Old seed found in the shed

When we took over our plot, we found a lot of seed which had been saved from previous years' crops, by the last tenant. Some of it was marked with the year it was saved, and the type of produce. It was all bean seeds of various type.

Looking at the dates on some of the packages/old envelopes, (one said saved FOR 1999)I decided that they probably would no longer be viable seed, so I threw them all(along with some older seed we still had at home), into one large envelope, with a view to feeding them to the birds or something.

Any way, I asked on Allotments4All if this was possible by maybe chopping them up in the food processor and soaking them. Somebody posted back a suggestion that I should try putting a mixture of them onto wet tissue and cover them similarly, to see what happens. So......that is what I did last night. They are in a meat tray on the kitchen windowsill.

Now awaiting the results..................we shall see?