1960s Penguin Submarine Lighter Collection
Appraised Value:
$10,000 - $12,000
IMAGE: 1 of 3
Appraisal Video: (2:07)
Appraised By:
Bruce Herman
Collectibles
Grenadier Military Antiques
Appraisal Transcript:
GUEST: Well, this belonged to my father and I came into possession of it ten years ago when he passed away. He was a... military submariner for 30 years, very proud to be in the Navy, and he collected this over time, and there's a total of 120 lighters. They have military insignias with all the different submarines, about two dozen that he served on.
APPRAISER: Well, he amassed quite a collection of Penguin lighters and as you say, they do have the ship's mascot, if you will, or what the ship's name is. They're in really remarkable condition. That was the first thing that impressed me so much, is they're all in the original boxes with the original tissue paper. I believe they're dated 1964, so they'd be just at the beginning of the Vietnam War over 40 years ago. They look like they were just made yesterday. And of special interest, the ones that I really liked were some of the local Hawaiian ones. This one here was the, uh...
GUEST: Kamehameha.
APPRAISER: Kamehameha. Yeah, thank you, my Hawaiian is terrible. (chuckles) So I'll let you pronounce that one, but just an incredible group of lighters. These are becoming very, very popular amongst collectors over the past ten or 15 years. It's just a wonderful, wonderful collection. They're usually used, they're taken out of the boxes. They get very heavily stained from the lighter fluid, from the fire, but these are in mint, mint condition. Do you have any idea what these might be worth?
GUEST: I have no idea, but I know a Zippo is about five bucks.
APPRAISER: Well, a modern Zippo. A modern-- if you wanted to buy one. If these were vintage Zippos from this period, they'd be considerably more than that, but even Penguins, which are not quite as valuable as Zippos, are still valuable. Most of these lighters, if they were sold individually, would retail at anywhere between $35 and $150 apiece. So you've got total excess of $10,000 worth of lighters.
GUEST: You're kidding.
APPRAISER: No, I'm not. It's a very valuable collection, yes.
GUEST: Okay, I'm flabbergasted. (both chuckle) Wow. So my inheritance paid off. (laughs)
