold Mexican 8 Escuado coin (replaced later by Peso) . A roman 'year 2' (133/134 AD) Bar Kochba Bronze. Very worn (more so than the image below) but has been verified as authentic--worth about $200 USD last time I checked. Looks a little worse than this one:
Oldest item tho, is a little coin--An old Asian King Gondophares1 era tetradrachm (actual denomination unknown) that dates from the Partian Empire--estimated date is 20 BC. Surprisingly (to me anyway) it is only worth about $40 USD. Looks similar to this one:
A friend gave me a set of mule hames that had belonged to his grandfather in the late 1800's. I have a lot of early to mid 1900's "stuff" that I use in my history class for the kids to have something to touch- Old department store 'interphones' from the 1920's, WWI and WWII military artifacts, German military 'field telephones', air-raid 'black out' lamps from England, etc... One of my favorites is a Telechron wall clock from the early 1940's. When a friend was cleaning out his parents' home, he found it and remembered that it had hung in his father's machine shop from about 1942 until the late 1970's. Most of my stuff has no real monetary value, but worth a lot to me because of the history that comes with it.
[This message has been edited by Cooter (edited 04-18-2015).]
I found a crab fossil when I was walking on the beach of Ship Island, off the coast of Mississippi. Denver Museum of Nature & Science dated it to be about 50 million years old.
I have a chair that supposedly came from the estate of Massachusetts Governor Winthrop back in the 1600s. He was supposedly some sort of distant relative on my mom's side.
On a side note, Governor Winthrop's other claim to fame was that he brought the first fork to the Colonies, back in the early 1600s, perhaps laying the groundwork for America's obesity epidemic. Maybe they ate with their fingers before that?
I have an 1860s? not sure exact age but it was originally a flint lock and sometime during the civil war it was turned into a cap lock muzzle loader rifle.
Melanie has a bunch of first edition books that date back somewhere around that time as well but I bet if you ask her that question she will say the oldest thing she owns is Me, she has always said I am older than dirt.
Steve
------------------ Technology is great when it works, and one big pain in the ass when it doesn't
Detroit iron rules all the rest are just toys.
[This message has been edited by 84fiero123 (edited 04-19-2015).]
Not too much else. The house came with an upright piano, ca. 1920s, and I have my grandparents' bedroom set, also estimated 1920s (My mother remembers them from when she was young).
Just remembered, I've got a 20 gauge shotgun, says Black Prince on it. Was given to me by one of my Dad's best friends who was about twenty years older than him. He told me it was his dad's gun, his earliest memory was of it hanging on wooden pegs above the door of their log cabin in Missouri. His dad made and sold shine so, I'm sure it was some what useful. Anyway, it's about a hundred and ten or twenty years old. Not sure if it's worth it's weight in scrap but, it's got sentimental value to me. Looks like it could be fired but, I honestly don't have the balls to try. I value what few years I've got left.
------------------ Ron
Isn't it strange that after a bombing, everyone blames the bomber, his upbringing, his environment, his culture, his mental state but … after a shooting, the problem is the gun?
My Uncle Frank was a staunch Conservative and voted straight Republican until the day he died in Chicago. Since then he has voted Democrat. Shrug
I've got a small chest of drawers my great-great-great grandmother brought with her when she settled in Minnesota in the 1850s. My sister now has one of the other pieces of furniture she brought out with her..... A china buffet/hutch with silver castings and wood carvings that bear Paul Revere's markings on it.
I have a trilobite fossil I found on the shore of Lake Champlain, in Vermont, close to the Canadian border. They disappeared over 250 million years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilobite The next oldest things I have are some Onyx arrow heads I found in Mexico while camping.
[This message has been edited by avengador1 (edited 04-19-2015).]
An old roman coin. An 18kt gold pocket watch. There is an inscription inside in German, don't know what it says, and the date 1879. Still runs and keeps good time.
.JPG)
ooks similar to this one:
