Is this the rarest STIHL chainsaw?
In 1962/63, STIHL shipped six “GOLDEN CONTRAS” to randomly selected customers to mark the production of its 200,000th chainsaw. These lucky people opened the box to find a factory gold-painted chainsaw!
1963: Golden Contra
To mark the production of its 200,000th chainsaw, STIHL sends out a GOLDEN CONTRA every month in the winter of 1962/63. The customer who finds the gold-painted chainsaw in the shipping carton is invited to test the saw – and does not have to pay for it.
STIHL shared this summary of the promotion on an old version of their history page.
We’ve shared plenty of rare chainsaws on the blog, such as the STIHL 045 military saw, but the Golden Contra is on another level.
Only one confirmed model is remaining, and STIHL shared the story in a short film titled “The Hunt For The Golden Contra.” That links to our most recent post on this fascinating special-edition chainsaw.
It was previously thought that all of them had been destroyed, but that seems not to have been the case.
Here are some pictures people have shared of saws they claim might have been Golden Contras.
Skip said:
I have seen a pic of an unusual Contra that has blue paint over a gold undercoat.
Though it’s more likely a repainted army version Contra.
Next, here are pictures of Siem Terpstra’s replica Golden Contra.
This is a VERY golden contra.
The gold on the original doesn’t look quite this golden, but this is a nice job nonetheless.
Lastly, in the Contra FB group thread, Justin shared about a Golden STIHL 07 Chainsaw competition.
This was to make the production of 500,000 chainsaws, so I assume it was years later.
