4 of the Most Interesting Collections on the Planet

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Lots of people enjoy collecting things in their spare time. Baseball cards, stamps, comic books, coins, action figures and many other cultural artifacts are among the most common items that people like to collect. Others take the idea of collecting to entirely new heights. Here are four of the most interesting collections on Planet Earth.

Naveen Jain’s Moon Rocks

Watch the video here.

Moon Express co-founder Naveen Jain is passionate about space exploration in general, and the moon in particular. His collection of more than 500 moon rocks is probably the coolest collection on the planet. Every one of them was drop-shipped to Earth directly from the moon, making up one of the world’s most impressive meteorite collections. He also has dozens of lunar rocks, which are small fragments of the Moon that fell to Earth as meteorites after lunar impact events.

Jain isn’t just excited about collecting moon rocks. He helped found the company (Moon Express) that aims to mine it for resources and to eventually make it possible to live on the moon.

Golden Locks

John Reznikoff, founder and president of University Archives, is a very accomplished historian and collector of rare documents and manuscripts. Those relics aren’t the only things he collects though. Reznikoff is the proud owner of the largest hair collection in the entire world.

His collection features more than 100 locks of hair that once sat upon the heads of British royalty, U.S. politicians, musicians, and Hollywood Stars. His “DNA card collection” features locks or hair from the likes of Abraham Lincoln, taken the very day he died, Albert Einstein, Edgar Allan Poe, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Elvis Presley, and Marilyn Monroe.

Amazingly, each item in the collection comes with extensive original documentation, validating the origin of each piece.

The First Hands that Touched the Moon

How cool would it be to reach out and touch the moon? Well, through a few degrees of separation, you can. The plaster casts used to design the custom-fit gloves for the astronauts of Apollo 11 are on exhibition at The Apollo Treasure Gallery at the Kennedy Space Centre Visitor Complex, Cape Canaveral, Florida.

There you’ll find the exact plaster molds of the hands of the first human beings to ever step foot on the surface of the moon itself: Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins. You see, every space suit has to be custom made for each individual astronaut and then fitted perfectly to promote comfort and safety. So NASA takes molds of each individual hand in order to create the best possible equipment to be used in space. Head over to the Kennedy Space Centre Visitor Complex to take a look for yourself.

Jay Leno’s Car Collection

The late night comedian isn’t just a funny guy. He’s a real down-to-earth car guy and arguably the most well-known car collector in the world. He’s known for his extensive collection almost as much as his high-profile stand-up comedy and talk show hosting gig.

In this capacity, Leno is always adding to and trading the cars in his collection. What makes his collection unique is that not only does it include a wide spectrum of vehicles and airplanes ranging in age, rarity, and make — it’s also a fully functional collection. Leno doesn’t hoard cars to sit in a museum-like warehouse. Rather, he drives each vehicle he owns regularly.

Some of the most notable cars in Leno’s fleet are his 1906 Stanley Steamer, 1937 Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic, 1915 Hispano-Suiza, the 13th ever made 1927 Duesenberg Model X (only 1,000 were ever built), and his wife’s personal favorite, his 1909 Baker Electric.

So there you have it. Four of the most interesting collections on the planet. What other collections do you think ought to have been included on this list? Make your case in the comments below.

About Post Author

Abigail Clark

Abigail Clark is an upcoming freelance writer. She graduated from The University of South Florida with a bachelors in marketing, minoring in journalism. When she isn’t up to her neck in coupons she is enjoying the outdoors fishing. She loves doing reviews for technology, home products and beauty products. If you would like her to do a review for you look her up on twitter @downtownabby17.
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Bill Formby
10 years ago

The interesting thing about Jay Leno is that he even works on his cars on occasion. I am not even he knows what his collection is worth but it is a bunch. I guess he will end up leaving it to his cat. 🙂

Reply to  Bill Formby
10 years ago

He has a wife, a long time wife as I understand it, and the cat 🙂

E.A. Blair
10 years ago

“There you’ll find the exact plaster molds of the hands of the first human beings to ever step foot on the surface of the moon itself: Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins.”

Of course you know that Astronaut Collins remained in orbit in the command module and never set foot on the moon.

I remember thinking at the time that it must really suck to be the command pilot.

Reply to  E.A. Blair
10 years ago

I have long thought that E.A. Everyone but the command pilot gets the glory.

10 years ago

Cigarette butts. I have to this day a cigarette butt from Freddy Mercury – clearly he didn’t donate it to me but I was in a club in 80 something and I put his butt in my pocket and I still have it.

I’ve just realised what I have said….I had Freddy Mercury’s butt in my pocket…

erm…um…can I explain this better?

I think I’ll just shut up now…it’s safer that way eh?

Never the less…I have a an old cigarette butt that was once in the mouth of FREDDY MERCURY!!!

And no, I can’t really prove it…well I was pissed then as well 😉

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