In the if-your-spouse-thinks-coin-collecting-is-bad-show-them-this! department, here's an article on "43 People Who Collect The Weirdest Things Ever". Thanks to Martin Kaplan for passing this along. -Editor

Everyone's least favorite has to be a tie between bellybutton fluff and toenail clippings, which make celebrity hair clippings seem almost normal.

Collecting is not some new fad. People (not all people, mind you) have been collecting just about forever. Some quirk of human nature gives some of us the collecting bug for whatever objects interest us. While looking through my ephemera collection recently (see my Numismatic Diary in this issue for more), I came across the Universal Collectors Guide, a publication from 1918: "An Annual Publication Issued in the Interest of the Man, Woman or Child With a Hobby."

Pages 8 and 9 enumerate a set of 141 collecting categories; the remainder of the book is an alphabetical listing of collector names and addresses followed by the code(s) for items they collect. #1331 is Charles Quattlander of Brooklyn, NY whose code is "D-100" meaning he is a Dealer in Stamps. "B" indicates a Buyer, an "A" is a collector who neither buys nor sells; "X" is one willing to exchange or trade. Here are some of the catagories:

1: Animals - Stuffed
2: Antique Furniture
3: Arrowheads
26: Match Boxes
46: Relics - Indian
49: Sea Shells
71: License Tags - Automobiles
89: Sea Moss
112: Puzzles & Tricks
141: Insects - Trochoptera

Alas, no barf bags, hair clippings, bellybutton fluff or toenail clippings. However, in the numismatic vein there are several categories:

9: Broken Bank Notes
13: Coins - All Kinds
14: Confederate Money
27: Medals
33: Old Paper Money
63: Tokens - War and Hard Times
77: Coins - Copper
78: Coins - Gold
79: Coins - Silver
84: Numismatic Literature
85: Paper Money - All Kinds
117: Coins - Foreign
118: Coins - U.S.
120: Paper Money - Foreign
121: Paper Money - U.S.

#84 made me quite curious to learn who was buying and collecting numismatic literature in 1918. But random checks thru the book failed to find any names with a #84 following their listing. Hopefully there is at least one such listing somewhere in the book. I was hoping to find a digitized version online so I could do an electronic search, but no luck. A fun "someday" project, I guess. Does anyone else have a copy of this little book in their library? -Editor