The Urge To Collect
Ancient Coin I don't know how many of you are into ancient and/or strange objects, but I have always had a fondness for them. I don't have anything that is worth money, but I do have some things that evoke memories. For example I purchased a bag of ancient coins that came right out of the ground. Do you think it was expensive? Think again, I paid about $20 for them and they included not only ancient Roman coins, but also some ancient Greek ones. About the worst thing that one can do is clean these things with Brillo, or steel wool because that really deflates their value, but I wanted to clean them so that I could frame them and they could be easily seen, after all none of the coins were valuable anyway. I took five of them, some ancient Greek and some ancient Roman and framed them and I still get a kick looking at them because I realize that thousands of years ago there were people actually using these coins. Those tiny pieces of gold jewelry that were found in Columbia, in South America that date back to somewhere between 200 – 400 AD and have the flight characteristics of airplanes have always interested me. I managed to find a place on the Internet that had an exact reproduction of one that came from the original mold. It wasn't gold, but silver with gold plating, but I wanted it and was very happy to get it for only $35.00 plus shipping. It is a fascinating piece and the design has been tested and models made from upscale measurements of the original and they fly perfectly. Experts have said that to get flight characteristics like this by coincidence is impossible and that engineers that understood flight had to have designed the planes that this was an exact copy of in miniature.
Small Egyptian Statue There is a small statue called a shabti statue that is found in many ancient Egyptian tombs. There are so many of these states that if you know where to find them, you can actually buy an ancient one for about $125. I wanted one for quite a while, but the wife doesn't want anything that came from a tomb and I guess I can not blame her. She puts up with all my nonsense, so I have no complaints. Anyway guess what one of my children gave me for a present. A reproduction of a shabti statue. It is another exact replica and no, it was never in a tomb, so the wife has no complaints. I personally am not worried about things that came from tombs, but I think that she feels that somehow we are tempting fate by getting something like this. Maybe she feels that way because of all that we have heard about the King Tut curse? It is not only old and ancient things that I like, but modern things that commemorate a huge event in the history of mankind. One of the walls in my den, where I am writing this article, is covered from corner to corner with a huge photo on vinyl stock of the Columbia Space Shuttle. It has been up there since the shuttle Columbia first flew. It was purchased as a mural from Edmund Scientific and everyone that sees it is blown away. Now when I look at it I am sad to think that it blew up killing everyone on board. When I first put it up it was a happy moment. It is surprising how something that makes you happy one moment, can make you sad the next. The mural is very clear and the shuttle is about 6 -7 feet long on it and you can just about see the stars on the American flag on the side. Before shuttles there was Apollo. I had always wanted something to remember the moon landing by, but only managed to get a first day cover from the post office, of the landing years ago that I framed. About 20 years after that I just happened to come across an offer from the Smoky Mountain Knife Works. It seems that the astronauts had carried a long knife to the moon that was made by Case and was almost the size of a machete. It just so happened that Smoky Mountain had more of the same knives from the same company for sale. The knives came with a mounting that looked like the moon and had the LEM and an astronaut painted on them and had a place that held the knife so the setup could be mounted on the wall. The knife itself has the flag, the LEM and an astronaut on the surface of the moon with the words, “FIRST STEPS ON THE MOON JULY 20, 1969”. This was a must have and I got it for the bargain price of around $49.
Pez Star Trek Crew I have talked about this before, but I will mention it again. I am the world's oldest Trekkie and I have maybe 30 Star Trek items that I have held on to. Only one piece is worth anything to my knowledge and that is the Hallmark ornament of the original Enterprise. The last time I checked it was selling for about $300. The rest of the objects just make me feel good. I have several new Hallmark Christmas ornaments of Star Trek ships, such as a shuttle and a newer Enterprise, an Enterprise telephone, a shuttle tap holder, a Federation Academy ring, a remote control that looks like a phaser, the crew of the Enterprise in Pez holders, the catalogs from the big Star Trek auction that was held a few years ago. I couldn't afford to bid on anything, but I sprung for the catalogs and they cost me $75. Now that you know the price of the catalogs, you can imagine what the items went for. I have a Star Trek computer game, I have a Star Trek mug, watch and even a Star Trek LP record. Why do I collect all these things? I collect them because I can feel the history in them, even in the Star Trek objects. After all Star Trek led to many new ideas that became everyday objects, like cell phones for example. I do have some other ancient things, but they only have meaning to me. I have some rocks that were found on the ground that had been parts of castles and ancient buildings. Even though I am old now, my desire for these things has never lessened. When I look back on my life I realize that I was always a collector. I had a nice stamp collection for many years and had become a dealer. I only gave it up when I could no long afford the stamps that were left that I didn't have. I think that there must be something in many humans that gives them pleasure collecting things and I am one of those people. |
