Jim,

In some 40 years of collecting along the Panamic Province coastline I was
never able to collect Cymatium tigrinum. A friend obtained two fine
specimens in Bahia Chamela, Jalisco, Mexico. She found them in the discard
pile at a seaside restaurant - fishermen had brought them in along with
the usual muricids to be used as food. Over the years I stopped at that
restaurant many times, hoping to find C. tigrinum, without success. I did
obtain a specimen from a collector in Panama.

Quite a few years ago specimens were sold for $75 to $100 (as listed in
the final edition - 23rd, 2007 and still available, of my A Catalog of
Dealers' Prices for Shells ...). But I was unable to find it for sale
during the intervening decades.

Best regards
Tom Rice
Rawai Beach, Phuket, Thailand

> This rare shell has just been listed on eBay. Do a search on "Cymatium
> tigrinum" to find it. Does anyone know just exactly how rare this
> shell is? I have never seen one offered for sale in my 61 years! I
> have seen just one specimen in a good friend's collection (a member of
> the Jacksonville Shell Club, but that's all I'll say). Even Myra
> Keen's book on Western Atlantic Shells indicates that even in 1958 is
> was a hard specimen to find. The photos I could find on the Web range
> from stunning to pretty plain.
>
> Best regards,
> Jim
>
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