"How old is your oldest die/dice?" Topic

I've got a pair of white d6's from Avalon Hill's Richthofen's War that I bought in 1976. Some of you grognards may remember the slightly rounded edges with small pips. The faces have little teeny cracks all over them but they should be good for many years to come.
And you?

I have a d20 from '76, back in the day you paid extra for plastic designed to last. There are plenty of d6's stolen from AH games dating back to '72, I think …

Armory Mug O' Dice back in the day. Do the math. :-)

Grimm

@ 35 years. A GameScience D20 (well it was, now more a ball)

My personal set I still use is the same dice I purchased in 1987.

D6s from Avalon Hills "Starship Troopers" from 1978…in fact I still have some of the game sheets around…

Dice specifically for gaming, I still have my polyhedral set from red box D&D I got 27 years ago.

Rich

I have some wooden D6's from my parent's old backgammon set which would have been purchased in the late 1950's.

My oldest dice are 24 years old. D&D basic set dice with crayon shoved into the numbers to make them stand out.

I too have polyhedral's from a blue D&D box in about 1980.

I have dice from Avalon Hill games purchased in early 60's.

A full set of polys… 1979. I still got 'em too. Not only is the d20 looking round, even the d4 is looking haggard…

I have no idea. Potentially from 1958 when I started gaming seriously. Or maybe from an old Monopoly set when they started to put dice in them again after the war. I'm looking at my collection now and there is some wooden ones that look as if they came out of the Arc.

x42

An average die from the early 70s.

AH die from around '72, a set of polyhedrals from '78. The D20 has worn almost round and when last used in a group became known as the "die of death", as one died of old age waiting for it to stop.

I have a bunch of dice (all types) from over 30 years ago. Many of them had to be "marked" with the old dice markers so you could read the numerals.

I've still got the D6's from my TSR minigames (SAGA, Revolt on Antares, etc), and the dice in my old copy of Escape from Colditz. And I've still got my first ever poly dice, the cheap plastic ones from the Basic D&D set (Erol Otus cover)that you had to colour with the crayon that was provided.

The oldest dice I have are a pair of original craps dice – still in their protective foil covering with the guarantee on them that they are within 1/10,000 of an inch of being perfectly square from my Grandfather's casino which burned down in the 1940's right after it was seized by the government. (wonder how THAT happened?!?) I even have a few with the imprint of "The Mint" craps dice from the old casino – so gaming dice, but not GAMING dice so to speak. I also have one pair which I use on occasion for gaming in D6 games. So, these dice would be between 60 and 70 years old give or take.

100 years at least, it's carved out of bone, I got it at an antiques place.

20 years, still have the ones I first started with playing D&D

I have one pair that I have used since 1975.

Still have most of my dice from the early – mid 70s, including my D&D dice set, although the d20 is closer to a ball, Risk 5d6 (excellent, & no signs of wear), & my 2 wargaming average dice.

My original polyhedrals pre-date my getting into gaming. My mother bought a set as an "educational" toy and I think these are the same source that TSR used about 2 years after I got them when they rolled out the Blue Box. So, that had to be about 1974.

Other dice I have are from the 1950's but they were part of board games like "Skunk"

Wyatt

I wonder who bought those Roman era dice which were on auction at Sotheby's – and whether he will use the polyhedral die in gaming or just let it sit on a display shelf! Surely he'd win the "oldest" die contest – at least 1,500 years old IIRC.

A set of Zocchi polyhedra I bought when I started playing D&D in late 1977. Still in pretty good condition after 31 years.

D&D box set from 1979.

I don't recall where they came from, but I have a pair of wooden dice from a game by brother and I used to play when we were VERY young!!!!!!!!!!!

30 years…

We have a couple of D6's msde out of my sister's play bricks from the early 1950's. As for gaming dice, our earliest date to 1970 – they were the first D20 dice available to us in the UK.

Probably the wood "Parcheesi" dice from my parent's game cabinet… though, come to think of it, I may have given those back. But I definitely still have two sets of red Yahtzee dice they must have bought in the early '70s.

As for sure-enough-intended-for-wargaming dice, I have a set of polyhedrals I got circa 1979 for use with D&D (when it still came with chits). One bright teal-blue d20, randomly colored with black permanent marker to note the 11-20 range, one ecru d8, one black d4 (crayoned numbers), one bright green d6 with numbers arranged non-standard (not that it mattered), and a light blue d12 (though I think that may have come later…). And they still work!

A purple d20 that I literally found laying around a library in 1980. I still use for special occasions.

I suspect from 1974 and I still have them. Dice never get old, they just get better with age.

Mike

A pair of percentile dice from about 1974 or so. I also have one or two dice from SPI games from around the same time.

The oldest die I bought and still have was from 1970. It is wood painted red with inset gold painted pips.

The oldest dice I have was handed down to me by my grandfather. Five real ivory dice with black pips and they are in a leather tumbler cup. He used them in his late teens/early 20s to gamble. I am guessing around 1930.

I may still have one or two of the ugly, brown, uninked dice from the magenta-boxed D&D basic boxed set I bought at JC Penny's(!) in 82'.

But the oldest I have kept up with are the Zocchi 'gem' dice I got at the TG&Y (again, of all places; what ever happened to the day when you could buy minis at a department store/discount house?)soon after. I thought they were the coolest things *ever*, and I took care not to wear the edges (many polyhedrals having sharp edges then).

The dice pack had two backing cards stapled together, and there was a coupon on the back you could send two proof-of-purchases (how fortuitous!) in for a free Zocchi catalog, which I promptly did. It had a ringwraith on the cover.

Having no "serious" game store anywhere nearby, this opened up a new world for me, to be sure :D

I have 2 D6 from a 1939 Monopoly game that belonged to my grand parents.

Just a scootch over 20 years old – a set of Polyhedrons from the 1982 or 83 blue boxed set of Basic D&D that my folks got for me in Kintergarten. I still have most of them, although I'm sure I'm missing a few.

I've got the dice from an old wargame bought around 1975. The game is actually still around somewhere as well.

I've got bazillions of old AHGC D6s, plus my old D&D dice whcih came with the white box set. Oldest dice I still use are a pair of very, very old average dice. No idea where they came from, but they date back to the early 70s.

which ones? the ones with ROMAN NUMERALS or the one's with SANSKRIT characters on them????

actually…I have some 6 siders from my folks 'Yatzee' set that are probably 40? years old….most of my others were picked up between 76 and 82…(though I 'lost' my ZOCCIHEDRON, darnit!!!)…

Slishfully,
sgt DWW-btod

I really have no idea. Dice come, dice go.

I've a roman die made from bone which my other half got fir me while she was on holiday in York.

kutusov

Hmmm, first for me would have been the d6 that came with Avalon Hill's Panzerblitz, Christmas 1976. Years later when I started collecting a lot of old board wargames I picked up games with dice dating back to the 1960's.

First purchase of polyhedral dice for role-playing games would have been in the tiny games shop in Ipswich in 1981, which is also when I started buying wargaming and RPG miniatures.

A set o 5 d6's in a leather case , my brother found at a garage sale . I have had the set over 20 years

first D+D dice set that came with the game from back in 1978 or 79

wooden dice from 50's

1978- Avalon Hill's "Bismarck"
1979- TSR D&D Polyhedral Dice

Crappy flaking pale blue plastic ployhedrals from the early 80s are my first dice. I've probably bought old wooden ones from car boots that are older though.

Do the six dice in my Risk game from 1966 count? Wooden pieces, as well.

I do have some well-used 40 year old wooden dice around, but I'm trying to reunite them with their original board games.

I think I still have all but one of my first polyhedral dice from the blue box D&D set. They are awfully worn around the edges though, so the dice I actually use now include only new dice from the last 15-20 years or so.