Featured Post an item you own that is rich with history but is nearly worthless

Got this note recently at an auction in a group lot. It is an authentic $10 Confederate note from 1865 but in this condition is nearly worthless, possibly worth a dollar or two to the right collector who likes a "bargain".

Post an item you own that is rich with history but is nearly worthless. As mentioned in another thread about the Ancient Indus Valley jar, just because it is really old doesn't necessarily make the item valuable.

Your Thoughts?

 

This had been identified as a silver sestertius from the reign of Publius Septimius Geta, a Roman emperor who lasted only a very short time. The coin dates within a year or so of 210AD. If it has more than nominal value, I'm unaware of it. (Was in a grab bag at a thrift store.)

 

This book was given to me by George Gloss (Brattle Street Book Shop) in the early 70’s. I was a frequent pain in the a$$ kid that pawed through piles of old books, ephemera and such in his shop. I lived in Marshfield at the time in a first period colonial home, when he gave it to me he told me to “watch out for the lightning when you’re in Marshfield”.
I didn’t quite grasp who Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff was until a couple weeks later as I was cutting through Memorial Hall at Harvard and noticed a marble plaque on the wall memorializing him. I was so excited when I realized he was once the mayor of Boston and the author of my book. I ran all the way to the book shop to tell George, out of breathe I practically yelled to him that NBS was the mayor! He was so sweet and acted really excited for and with me. The book doesn’t have much monetary value but George played a huge part in forming my obsession with history, antiques and art.
Inscribed by NBS in 1850 to H.G. Somerby, limited to 100 copies.

 

I own a fragment of a small Bible, its missing pages in the beginning, the end and in between its torn and cut so narrow that some text in the marginal notes is missing, the back is missing, ....

But the title of the new testament shows, that its a quite early octavo printing of the King James Bible from 1614. The first edition of the KJB was printed in 1611.

 

I don't think dick-pics are allowed.

 

Love your story Anund.............

 

ROFL AF!

 

Back to old books.

I discovered my 3rd great grandfather's copy of the Life of Franklin, published in 1818 and signed by him in 1854 (my 3X GGF, not Franklin ) when I was going through my mother's seemingly endless bookcases back in 2011. Had no idea it was even there. It has obviously seen many better days. Terrible foxing in the early pages, the ink from his signature bled both ways and the glue used to adhere the Library of Congress registration notice published in a newspaper(?) also discolored through a couple pages too. But the black binding and marbled end pages aren't terrible and I figured I should keep it for the family connection.

 

Where's the jewelry with Egyptian faience scarabs? I know we've seen such on these boards with disavowals of any particular value.

 

Marked down now in the souvenir shops of Cairo.

 

Who the heck in their right minds visits Cairo anymore??

 

I have my Mothers prayer book....given to her on her wedding in 1950.
For something borrowed, she lent it to many family members on their weddings, & each was inscribed in the book with names and dates.

 

That's why it's all marked down.

 

I have my grandmother's prayer book. I occasionally look through it because of the prayer cards. The other day I noticed that just about every card was of someone, family or friend, who had done something significant during WWII. Nothing for the history books, but risking your life to save other people's lives, or trading places with a family man on a concentration camp death list, is all more heroic than some people who do make the history books.
To me that little book is one of the most impressive books I own.

 

I have my father's diary from 1930. the year he was 18. Unfortunately, he wrote only dry facts, no feeling or impressions - except for the one page where he said he "realizes Mary's worth". Mary is my mother

 

But historians love this kind of thing as primary sources.

 

Ok, no scarabs, but archaelogical nonetheless.
Found by yours truly as a child. And of no value, except to me, fond childhood memories of roaming the fields around our neighbourhood.
Where I was born was once the location of a settlement of the Ahrensburg culture, ca 11.000 yrs ago. They were hunter-gatherers who followed reindeer herds, and lived in reindeerskin tents that looked like teepees.

The top one is of a type of flint which originates from Denmark if I remember correctly. Length just over 6 cm. Maybe discarded when the top (right) broke off?

The bottom one is a scraper made of reindeer antler split lengthways, it is petrified, length 10 cm.

 

Fossils. A little too much "weight of history" I suppose, but they're certainly old, and yours for picking up off the ground.


All you really have to pay is attention.

 

I nearly posted the tiny brachiopod I found in a pile of topsoil when I was a kid. It was loose, right at the surface. Pawed around in the dirt a good bit more, but only the one little treasure.