I wrote an article a while ago about my antique micro-mosaic pillbox, which holds tiny mementoes. Small things from my confirmation, graduation, 21st birthday, favourite beach. Among them (though I did not mention it in the article) are two tiny red hollowed-out seed pods with elephant stoppers, each holding 100 tiny bone elephants. I was given them when I was about 6, which would have been in the 1960s.
One of my readers spotted them and asked me about them, because she too had had some when she was little. I then noticed that many people were asking about these in a Facebook group dedicated to identifying items. It seems they have been a part of many people’s lives. Some of these pods contain 12 elephants, some of them have 100 elephants, and some of them even contain other types of animals.
I did some digging and found this article about them.. It also seems that the little elephants are carved from vegetable ivory.
Read more here
I have one that I ordered as a child. It was out of I believe the Sunday paper magazine. The company was the Littleton Coin Company. My mother used to let me order things from them, with my allowance money. I would actually mail the order form with cash money, sometimes coins, to make up
The correct amount. I still have a box full of coins in individual envelopes with a description of each coin I ordered. They were Penny’s with symbols stamped on the face above the date. Example, the ecology flag, a heart that says love, one with a peace sign, then a penny inside of a tiny glass bottle with a cork. Then the seed of elephants. My Grandfather would always ask me when they visited, if the FBI had paid me a visit because it was a federal offense to deface a US coin and I could go to jail fir reing in possession of such. This was in the early 1970’s I was a child. I always hid them under my bed, in case the police showed up. Those were such simpler times when everyone was kind and kids played outside until dark ir whenever their mother or the cook, would open the kitchen door and yell our names to come home and eat! I am happy to find out about the seed if elephants. I often go to estate sales and see the charms like you have saved over the years and I wonder why some family member would get rid of them.
What an amazing story. Thank you so much for sharing!