The owner of a store had owned for 30 years the skin of an extinct Tasmanian tiger valued at $ 250,000.

Unknowingly, a Kiwi canoe-kayak merchant had an extremely rare Tasmanian tiger skin valued at $ 250,000 in his store for three decades.

John McCosh, who manages the canoes Kahutara and Taxidermy about 80 km east of Wellington, had kept in a drawer the distinctive skin of the now extinct species.

He and his wife took care of the line as part of a large collection of stuffed animals.

Unknowingly, a canoe-kiwi store owner had an extremely rare Tasmanian tiger skin (pictured) worth $ 250,000, sitting in his store for three decades.

But it was not until a university student from the region visited his store and pbaded the results on to their lecturer that the news of this extraordinary copy spread throughout the world.

"They came back and told their speaker: Londoners were also involved. She's been around the world, "McCosh's wife, Karen, told Daily Mail Australia.

McCosh, 69, said the original skin owners, who had entrusted the collection to the North Island Rural Museum, were stunned by the scale of their discoveries.

"They were really blown away. They had not known what it was, she said.

At the end of last year, the National Museum of Australia purchased $ 250,000 for a contribution of $ 125,000 to the National Cultural Heritage Account.

Archibald Robertson, a pbadionate wildlife collector, made the acquisition of the skin in 1923; it was pbaded on to her only daughter, Janet Withers, on her death in 1970.

Enclosed in the zoological history of Australia, the last Tasmanian tiger would have died while imprisoned in Hobart in 1936.

Despite their common name – from their striped coat – thylacines are not a form of tiger but a marsupial.

The skin was purchased for $ 250,000 by the Australian National Museum (photo) at the end of last year – using a contribution from the National Cultural Heritage Account of $ 125,000

Chief Curator Martha Sear is delighted to welcome this extraordinary skin into the National Museum's collection.

"The skin is considered one of the best preserved specimens, and one of the last physical specimens of a species become an extinction symbol," Dr. Sear said.

"The Museum was fortunate to acquire this remarkable specimen to add to the National Historic Collection to represent the environmental impact of the loss of species in Australia".

John McCosh, who manages the Kahutara and Taxidermy canoes about 80 km east of Wellington (pictured entry), had kept the skin distinct from the species now gone in a draw.