Make an Ancient Letter

Making an ancient-looking letter as a prop, for craft or for display is easily done using household items.

Steps

First take a piece of lined paper and write an old fashioned letter written in extremely small cursive.
Write something like this or something else you want to write:
- January 3rd, 1843
- Dearest Mother,
- Against your wishes, Benjamin and I have married. Give my best hope to Papa and Mary and to the new baby boy. I hope he gets well soon.
  - Your daughter, Amelia Jane
Use a pan that you would make brownies in. Fill it with hot water.
Take strong tea. Fill the pan deep enough to cover the paper.
Let the tea cool almost to room temperature. Hot water will make the paper curl. That's not a bad thing, because it will infuse the color into the paper better.
Put a paper clip on each side of the paper to hold it under. You may have to move the paper clips occasionally to keep them from leaving stray marks. You don't want to go through all the effort of making paper to look old, and end up with paper clip shadows on it. Leave it in overnight.
Take it out and dry.

Prepare the letter first. Write whatever you need on a piece of blank paper. Add an old date.
Boil a little bit of water a small transparent pot. The transparency will allow you to see the depth of the color and you can add more tea if wished.
When the water starts to bubble and starts to dry, put in 2 tablespoons of tea. If it doesn't seem dark enough, add more.
Take the water off the stove. Pour it into a pan.
Hover the letter just slightly over the water. Do not dip it in completely. Instead, use a paintbrush to brush on texture. Dip in the tea tray and paint over the paper.
Allow to dry on a towel. When dried, the letter is ready for use.
- Touch-ups can be made using the paintbrush.

Use black tea if you don't want the coffee smell
You could also use instant coffee powder to colour the water.
Black ink works too, just make sure not to add too much ink, or it could possibly smear.
Dampen the paper and roll it in a very small, tight roll. Roll it side to side around something very small, like a ball-point pen refill. Let it dry overnight. Unroll the paper and lay it under a weight to flatten it. It should take on the appearance of faint, fine lines in the direction of the roll, mimicking laid paper.
Put the pan somewhere where it won't get spilled.
When writing the letter use pencil and press down hard on most parts, but not all parts.
Use regular tea. Not the flavored kind.
See if you can find a fountain pen. The old, inexpensive Sheaffer School Pen will do. Go to an art supply store that carries the cartridges for the pen, and buy brown ink. Old ink is made with a solution that contains tiny iron dust, which will show as brown after many years.
Use plain, unbleached paper. You may have to try different types of paper. If you can find the India Paper that is used in elementary schools, or crayon art, that works well. Either way, the paper should not be lined. Papers were not lined until the early 1900s, but was not in common use until after WWII.

Method 1:

Method 2: