A pair of jeans found in a wrecked 1857 shipwreck sold at auction for a whopping $114,000, according to the Associated Press.
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They are said to be the oldest pair of jeans in the world. White miner’s pants with a five-notch fly are among 270 gold rush-era items being auctioned in early December in Reno, Nevada.
There is disagreement among historians as to whether the pair of pants has a connection to the founder of blue jeans, Levi Strauss, who made his first official pair 16 years later in San Francisco.
Some say so, indicating that Mr. Strauss was a wealthy wholesaler of dry goods at the time, and the pants may be a very early version of what would become the iconic jeans. On the other hand, historian and director of the Levi Strauss Company Archives, Tracey Panek, says any claims about their origin are “speculation.”
However, regardless of their origin it is undeniable that the trousers were made before the SS Central America sank in a hurricane on September 12, 1857, where the object was found.