"Old" bottle of Ballantine's???

[cjkdad]

Hi all, I'll attempt to not sound like a complete internet moron here, but I have never used a "Forum" to discuss things before, so if I'm violating any sort of rules, i apologize in advance.
A friend of mine said to me the other day,"Hey, you like Scotch, right? Well, here you go then..."

His father had passed about 5 years ago, and he had this in his liquor cabinet. My friend hates anything whiskey related and thought I'd like it. So... I took it. Duh.

It's a bottle of Ballantine's that is in a clear rectangular bottle with a rectangular glass stopper for a lid. Any idea what years these came out? I can't find anything on the interwebs or the google. I want to open it out of shear curiosity but am afraid to as if it's something that I should open at my last meal before I get the chair or something.... I'm not on death row yet, but weirder things have happened.

Thanks for any responses.

[whiskgeek]

Check some whisky auction sites, and see if anything like that is offered. That might give you an idea of the monetary value. I suspect that the monetary value of a common brand like Ballantine's is higher than the flavor value. That is, the collectors would value it higher than drinkers, and this due only to the relative rarity of the decanter presentation.

[corbuso]

without any photographs, it is not possible to tell...