What’s the most valuable thing you ever saw? A huge pile of money…a blue-chip stock portfolio…an emerald necklace…??
I once went to the old San Francisco mint and saw a room with a guarded exhibit: About a dozen big gold ingots–then worth perhaps $8 million–under a big bell jar.
If we’re talking things that we have held in our hands, mine would be a check for more than $34 million, made out to the IRS.
No, it wasn’t drawn on my account, but I did sign it. It was a very strange feeling.
Actually, I forgot about some stock certificates worth more than $1 billion. Those weren’t mine either.
For pure value, probably the Tut exhibit, in Chicago when it toured the US. The gross monetary value in terms of gold, the antiquities market, etc. even paled in comparison to the sheer, miraculous existence of such marvelous, ancient works of humankind.
I’m still awed, years later.
Veb
Mine would have to be a Ferrari Modena Spyder. Single most expensive car I have ridden in.
The Museo del Oro in Lima. Inca gold in various forms, as well as ruby and emerald encrusted gold crosses of the Spaniards. Also, the museum has an incredible display of military technology from the middle ages on. I remember a Japanese sword in which the handle and the sheath were carved from a single piece of ivory. The entire collection is owned by one family.
Mine would be my parents. They have been married for over 56 years. Priceless.
Last Christmas there was a new jewelry store opening up in the Westlake Center in downtown Seattle, and as a draw they had the third largest diamond in the world on display inside. (I think it was the third largest in the world, but I was too busy going ooooooo to pay attention to details.)
Amen. 
I touched a plexiglass cube filled with a million pennies.
I am truly blessed.
When I first started in the business, I did the obligatory tour of the New York Fed.
Down in the vaults there they store not only most of the U.S.’ gold, but a bunch for other countries.
At the time, I think the value was something like $150 Billion. It’s doubtless lower now, both because of gold price declines and absolute sales of reserves by countries.
But is was pretty cool. Just piles and piles and walls of the stuff. It was like being in Scrooge McDuck’s vault, but without all that messy paper.
About 20 years ago I worked for a guy who worked for a Saudi prince. The Prince was buying a gift for his wife and brought into the shop a small chest FILLED with jewelry. The store had loaned it to him, while he made up his mind. They had me model several necklaces of gold and diamonds that had to be 10’s of thousands of $$ each.
A girl could get used to that!
I think manny wins. My (former) economics teacher works at the Fed in the summers; her description of the NY branch’s vault pretty much matches his.
I’ve taken the tour at the US Printing and Engraving plant in DC. Palettes and paletts of cash!
Within reach, however, is about $15,000 in gambling chips in Atlantic City. This guy was playing blackjack, rather poorly. When I stopped to watch is when he had $15,000. He blew it all in about 5 minutes. He then pulled out his billfold and bought $10,000 more.
I’ll have to confess I’m not sure of their relative value, but I’ve visited an aircraft carrier and seen one of the Space Shuttles.
I’ve got 2 answers, the prosaic and the real…
The most valuable thing I handle everyday has got to be my children. Kill or die without thought for them…
And realistically, I once opened a car trunk, and it turned out to have about 20lbs of Cocaine, and a lot of marijuana…
Several weeks later, after blowing a LOT of money, my friend disappeared for about 2 years.
I have the most odd collection of friends…
At my old job a few years ago, I used to walk daily into the computer room at my company, and see about 30 Sequent SE/80s a couple Novas and Sun UltraSparc 5000’s, the total value of the room was about 75 Million. Okay so I’m a computer nerd, It seemed cool.
Not sure why I said Novas, I meant Numas
I waited in a long ass line to see the hope diamond in Washington DC. I didn’t want to, but I did.
When I worked in a bank, I remember the first time I held a brick of $100,000. in hundreds, and it was no bigger than a large hardcover book. There were times when I had over a million in the vault. For the weekends, we used to fill each (we had 3) ATM with $120,000 in twenties. On Monday morning, at least two of them would be empty.
I once had a customer deposit a check for 1 million into his account, and the person who wrote the check spelled ‘million’ wrong. Pissed me off that there was someone out there who had enough money to write a check for a million dollars, and couldn’t even spell it.
I saw the Hope diamond once.
I went to an exhibit on gemstones in The Museum of Natural History in NYC a few years ago, and I can’t even imagine how much that was worth.
Rose