In Philadelphia recently, a woman spotted what she thought was an old helmet in her attic near where the Halloween costumes used to be. She cleaned it up and went to find out if it was worth anything. She carried it to the Civic Center where Chubb’s Antique Roadshow was offering people free appraisals of their junk.

An appraiser from San Francisco’s Butterfield & Butterfield told her the helmet was a sixteenth century cabasset from Milan. Forged from a single sheet of metal and covered with gold, it was valued at around $250,000.

Rubel Shelly The FAX of Life