The World's most expensive earrings

That title may sound like some sort of slick marketing thing, but here's the back story. The gold discs in the earrings are actually experimental photo diodes that were developed for use in Cat Scan machines. The original cost of developing the diodes was over $30 Million dollars.

Approximately 300 diodes were produced. When it became clear that they would never perform to expectation the project was terminated.

These are two of the original 300 at a cost of $100,000. each plus .12¢ for the acrylic. Don't you just love the transitory value of things.