collectors strand

I'm a little bit in love with this "collectors strand" of hand carved stone beads from Africa at Yone Bead Store. I kept picking it up to admire it and they even let me take it outside for a photo. Hermon (90 year old storekeeper) told me that the people use to collect stones that naturally had a hole through the center or carve stones with hand tools and string them together and sell them to tourists many years ago. I have a feeling Hermon doesn't really want to sell this as it's valued much more than my first car and rests behind glass like a coiled snake.