UK man finds chunk of whale vomit possibly worth £100,000

[jpak]

http://www.slashgear.com/uk-man-finds-chunk-of-whale-vomit-possibly-worth-100000-01267737/

Last summer we talked about a boy in the UK who found a yellowish rock on a beach near his home. What the boy thought was a rock was actually a chunk of whale vomit known as ambergris. The chunk of whale vomit the boy found in August of 2012 was estimated to be worth as much as £40,000.

A man named Ken Wilman was recently walking his dog on the beach in the UK when he discovered a strange yellow stone. While it looked like a chunk of dirty yellow rock, Wilman’s find could be worth as much as £100,000. The man says that his dog first spotted the rock and that it “smelled horrible.”

He actually originally left the rock on the beach and came back to retrieve it later after an Internet search told him how much the substance could be worth. Wilman has already been offered €50,000 for the 3 kg specimen if it turns out to be sperm whale ambergris. The material is an important component in perfumes.

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[sadbear]

1. Perfume?

Let the jokes start.

[blogslut]

6. It is used as a fixative

In simpler terms, an ingredient that makes the scent linger.

[Blue_Tires]

9. Futurama had a good episode on it....

[CBGLuthier]

2. Every time I clean up something the cat or dog has expelled I think if only

this mess had come from inside a whale.

[Recursion]

3. Ambergris is significantly more valuable than gold by weight

A whaling ship that got even a pound of it out of a whale would head straight for home.

Louis XIV had it in his eggs for breakfast.

[EOTE]

5. Gold is currently $60 a gram.

If a 3 KG specimen could fetch 50k lbs (~$80K), that would put it at around $26 a gram. Maybe at one time it was worth more than gold, but gold has reached obscene levels in recent years.

[Recursion]

7. Ah, sorry: pre-goldbuggery gold prices (nt)

[DogPawsBiscuitsNGrav]

4. If only dog vomit was worth that much. With four we'd be rich.

[Bosonic]

8. Give that dog a steak

[Kber]

10. Just finished rereading Jitterbug Perfume

so I now consider myself a whale vomit expert.