www.cowries.info

[cowryman3sai]

When I was 15 years old and had already been reading all the same books and had been a serious cowry lover for 3 or 4 years I was at Scripps Institute of Oceanography of La Jolla in San Diego,California and at the shell shop behind the glass a 100% black Freindi and looking at the price tag at less than 10 dollars I thought I hope I can afford it some day.Ha!35 years since then and prices really ain't that bad.New cars back then were $2,000,a house $20,000.So if you like something grab it!So which cowry did you see that captivated you in the direction and give you that added boost? ps,not related but I remember when the internet was really starting to catch on that HSN(Hawaii Shell News)was extremely gratifying material to read.If you get bored go back to some of those early internet experiences you enjoyed.
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Robert F.Grant lll in Salina,Kansas 67401 U.S.A. Check webshots.com and cypraea collectors are now on Facebook.com.It's extremely cool!!A must check.Been collecting for 45 years.

[XEP-BAM]

My first shell in collection was a half of bivalve that I found in the beach with my grandfather when I was 3-4 years old.
And my first cowry was Cypraea tigris. I was 7 years old and father's friend brought it with Cymbiola vespertilio from the trip to Israel.
So, since my early childhood I love shells, especially Cypraeas!!!!!

[EmberCowrie]

My current cowrie collection is actually my second attempt a starting one, I had a much smaller one when I was a kid (most of which was simply from my grandparents, who had had a bowl of shells outside thier bartoom whioch incuded a tigris, a few lynxs and a few cauperepentisis (capuserpentii?). Don't know what happened to that one, I basically got tired of it once I ran out of avenues to aquire new specimenns (this was before I had head of the internet, mail order, shell shops etc.) While I have no idea what shell got me stared orginally in that one. I do remember which one started me re-collecting again. One day for some reason (I think it was for a school project), I needed to buy a few bags of mixed small shells (the kind they sell in craft stores) I was vaugely aware that cowries did show up in such bags on ocassion but had always assumed that anything in such a bag would be far too worn to be even remotely collectable or attractive. However whne I slit open one of the bags out from the middle tumbled an absoutely perfect . ocellata If that wasn't good enough another bag produced an asellus comporable quality. Once I saw those two shells I was hooked again, for good this time. Oh and when I go to a craft store I still take a quick look of the shell bags, just for the fun of it!

[Sleepycat]

I've collected cowries since so young that I cannot remember what the first cowry I ever found was. My earliest memory relating to shells is looking at my collection when I was around age five. I remember putting all the different kinds of shells I had in lines, and counting them up to see which line had the most shells in it, and it was cowries. I had about 30 cowries. I especially remember that a few of them were caputserpentis, presumably ones I had found in northern NSW.

In those days Vegemite came in small glasses and the bottoms of the glasses were concave and acted as magnifiers. Depending on which way you put the glass up or down, whatever was under it would look larger or smaller. I used to love putting the caputserpentis under the Vegemite glass and making it look bigger or smaller, and admiring the effect on the spotting. So, I guess I have to blame caputserpentis for my interest.

Kevin.

[felix]

A rugged tiger cowry that was (and probably still is) somewhere in my parent's garden. My Mom once told me that I sometimes just sat there looking at it, holding it up in the air, moving it across the lawn, etc.
I was 4 years old and took two more years to actually start my own collection...

[Notocypraea]

I used to collect shells on the beach etc when i was very young. I remember when I found my first live Notocypraea, an angustata what a revelation.

But it was when I first went to the Lakes Entrance Shell museum in about 1973 at age 7 (still exists today, one of the few left in Australia now) and saw my first specimen of Cypraea hesitata that I was really hooked. Such a large and spectatcular species and interesting shape.

I remember reading the label in amazement that this species lived in the waters of Victoria (my home state). I have to find one...
...of course it's a deep water species so I never did!

35 years later my dream came true when I saw this species in situ diving in Southern Tasmania and was able to collect a specimen.

Great hobby, a lifetime of interest.


Regards,
Simon

[clementus]

For me it was finding a fresh dead testudinaria at Kwajalein Atoll in 1974-75 timeframe on one of the uninhabited islands that ring the Atoll (I believe it was Carlos Island), on the reef at low tide. Regrettably, I have since lost that shell (I do have another testudinaria but not from Kwajalein). I remember seeing albonistic lyncina aurantium from Kwajalein, but they may just have been faded. I do recall that in the early 70's they were reporting that Lyncina aurantium were being collected on sandy bottom (not in caves). Anyway, I was hooked back then, but didn't get back into collecting again until recently.

John Clement

[ozcyp]

I was a late starter to collect cowries compared to many on here.
I've always admired shells and my uncle owned a trawler when I was very young, I remember playing with the giant baler shells at his home whenever we visited.
It wasn't until I was in my thirties that I began collecting. I went to the local markets and there was a lady selling assorted seashells. On the table sat a large pacific triton shell and I kept walking past it just staring at it. I didn't buy it, though I kept thinking about the shell during the next week. I went back to the markets the following weekend and it was sold, so I bought a bag of mixed shells and inside were some cowries. I thought they were very cool and went to the local library to see what shell books they had. There was an old book on rare seashells and I saw a picture of a cypraea guttata...wow...never had I seen such an amazing looking shell. I stared at it for ages thinking how a slimy sea slug could produce such an intricate shell. After contacting a shell dealer on the internet I soon learned that guttata were no longer a rare shell, so it was the first specimen grade shell I bought.
So guttata is definately responsible for me collecting cowries.

[cowryman3sai]

Your right on the books.If it were not for books it would not have been the same for me.I got the Big Burgess book and read it from front to back hundreds of times in elementary school until it was all memorized.Like only 3 leucodons but reports of numbers possibly in deeper water.Imagine tens of thousands of Guttata's everywhere but only a handfull scattered around the world.Then theres the crackerfish Fultoni's.Though Guttata's are common in my opinion its still just as sought after for someone like me because there beauty is still so undeniable.Though I have plenty of fat 68mm Guttata's if one comes up I'll snatch it.Thank you for the story ozcyp
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Robert F.Grant lll in Salina,Kansas 67401 U.S.A. Check webshots.com and cypraea collectors are now on Facebook.com.It's extremely cool!!A must check.Been collecting for 45 years.