40 old things people found that show how much times have changed

History has a way of coming back to bite us, but that’s not always a bad thing. It can actually surprise us with hidden gems like Victorian teacups with mustache guards, and nursing kits full of cocaine tablets. You know, stuff you never knew you needed but now you desperately want to get a hold of.

So if you want to get started on building your new wish list, then definitely check out these 40 interesting old things that people found while digging in the garden, cleaning up grandma’s attic, chopping wood, and shopping at Goodwill.

Careful though, not everything here is safe, like the international French sundial with gangster blades sticking out of it, or the door in the middle of nowhere that opens up a portal to the Twilight Zone!

1) Great grandpa’s purple heart

A nice couple found this purple heart in a foreclosed home and returned it to the rightful family. It was in a box labeled “trash,” which of course it’s definitely not!

2) This cute ol’ statue

Someone found this while digging around in the garden. It’s really old, but where it originally came from is kind of creepy.

“The archaeologists from the museum told him that it is probably from a grave dating back to 3-4000 years ago.”

3) These totally stylin’ keyholes

These keyholes have a very intricate design on them. Just imagine what the keys to open this must have looked like!

@KrisKrispyKreme:

“Bottom one looks like something you’d have to open for an Assassin’s Creed mission.”

4) “Found in the pocket of my grandpa’s WW2 bomber jacket.”

Cartoonist’s really had a snarky – and sneaky – sense of humor during WWII! These images of pigs with random markings actually folds up to reveal none other than the biggest pig of them all!

@Analyn Lahr:

“Shouldn’t insult pigs like that.”

5) “My late grandma still had her TV operating guide from 1962.”

It wasn’t just the instruction manual that grandma had. Look at that beautiful old clunker of a TV set!

6) “The filament of this antique light bulb is shaped like flowers.”

When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he just wanted some light. He probably never imagined that he was going to be the father of high art like this!

@NEHOG:

“Not a filament, but a neon lamp where the electrodes are shaped like flowers. They were pretty when they first came out, and are still a thing.”

7) “My barbershop still uses their original cash register from 1904.”

This intricate piece of machinery is absolutely stunning! The old saying that “they don’t make them like they used to” certainly applies here.

@Kozlow:

“That’s worth more than all of the money in it.”

8) “My grandfather had a miniature set of all of Shakespeare’s plays. It’s 111 years old.”

To be a tiny set of books or not to be… Regardless, it’s certainly a strange but amazing piece of history!

9) “I found this taped up in the toy aisle of Goodwill.”

This $3 gamble from Goodwill paid off. The person who found this didn’t know what this plastic Death Star toy did until he opened it up and the constellation light show began!

10) This sharp nub embedded in a piece of wood

Someone was splitting logs when they found this oddity poking out. He was stunned to discover that it was an arrowhead! The tree got into a tussle with someone in the past, but it just grew its thick skin around it.

@Manly-man:

“That’s an old Fred Bear broadhead. They started making those in the 60’s and some folks still use them. I have a pile of them from my grandpa, I use them with my recurve for practice.”

11) “My Great Great Aunt’s 100 year old nursing kit has a vile full of cocaine tablets and a syringe.”

This is every successful drug dealer’s (and maybe nurse’s?) dream collector’s piece! It’s an amazing piece of medical history, but all this tool on Reddit wanted to know was this:

@warpedcartridge:

“Can cocaine go bad/lose its potency?”

@sick_of_your_BS:

“Just put it in your pocket and head to the airport. If the dogs can smell it, that means it is still good. If not, it has expired.”

12) This weird statue will cut you if you look at it the wrong way!

Or it may just tell you what time it is in several countries around the world. It’s an old sundial that was built in 1935 in Mont-saint-odile, France in 1935.

@Ferret_Bueller:

“Looks like literally the worst place to land when you’re skydiving.”

@btribble:

“Don’t forget that every year, you had to get all your friends together to rotate the whole thing for daylight savings time, and then back again in the fall.”

13) These rubber looking things…

…are actually rubbers! Or to be brand-specific, they are (or were) Trojans. At around 60 years old, it’s safe to say that they’re not safe to use anymore.

@weareintheitchylot:

“Need to take them on Pawn Stars just so we can see what the 60 year old condom expert looks like.”

14) “Roman coin I found in France while metal detecting. Emperor Constantine I. Minted in Trier (Treveri) Germany. Bronze. ~AD 306-337.”

This old Roman coin is worth more than what it originally went for. If only all currency could increase in value like this!

@Protaco17:

“I just think it’s so cool that at one point long ago someone in history, although probably not significant, held the same coin you’re holding today.”

@7th_Spectrum:

“I like to imagine that they dropped it and later that day was thinking “God f*cking dammit, I was going to buy bread. Then it was never held again until the 21st century.”

15) “This antique American Pledge of Allegiance does not reference God.”

All American school children know that “one nation under God” is part of the pledge of allegiance. But that wasn’t always the case – those words weren’t added until 1954.

16) “Typewriter for writing music? WHY NOT.”

Do you ever wonder how sheet music was actually typed out before computers automated everything? Well, this 1950’s era typewriter answers that question.

@Bobert Robertson:

“Yet when I was taking piano lessons in the 90’s they made me draw it by hand…. nobody mentioned these existed.”

Twitter/mwichary
Source:

Twitter/mwichary

17) “36 Vettes from an 80s promtional ..one from each production year from 1953 to 1989 found sitting in a nearly abandoned New York City storage lot for about 25 years.”

This is both a car collector’s dream and nightmare all rolled into one. What a travesty that they’re being left to rot, rust, and gather dust!

@glong:

“WTF does a huge NYC storage lot cost per month!?! I hope he locked in to a good rate 25 years ago.”

18) “Found an old Monopoly set in the walls of my 1925 house.”

What a fun find! Notice the wooden, and not metal, game pieces in this Monopoly set?

@Justhe8ofus:

“1941-1946. Wooden pieces were added and metal ones removed, probably due to WWII.”

19) This lovely antique aquarium

Who wouldn’t want to watch fish swim around in this gorgeous Victorian-era piece? Unfortunately, the metals it was made from were quite toxic to the fish. Here’s some background info on it:

@iliveinlikeatown:

“People often used these to create artificial rockpools, much to the devastation of British coastal flora, as vast numbers of starfish, anemone, and other rockpool wildlife were collected from the coasts across Britain. Unfortunately, as several others have pointed out, the metals were often toxic but also they rarely had appropriate filtration, oxygenation and lighting which modern aquaria have, thus most of the animals collected died quite quickly.”

20) This old lunar globe

The map on this moon is pretty special. It’s so old, the far side of the moon remains dark and uncharted!

@manticor225:

“It would be cool if it were like old maps and it just said ‘Here be aliens.'”

21) Teacups for the dainty hipster crowd

See that mustached-shaped ledge on the top of this teacup? It was there to keep Victorian men’s hairy lips dry!

@Globularist:

“Sippy cup for the well to do.”

@RightIsTheName:

“That’s the thing Hercule Poirot would’ve used.”

22) “I found this old lightbulb in my Grandparents’ house finished in 1902 and it still works.”

It’s amazing that this old light bulb is still burning bright after all these years. But back then, they were just making them to last. These days they are made to break after a set amount of time for profit.

23) “2000 years old green serpentine stone mask found at the base of Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacán, Mexico.”

So this is going to be the opening scene for Indiana Jones 5, right? It’s already shaping up to be the best movie ever!

@Spartan2470:

“Archaeologists have discovered what they think are the original ceremonial offerings made by the builders of Teotihuacan’s Pyramid of the Sun before construction began around 50 A.D.”

24) “My Grandma has original Moon landing printing plates from the Time Magazine cover.”

Well, what is she waiting for? Let’s get some reprints made so that the people who don’t believe the moon landing was real will have proof that at was real at the Time!

@Wbrimley3:

“Her father in law was a scrap metal dealer. He apparently picked it up as scrap from Time but thought it was interesting so he kept it. They’ve been sitting in her basement for 50 years but when she moved she decided to hang them as a decorative piece.”

25) Old railway ticket to Willow Grove, Pennsylvania

This 130-year-old railway ticket that was found in someone’s barn. It’s stamped with the date: August 18, 1890.

@tarabt:

“…that ticket is still in good conditions! That’s awesome.”

@everymomentwonderful:

“I know! It was in the attic of a barn. I know the last owner moved here in the 60s or 70s, so it’s probably just been untouched for a long time. I’m afraid my touching it will make it break down faster.”

26) “This antique door from 1380 in Regensburg (Germany) helps finding the Keyhole after you drank too much wine.”

Drunk people’s keyhole. Now that’s a 700-year-old invention worth re-inventing for the 21st century!

27) “I found this cleaning out Grandmas house.”

What a lucky find! Sure, it’s worth money, but how many times do you actually get to hold an actual bar of silver in your hands?

28) “Grandpa still uses a decades old computer that still runs Dos, typing and printing and storing things on floppies.”

Those old floppy disk drives and DOS tho! Those were the good old days of computing. Does he still have a dot matrix printer that’s working, too?

@nallimy:

“Wordperfect 5.1?”

@SilverStar9192:

“Of course it’s word perfect. It was perfect, why would anyone need to change ?

29) “This page from an illustrated captain’s log from 1777.”

Check out the details on that ship and the thunderheads he drew! A captain, explorer, and artist all rolled into one – now that’s a true find!

30) “Old school Nintendo cards from my Grandma”

Yes, the very same Nintendo that makes video games actually made playing cards. They’ve been in production since 1902 and you can still get them today, but these are pretty close to being the originals.

@yalexn:

“These are called Hanafuda and are the cards Nintendo originally made. You can buy new ones but these are super old from my grandmother’s childhood.”

31) “Vintage forbidden candy identification chart”

This medicine/candy comparison chart that pharmacists used shows how they pretty much look the same. Anyone here get the sneaky suspicion that drug manufacturer’s actually did this on purpose?

@anonymous:

“Wouldn’t want to get accidental tums poisoning.”

@FiveHits:

“The only cure is to eat $20 worth of taco bell in one sitting.”

32) “Jackpot find at an antique market in Greenwich Village NYC. Poison ring.”

This is a very handy thing to have on your fingers when you’re in the mood to be a black widow. Or you can be nice and just carry some weed in there.

@ncognito:

“Please please please, use that for table salt and ask to season some stranger’s food.”

33) “Found three 1969 news papers about the moon landing in an old chest in the attic.”

Old newspapers like this don’t necessarily fetch a lot of money. The true value is having a piece of monumental history right at your fingertips!

@nightrainsmellsnice:

“Hopefully I get to witness an epoch like this in my life, like a Mars landing.”

@symbolsmatter:

“Nothing compares to the moon landing, for the very first time ever, a species left a planet and walked on another celestial object. Don’t get me wrong, mars landing would be an epic moment for humanity, but the first one is always special.”

34) “Found this coin in my gramma’s collection of old stuff. Turns out it’s from the year 1797!”

This coin was still pretty old when his grandma was a baby! A family could have probably bought a whole house with that.

@fuuuuuckendoobs:

“That’s a huge coin! Imagine having to walk around with a pocket full of those guys.”

@prpolly:

“That’s the thing about 1797, most people didn’t have this problem.”

35) “Vintage Freddie Mercury Queen Plate, 1980s.”

God save the Queen! Even though these plates weren’t meant to eat off of due to the type of paint used, I bet a lot of people would still totally eat off of this!

36) “Mom found my old McDonald’s food toys that turned into robots.”

Why don’t they make cool toys like this for kids anymore? These days all you get in a Happy Meal is a plastic blob of whatever the latest popular movie character is.

@anzeis:

“That ice cream became a milkshake.”

37) “Old European houses have a shoe scraper by the door so that you could clean the mud off your soles before entering.”

This may be low-tech, but all houses should be made with one of these by their doors! Even after all these years, street poop is still a thing.

@roter-jager:

“Actually that’s Jerry’s front door, don’t disrespect him like that.”

@unionjackless:

“Yeah we always called them mouse doors.”

38) “Found this old calculator in my great grandmother’s attic.”

Before we had Texas Instruments, kids were doing their math with this 1962 Magic-Brain calculator! But, there was no such thing as just pushing a couple of buttons to get the total. You had to use the attached stylus to physically add, subtract, and multiply!

@jazzphobia:

“Errr I know I’m not qualified to math, but I’m also not qualified to use this calculator either. I wonder how subtract works…”

39) “New Orleans still has horse hitches in various parts of the city.”

America may be a young country compared to the rest of the world. But, it still has parts that hark back to the olden days when people rode into town on horseback!

40) “I found a door (and nothing else) on an abandoned beach.”

Better listen to see if you can hear a voiceover in the wind. If it sounds anything like Rod Serling, you’re obviously in the Twilight Zone!

@brainyreaper4:

“If you put a letter in that mailbox, someone can read it two years ago.”

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