The Five Most Expensive Pencils Money Can Buy

Publish date: 2024-07-10

Generally speaking, pencils are not regarded as something that can be expensive. After all, a pencil tends to be made out of wood surrounding a core of graphite, which is not exactly one of the most precious substances that can be found on the planet. In fact, it is so common that supposedly, a person in 16th century Borrowdale in England stumbled upon it while passing some tree roots that had a mysterious black substance clinging to them, which turned out to be rather fortuitous because said substance proved to be very useful for marking sheep. Eventually, graphite started seeing use for more and more purposes, which in turn, caused more and more people to seek out more and more sources. In time, the need for something to hold the soft substance resulted in the creation of the pencil, while the mixing of clay and graphite enabled interested individuals to control the softness of the graphite, thus resulting in the pencils that we still use in the present. Regardless, modern pencils are meant to be disposable, which is why it can be so odd when they sell for significant sums of money.

Here are five of the most expensive pencils that have been found out there:

5. Staedtler Noris HB

For proof of the fact that pencils tend to be rather inexpensive, look at how the Staedtler Noris HB has managed to make it onto this list. Yes, a single one of these pencils is rather expensive by pencil standards, seeing how it can fetch sums of up to $12. However, that is not particularly significant in the grand scheme of things, which says much about the kind of prices that one can expect for even the most expensive pencils that can be found out there.

4. Palomino Blackwing

The Palomino Blackwing is a step-up when it comes to price, as shown by the fact that a single example can fetch prices of $21.95 and up. For those who are curious, Palomino Blackwings have an excellent reputation because they have been used by a lot of creative figures over time for their creative works. However, they do possess a number of characteristics that enable them to stand out from other pencils, with an excellent example being how their ferrules can be used extend their refillable erasers as they are worn out.

3. Tombow Mono 100

Like the Palomino Blackwing, the Tombow Mono 100 is another pencil that gets used for creative purposes, so it is perhaps unsurprising that it fetches similar prices to its counterpart. Likewise, the Tombow Mono 100 has characteristics that enable it to stand out, which range from how it carries a core that is suitable for creating the smear effect to how it is made using the precious cedar wood.

2. Mitsubishi Hi Uni HB

Primarily, people in the West will be familiar with Mitsubishi because of Mitsubishi cars. However, it is interesting to note that Mitsubishi was a Japanese zaibatsu that was broken up after the end of World War, with the result that there are actually a number of Mitsubishi companies that are independent of one another but are nonetheless connected to an extent through their regular meetings of executives. Regardless, the Mitsubishi companies produce a wide range of products, which happen to include this pencil for artists that go for around the same prices as the two aforementioned examples.

1. The Perfect Pencil

With that said, people love to make their possessions as ornamented as possible, which is why there is such a thing as the so-called Perfect Pencil. In short, each example can go for more than $12,000 at auction. Part of this price comes from the fact that their creation incorporates not just olive wood but also both diamonds and 18-carat white gold. However, it should also be noted that there are no more than 99 of these pencils in existence, which tends to be the sort of thing that drives up the prices of valued products. As a result, while the Perfect Pencil might not actually be particularly useful for doing any of the things that people would normally want to do with a pencil, it can claim the distinction of being the most expensive pencils out there for whatever that might be worth.