Collecting aluminium

The term "hunter-gatherers" is sufficiently well-known in the world of anthropology. It is traditionally understood to mean that men did the hunting and women gathered the plants. The roles of today's hunters and gatherers, however, are not so clear-cut.

The hunt for objects of all types has become a passion for many modern "gatherers" – and the objects they collect are as varied as the people who collect them: stamps, coins, autographs, teddy bears, beer mats, car registration plates and tin cans (even though most are now made of aluminium). The list of collectibles is almost unending.

Let us look at the Coca-Cola can as an example: it was first produced for the US army in 1950 and the first can arrived in Germany in 1963. There are now more than 8,000 collectors of these aluminium cans worldwide. One real "can fan" has gathered more than 4,000 different Coca-Cola cans from more than 86 countries over 15 years!

The full shelves and rooms of the passionate collectors can be viewed in the different Internet forums. Their passion is obvious!

However, most of us will probably be happy that we only use our homes to live in …


Overview