Rub dirty motor oil into nice clean shell beads, and voila, you too can have "antiques"......sometimes they actually smell like that......

Overall I agree with Rosanna, except my opinion is that something should be at least 1000 years old to be ancient.

And I always love Fred's perspective too.

The "vintage" designation has been messed with the most in recent years. Specific to our region, I think it has to do with a huge monthly flea market calling things 20+ years old "vintage" - and of course the internet influences things too. 20 year old stuff is all "vintage" on ebay and etsy. So by that definition I have a truck load of "vintage" beads bought new in the 80s!