I'd like to thank everyone who responded to my original posting about collecting silicon wafers. Quite a few of you were a bit puzzled about where the interest lies, so I'll try to explain how I see it: These things (silicon microelectronics devices) are made in vast numbers. A large proportion are packaged and used as intended. Possibly even larger numbers are destroyed as scrap. Yet they each represent the collective effort of a vast number of people and are arguably some of the most complex human artefacts ever created. Sadly, the few wafers that survive unscathed are usually put to such ignoble uses as mats for coffee cups or decorative trinkets. There is another, older and more established area of collecting that shares many of the same characteristics - stamp collecting. 1. Stamps are printed in vast numbers 2. They are used and, in most cases, eventually destroyed 3. They are difficult to forge (convincingly) 4. Most are virtually worthless 5. A few a almost priceless 6. Many are beautiful 7. They have an inherent research interest - printing varieties, flaws, rarities, historical interest etc. 8. They are (usually) considered most valuable unused and even more valuable in an unbroken sheet. Silicon has not attained this degree of interest to collectors, and maybe never will. As fabrication processes shrink ever further and the number of conducting layers increases, chips become featureless (on the surface) and increasingly difficult to study. Neverthless, early devices (on 4" wafers and smaller) are very accessible. So my intention is to find as many of these early wafers as I can and to spend some time studying them - building up a well-documented collection. I have just bought a toy Intel QX3+ microscope and I'm hoping that this will be good enough to reveal some of the detail - manufacturer, rev numbers etc. as well as those interesting signatures frequently sneaked on by the design team. My only anxiety is that the general interest in collecting silicon may take off in a big way before I have managed to build up a workable stock. If you have wafers you can supply, I'd be immensely grateful - though of course, you won't want to part with them now .....