A family in New Zealand were pleasantly surprised when they discovered that they had been unknowingly in possession of a valuable Tasmanian Tiger skin for decades. The precious pelt had reportedly been part of a private collection of wildlife pieces that were amassed by a man named Archie Robertson in the 1920's. Amazingly, the thylacine skin had been kept in a desk drawer of the family's home for an astounding 76 years without anyone realizing the rare nature of the item.
Eventually, Robertson's collection, including the pelt, was loaned to a taxidermy museum in 1999 where, once again, it went largely unnoticed for nearly two decades. Finally, it caught the attention of some college students who were visiting the site last year and identified the uniquely-striped skin as being that of the long lost Tasmanian Tiger. A later examination of the pelt by experts determined that it is one of the best-preserved specimens of the believed-to-be-extinct creature in existence.
Find out the jaw-dropping amount that the skin was sold for at the Coast to Coast AM website.