What is your most unusual / obscure rare collectible?

[gra_farmer]

The reason for this post is around a very strange competition that I entered in November of either 2013 or 2014, it was a Leatherman competition on Facebook, this is all to do with the Movember growing a moustache awareness for testicular cancer.

On the Facebook page there was a Stache-o-matic picture augmentation feature where you could put moustaches on pictures that you had uploaded onto account, of course being a fan of Leatherman products, and at the same time having a lull period in my university studies I entered.


I was luckily to be one of the chosen over the 2 week period of the daily winners, and the prize was a Leatherman ‘Stache’ bottle opener, now this is perhaps my most unusual and rarest item.

I contacted Leatherman about this and they said that only 40 of these were produced, and of that 40 only 14 were given away, and I was the only person in the UK to win one….. So quite rare

So what is your most unusual or obscure rare item that you have in your possession, ideally one that is internationally recognised, an potentially coveted…. I am interested to hear what you have and maybe even the story behind it.

 

[Wayland]

Tricky one to answer that.

I have many items that are hand made, many of them are unique which I guess makes them rare.

As for collectible, that is difficult to gauge.

I suppose the item that I have had most enquiries about, asking if I would sell it, is the Wayland Kista. One of a kind and not something I ever intend to repeat.

But I have so many unique items to choose from made either by others or myself.

 

[Toddy]

I spin, (that's wool and flax, not bikes !) and I was an Archaeologist.
I have a collection of spindle whorls from one end of the country to the other.
Folks hear that I have some and it's absolutely astonishing how many folks have found spindle whorls, just out walking, totally out of context, not in any way archaeologically relevant, and they've kicked about pockets and drawers for yonks. They're sort of tactile little things, and folks don't want to throw them away, but without context museums are rarely interested.
Then they find someone like me, and I find myself with a slowly growing collection

I have lead ones with Roman inscriptions, tiny stone ones that could be any period from Neolithic to pre-industrial (in Gaelic hand spinning was known as spinning on rocks and one presumes that was how the Picts and Brits referred to it too ) ones made from shards of pottery, Samian ware, from marble, copper, etc.,
The only wooden ones I have are modern, but surviving illustrations show distaffs and carders and whorls of wood. Wood rarely survives in our temperate climate, only in specific and rather rare situations.

 

[gra_farmer]

I spin, (that's wool and flax, not bikes !) and I was an Archaeologist.
I have a collection of spindle whorls from one end of the country to the other.
Folks hear that I have some and it's absolutely astonishing how many folks have found spindle whorls, just out walking, totally out of context, not in any way archaeologically relevant, and they've kicked about pockets and drawers for yonks. They're sort of tactile little things, and folks don't want to throw them away, but without context museums are rarely interested.
Then they find someone like me, and I find myself with a slowly growing collection

I have lead ones with Roman inscriptions, tiny stone ones that could be any period from Neolithic to pre-industrial (in Gaelic hand spinning was known as spinning on rocks and one presumes that was how the Picts and Brits referred to it too ) ones made from shards of pottery, Samian ware, from marble, copper, etc.,
The only wooden ones I have are modern, but surviving illustrations show distaffs and carders and whorls of wood. Wood rarely survives in our temperate climate, only in specific and rather rare situations.

I would like to see some photos if possible, particularly the lead and stone ones.

 

[MrEd]

I haven a few obscure collectibles - not sure all of them are internationally recognised though. Some of them are quite rare (and niche) in the UK (militaria). Lots of rare bits of equipment used by the Royal Observer Corps.

I do Have a piece of the space shuttle thermal tile though which is quite cool, and some early apollo era memorabilia

 

[Wayland]

I have a meteorite which is probably the oldest thing I own.

Possibly older than the Earth.

 

[Bishop]

Not the oldest thing I own but a tad on the rare side, a copy of the Babylon5 cookbook (human edition)

 

[Wander]

A RuneQuest ruler...

 

[Nice65]

Chunk of avocado wood from Guatemala. Heated by an erupting volcano until it went pop. I have a friend who goes over and pays the natives to help her gather them. The natives think she’s mad, they use them for firelighting.

 

[bobnewboy]

Chunk of avocado wood from Guatemala. Heated by an erupting volcano until it went pop. I have a friend who goes over and pays the natives to help her gather them. The natives think she’s mad, they use them for firelighting.

View attachment 60287
View attachment 60288

We saw those on the stand at West's Wood Fair a couple of years back. Very funky.

 

[mikehill]

I have a meteorite which is probably the oldest thing I own.

Possibly older than the Earth.

I have two myself ... both on necklaces. I still look at them in amazement. No matter what I buy of Earth value, they are still more precious.

 

[SaraR]

Ooo, that's really cool! I'd love to see some of them!

I spin, (that's wool and flax, not bikes !) and I was an Archaeologist.
I have a collection of spindle whorls from one end of the country to the other.
Folks hear that I have some and it's absolutely astonishing how many folks have found spindle whorls, just out walking, totally out of context, not in any way archaeologically relevant, and they've kicked about pockets and drawers for yonks. They're sort of tactile little things, and folks don't want to throw them away, but without context museums are rarely interested.
Then they find someone like me, and I find myself with a slowly growing collection

I have lead ones with Roman inscriptions, tiny stone ones that could be any period from Neolithic to pre-industrial (in Gaelic hand spinning was known as spinning on rocks and one presumes that was how the Picts and Brits referred to it too ) ones made from shards of pottery, Samian ware, from marble, copper, etc.,
The only wooden ones I have are modern, but surviving illustrations show distaffs and carders and whorls of wood. Wood rarely survives in our temperate climate, only in specific and rather rare situations.

 

[SaraR]

Not sure if it's a collectible, but I have some fossilised wood from a local clay pit and some fossil shark teeth collected when I did geosciences.

 

[Nice65]

We saw those on the stand at West's Wood Fair a couple of years back. Very funky.

Exactly where I got it.

 

[Robson Valley]

I like fossils. We don't have many locally but some world famous deposits of marine life forms (Burgess Shale, etc).
Good stuff up the ridge at The Whistlers sky tram but that's in Jasper National Park so no take.

Unknown history, just a best guess: it hung on the wall in my summer house, family trinket from some time, somewhere.
A pair of bison horns, joined on a little wooden plaque covered with a bit of denim cloth and a strip of thin leather.
I never paid much attention to it. Hanging downstairs here, someplace now.
The leather is covered with exquisite fine silk embroidery of flowers, Assinniboine-style. Maybe 1850's.

 

[Broch]

Very old, generally common, but very rare to me in as much as we found this one in the mudstone that makes up the hill we live on

We know keen geologists that have spent the best part of their lives looking for a UK trilobite