If you have in your possession a rutter, cleek, mashie, niblick, track iron or a jigger you might have something of high value and not even know it.

Those were the names given to iron-headed vintage golf clubs, common names for golf clubs up to the 19th century and a coveted prize today in any condition.

Lyle Smith, an expert in vintage golf club pricing and a contributor for Golfweek, says golf club collecting is starting to surge thanks to the popularity of the sport.

“Having a collection of classic or antique golf clubs is not an unusual hobby, but developing a valuable collection is a very different commitment,” Smith said. “Like wine, classic and vintage golf clubs can appreciate in value over time. Not every club appreciates in the same way, however. Era, historical significance, rarity and condition are just a few of the factors influencing price, and this influence can be significant.”

Most golf historians like Smith say the game was likely invented by 15th-century Scottish shepherds, who entertained themselves by hitting anything they could find into holes and at targets. Their “game” evolved over the next few centuries and by 1860 the first Open Championship (known as the British Open) was played at the Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland, marking the beginning of modern golf.

“Clubs and other equipment can be dated back to different eras throughout that time,” Smith said. “To find clubs with significant value, you need to look back before World War II and probably before 1930, the year steel shafts and matched sets became common in golf club manufacturing. Before that time, shafts were made of hickory, all iron heads were forged steel and woods were hand-carved from a single piece of persimmon. Clubs from before the turn of the 20th century can be worth quite a bit, presuming they were made from a prominent club maker and in good condition. A driver from the 1860s hand-carved by Old Tom Morris or Laurie Auchterlonie in St. Andrews, for instance, could be worth a few hundred dollars or up to $20,000 depending on the model, condition and authenticity.”

The earliest clubs that can be found today are from the 17th century. Those, however, are museum pieces. Clubs from the 18th and early 19th centuries occasionally make their way into private collections, but one may well need to take out a second mortgage to afford them.

“Unusual or particularly rare clubs can be worth quite a bit in the vintage club market,” Smith said. “Custom clubs were made quite often in the days before 1900. Based on the unique qualities of their design or the fact that there may be only one or a few in existence can certainly raise the price. One such iron, a rake iron designed to hit balls out of the mud and water, was estimated to go for less than $300 at auction. Instead it sold in 1989 for almost $80,000. Prices like these, while unusual, do happen now and again. Values in the vintage club market fluctuate wildly based on many factors.”

Forget taking out a loan, Smith says, there are affordable clubs for the modern-day collector. Many of the clubs manufactured between 1901 and 1935 came from Scotland, but more and more started coming from larger U.S. manufacturers. These early clubs had hickory shafts and wrapped leather grips. To secure the joins between the shaft and the head of the club, and between the grip and the shaft, whipping of black, waxed linen thread was used. Pre-1900 clubs (smooth-faced gutty era) used seven-ply thread. Clubs from the era 1900 to 1935 required four-ply thread.

Donald Stone, whose treasured collection of more than 1,500 vintage golf clubs and accessories fills his basement in Greenville, Ohio, has given tours of his collection to local Boy Scout groups and school groups. Some of his clubs are from the late 19th century.

“From 1924 golf clubs started to be made with shafts of steel, pyratone, aluminum, and fiberglass or resin. Many of them were given a wood-look coating,” Stone said.

“The traditional set of irons was invented by Archibald Barrie, and were used from 1903 until the 1940s. The introduction of the standardized numbered iron set produced by the Spalding Sporting Goods Company in the early 1930s caused the traditional set of irons to give way gradually to the numbered set.”

According to Stone, golf clubs were made of beech in the early days while the shafts were fashioned from hickory, a wood whose elasticity allowed for the maximization of torque in a swing. Prior to that, he says, most club heads were made from thorn wood or fruitwood and were fixed to ash shafts.

“Almost all of the 19th-century clubs in a player’s bag were ’long nose’ woods, which received that name because of their long heads, rounded backs and slightly curved faces…they resembled walking sticks,” Stone said. “Long-nose woods gave players a lot of control, and since this was the era of feather balls, controlling shots was paramount. Fairway woods were called spoons and were designed to give the ball loft. Most players packed three spoons in their bags.

“It wasn’t until the 1800s or ’90s that irons became more common than woods in a set. Examples of these early irons include the ’cleek’, a long iron used for play in the fairway, or the ’niblick’, which was for approach shots.”

Smith and Wilson say they are bombarded by one particular question: Where to people find these vintage golf clubs and accessories?

“There’s always a chance you might find something worthwhile at a garage sale or in a bargain bin at your local driving range shop,” Stone says, “but to find truly valuable clubs, sporting goods memorabilia shops and even antique shops are good places to start a search. Of course, you should gauge your budget on what purpose your collection is designed to serve. Are you trying to put together a valuable antique collection or simply decorate your home with vintage items?”

Clubs with a particular tournament or player history are one area of the market where one could find value in a contemporary club. A famous story first rose to the surface in the mid-1980s when a man in Texas purchased an old Hogan 1-iron out of a bargain bin. When he noticed the dime-sized wear mark on the sweet spot, he started to wonder if this could be the famous 1-iron used by Ben Hogan himself to force a playoff in the 1950 U.S. Open at Merion. Eventually, the man contacted the USGA and Hogan himself to authenticate the club that had disappeared from Hogan’s bag sometime between the famous shot and the playoff the next day. The club was missing for 30-plus years. Clubs like this one, if authenticated, would certainly generate a significant sum at auction.

“As with other antiques, authentication always poses a challenge with vintage golf equipment,” Stone said. “While identifying certain clubs as an iron made by Tom Stewart of St. Andrews is not difficult, for example, precisely dating them is much more difficult. Patent numbers were not printed on most clubs until the 20th century.