Buzz
While feces are generally seen as worthless waste, disposed of and quickly forgotten, certain types of excrement can fetch astonishing prices, reaching hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. Ironically, people pay utility bills to eliminate their waste, unaware of its potential value.
The value of feces isn’t limited to humans; animal droppings often surpass human waste in worth. This is primarily because their excrement contains substances that can be transformed into high-value products. In some instances, the feces themselves are prized as raw materials or historical artifacts.
10. Ambergris
Ambergris is often referred to as 'fecal gold' due to its rarity and immense value. Discovering a sizable chunk can instantly make someone a millionaire. For example, in 2016, three Omani fishermen stumbled upon an 80-kilogram (176 lb) piece worth $3 million. That same year, a British couple discovered a 1.57-kilogram (3.46 lb) lump that sold for $70,000.
For more than a millennium, humans have utilized ambergris, a substance now prized as a key component in perfume production. Historically, it was mistaken for solidified sea foam or the droppings of a large bird. The truth was uncovered in the 19th century when whaling expeditions targeting sperm whales for their valuable oils revealed its true origin.
Sailors learned that ambergris is a byproduct of sperm whales, formed from the indigestible beaks and hard parts of squid and cuttlefish consumed by the whales. While most of these parts are regurgitated, some pass into the intestines and become encased in ambergris.
Ambergris can remain inside a whale for years before being expelled through vomiting or defecation. Some theories suggest that exceptionally large ambergris masses may rupture the whale’s intestines, leading to its death. There is also speculation that pygmy and dwarf sperm whales, due to their similar diets, might produce ambergris as well.
9. Piero Manzoni’s Feces
In 1961, Italian artist Piero Manzoni embarked on creating unconventional artwork using his own feces. He filled 90 cans with his excrement, sealed them, and marketed them as Merda d’Artista (Artist’s S–t). Each can was labeled with the phrase “Artist’s S–t, Freshly Preserved, Produced and Tinned in May 1961,” and priced based on the equivalent weight in gold.
Although Manzoni passed away in 1963, his fecal art continues to fetch staggering prices. In 2007, London’s Tate art gallery purchased one can for £22,350 ($30,000). That same year, another can sold for £81,000 ($108,000) in Milan. By 2016, a single can was auctioned for £182,500 ($242,000), and by 2017, their value had soared to approximately $300,000, with projections of reaching millions in the near future.
Agostino Bonalumi, who collaborated with Manzoni during the canning process, revealed that the cans likely contain plaster, not actual feces. He claimed that Manzoni labeled them as feces to critique how art collectors would purchase anything labeled as art, regardless of its actual content.
This claim aligns with Manzoni’s eccentric artistic tendencies. Throughout his career, he presented plain white canvases, boiled eggs, and even a balloon as art. He also sealed papers inside a box, declaring it an artwork, and stated that breaking the seal would nullify its artistic value.
Bonalumi has challenged buyers to open the cans to verify their contents, but collectors have refrained, fearing a drop in value. In 1989, one can was opened, but its contents remained wrapped, leaving the mystery of its true contents unresolved.
8. Elvis Presley
In 2012, a pair of light blue underwear worn by Elvis Presley was put up for auction. While one source vaguely mentioned stains in the crotch area, another explicitly described them as fecal stains. The underwear was worn by Elvis beneath a jumpsuit during a 1977 performance.
The auction concluded without a sale, as bids peaked at £5,000, falling short of the £7,000 reserve price. Auctioneers had anticipated the item would fetch up to £10,000.
Other Elvis Presley memorabilia fared better at the auction. A Bible he had owned since 1957, filled with his handwritten notes and underlined passages, sold for £59,000, significantly surpassing the estimated £25,000.
7. Meter-Long Fossilized Feces
In 2012, a man unearthed a 102-centimeter-long (40 in) brownish-yellow coprolite, believed to belong to an unknown animal that roamed the area now known as Toledo, Washington, millions of years ago (estimates range from 6 to 33 million years). Coprolites are fossilized excrement.
This ancient fecal fossil fetched $10,370 at a 2014 auction. However, some experts argue it might be a pseudo-coprolite—a substance resembling dung but formed from other materials. Critics suggest it originated from volcanic ash that settled in a swamp and solidified into clay.
Skeptics base their argument on the absence of digested matter in the specimen. Instead, it contained significant amounts of siderite, an iron-rich mineral, leading them to conclude it is merely a rock and not genuine coprolite.
6. Elephant Dung
In Thailand’s Golden Triangle, the dung of elephants is used to produce one of the world’s priciest coffees, known as Black Ivory. This unique coffee is crafted from beans collected from elephant excrement. The Golden Triangle is the region where Thailand borders Laos and Myanmar.
As of 2012, a pound of Black Ivory coffee was priced at $500, with a single cup costing $50. The creators claim the coffee has a smooth, non-bitter flavor due to the beans being processed by the acids in the elephants’ stomachs. The taste is further influenced by the elephants’ diet, which includes sugarcane, bananas, and other foods.
In 2013, a beer named Un, Kono Kuro was also made using elephant dung. Produced by Japan’s Sankt Gallen brewery, it was marketed as a chocolate stout, despite containing no chocolate. Instead, it featured coffee beans extracted from the feces of Golden Triangle elephants.
Un, Kono Kuro was highly expensive due to the costly coffee beans used. A mere 35 grams of the elephant-processed beans cost $100. Elephants yield only 1 kilogram of usable beans from every 33 kilograms they eat. Despite this, the beer sold out online within minutes. Sankt Gallen announced plans to serve it on tap at their new Tokyo outlet.
5. Guano
Guano, the excrement of seabirds and bats, is a valuable fertilizer. It gained immense importance in the 19th century, with the United States and European nations going to great lengths to acquire it. Peru, a leading producer, funded much of its national budget through guano exports.
The United States was so determined to secure guano that it enacted the Guano Islands Act of 1856. This law permits US citizens to claim uninhabited, guano-rich islands for the United States. The president can annex these islands and even deploy military forces to protect them. The act remains in effect today, never having been repealed.
Peru and Spain clashed in the Chincha Islands War after Spain seized Peru’s guano-rich islands in 1864. The conflict lasted two years, ending in Spain’s defeat by an alliance of Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru. Guano also indirectly fueled the War of the Pacific (1879–1883) between Peru and Chile.
Peru continues to mine guano today, although it no longer relies on it as a primary revenue source. Most of the guano is utilized by local farmers, with a smaller portion exported as organic fertilizer.
4. Panda Dung
An Shi, a professor at Sichuan University in China, developed a method for using panda feces as fertilizer for tea plants, earning a patent in 2011. He claimed that tea produced from these plants could prevent cancer. However, the tea was projected to cost $69,000 per kilogram, potentially making it the world’s most expensive tea.
An argued that panda dung is effective as fertilizer because bamboo, the primary food of pandas, has cancer-preventing properties. Pandas digest only 30% of the bamboo they eat, excreting the remaining 70% in their feces. He believed this would transfer the bamboo’s beneficial properties to the tea.
Scientists, however, were doubtful of An’s claims. No research supports the idea that tea fertilized with panda dung can prevent cancer. Additionally, they questioned how he determined the tea’s price before it was even produced.
3. Lloyds Bank Coprolite
In 1972, during excavations for a new Lloyds Bank branch in York, England, construction workers unearthed a 20-centimeter-long, 5-centimeter-wide (8 x 2 in) piece of human feces. Historians believe it dates back to the ninth century, when York was under Viking rule.
Experts suggest the individual who produced the feces suffered from intestinal issues and had been constipated for several days. Analysis showed their diet was rich in meat and bread. Valued at $39,000, the coprolite is not for sale and is housed at the Jorvik Viking Centre in York.
2. Jacu Bird Dung
Jacu bird coffee is another high-priced coffee derived from animal excrement. As the name suggests, it is produced using the droppings of wild jacu birds native to Brazil.
Brazilian farmer Henrique Sloper de Araujo developed jacu bird coffee after observing jacu birds from a nearby national park eating coffee beans on his 740-acre farm in Pedra Azul. Inspired by kopi luwak, Araujo decided to create a similar product using the birds. He followed the birds and collected undigested coffee beans from their droppings.
Araujo introduced jacu bird coffee in 2006. Today, a kilogram of this coffee sells for £700. Araujo claims it is among the finest coffees globally, as the birds selectively eat only the ripest beans. He also notes that the birds consume apricots, truffles, and berries, imparting a unique nutty flavor to the coffee.
1. Civet Cat Poop
Kopi luwak ranks among the world’s priciest coffees, with a cup costing up to $90 in the US in 2015. This coffee is made from partially digested coffee beans collected from the feces of the civet cat, which is not a cat but a mongoose relative.
Today, much of the kopi luwak is produced using beans from civet cats kept in inhumane conditions on farms in Indonesia and the Philippines. The animals are confined to cramped cages, unable to roam freely, and are fed exclusively coffee beans, despite their varied natural diet. This captivity leads to abnormal behaviors, such as pacing in circles and self-harm.
Many kopi luwak sellers deny these practices, claiming their coffee comes from wild civets. However, skeptics argue this is implausible, as wild civet dung alone could not meet the demand for the product.
Some argue that the acclaimed smooth taste of kopi luwak is exaggerated. In a blind taste test involving six coffees, including kopi luwak, four tasters ranked it fourth. The top-ranked coffee was ten times cheaper than kopi luwak.
