Vsauce!
Five rare dogs, Four rare comic books, Three rare video games, Two rare signatures and
One rare element
It's 5-4-3-2...
One rare element.
Astatine named from the greek astatos meaning unstable; is one of the rarest elements on
Earth.
It was first produced in 1940 by scientists at The University of California Berkeley by
bombarding Bismuth-209 with alpha particles in a particle accelerator to produce Astatine
211, which the scientists discovered was radioactive.
Three years later Astatine was found naturally in radioactive decay chains.
At any given time only 25 grams of naturally occurring Astatine exists on the planet.
Two Rare Signatures
There are only six existing signatures of William Shakespeare that are attached to four
different legal documents including a deposition, the purchase of a house in London, the mortgage
of the same house, and his will which contains three of the six, one on each page.
Neil Armstrong signed plenty of autographs... until 1994 when his signature became one of
the rarest because of his decision to stop signing anything.
He was known to be quite a recluse and never really like signing them in the first place.
In an biography by James Hansen it says that Charles Lindbergh advised him to never sign
autographs and Armstrong claims to regret not taking the advice.
Three rare video games
For this I'm going to defer to rare gaming expert PatTheNESPunk.
Go!
Hey,Vsauce!
Pat here.
Up first is Mr. Boston for the Vectrex system.
This was a modified version of the Pac-Man clone, Clean Sweep.
Mr. Boston was distributed by the liquor store company of the same name.
Now less than 10 copies are known to exist so if you want a cart you're gonna have to
pay at least a few thousand dollars.
If you can find one!
Air Raid for the Atari 2600.
A game so mysterious that collectors weren't even 100% sure about its name until a box
for it surfaced in 2010.
Not many were produced and distribution was extremely limited.
Now if you want a copy of the game - which is a strangely-shaped blue cart...
You're gonna have to pay at least $3,000 or so.
But if you want the box and the game you're looking at a price tag of at least 30 grand!
Finally, the Nintendo World Championships 1990 gold cart.
The holy grail of video game collecting.
26 of these were given away as prizes for a Nintendo Power magazine contest.
A gold version of the gray ones used during Powerfest 1990.
This is a competition cart consisting of Super Mario Brothers, Rad Racer and Tetris.
If you can find someone willing to part with one of these treasures you're gonna have to
spend at least $25,000.
Now, who would be dumb enough to spend that type of ludicrous cash on a video game?
Uhhh...?
Four rare comic books
Action Comics #1 was Superman's first appearance that came out in 1938 and a single original
copy sold for over two million dollars..
There is said to only be 50-100 original copies that still exist and even fewer that are in
collectible condition.
Detective Comics #27 came out in 1939 and was the first to introduce Batman.
It is considered one of the most valuable, selling for auction in 2010 for $1,075,000.
Superman #1 was the first to be a superhero self-titled comic book that premiered in 1939
with a highest sale record of $250,000.
Batman #1 was another instance where the superhero was so popular they got their own self-titled
comic book, it first appeared in 1940 and has been sold for $315,000.
Five rare dogs
The Norwegian Lundehund is a small dog that was bred for hunting puffins and their eggs.
They have six toes and an amazing range of motion in their joints.
They have the ability to bend their head backwards all the way to their spine.
They were almost extinct after after 1963 because of canine distemper.
Only 6 dogs survived, but with some careful breeding the population is estimated to be
back around 1,500 to 2,000.
The Neopolitan Mastiff is an ancient dog that dates back to ancient Egypt, Persia, Mesopotamia,
and Asia.
When the Romans conquered Greece they adopted the giant dogs and used them in battle, hunting,
and the arena.
After almost becoming extinct after World War 2, a group of dedicated Italians organized
and promoted the breed which was first officailly recognized as a breed in 1948.
The Pachon Navarro is a rare Spanish hunting dog known for its double nose.
Once thought to have superior sensing abilities because of the double nose, it is now known
that it is only a cosmetic difference.
The height of their popularity was with Spanish nobility during the 18th and 19th century,
but were almost extinct after the Spanish civil war.
With the help of some dedicated Pachon Navarro Lovers the breeding stock has been re-established.
The Chinook is a rare breed of sled dog developed in the 20th century in the US and is the official
state dog of New Hampshire.
By 1981 only 11 breedable Chinooks were left, but with the efforts of breeders is Maine,
Ohio, and California they've managed to save them from extinction.
Only about 800 are registered today with only around 100 pups born annually worldwide.
The Carolina dog, also known as the american Dingo, is said to be the oldest canine species
of North America.
They were discovered in the 1970's in Southeastern United States and lived without domestication
for thousands of years.
Their DNA is at the base of the canine family tree suggesting ties to primitive canine lineage;
possibly descendants of ancient dogs that came over the Bering Strait land bridge thousands
of years ago.
If you need to test your brains skills go check out a brand new riddle challenge over
on WEsauce.
And I want to thank my goof friend PatTheNESPunk for sharing his gaming knowledge - go check
out his channel, be sure to subscribe - and as always thanks
for watching.