haiiro said:
I've never heard the term "teetota" before -- any idea as to its origin? I like the little configurable ones in the lower right hand corner, in any case. You have a very nifty collection. 
Thanks.
The lower right ones aren't actually teetota. Both halves of the die rotate freely around the central peg. The whole thing is tossed like a die. They're made in Germany and are called Millennium Dice.
A teetotum (plural teetota or teetotums) has a faceted part and a handle. Usually, the faceted and handle parts are fixed together, but I have seen a teetotum where the faceted part could rotate independently. Teetota are spun just like tops and, when they comes to rest, read like dice. Traditional teetota are 4-sided with letters on them (see below) but nowadays they often have numerals or spots and various number of sides. The red one in the middle of my pic has 10 sides. There's a kind of 4-sided Jewish teetotum with Hebrew letters called a dreidel. The rules for dreidels are the same as for traditional non-Jewish teetota. Some people, particularly in N. America, use the terms dreidel and teetotum interchangeably.
Here's a definition of teetotum from Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary 1998:
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teetotum
\Tee*to"tum\, n. [For T-totum. It was used for playing games of chance, and was four-sided, one side having the letter {T} on it, standing for Latin totum all, meaning, take all that is staked, whence the name. The other three sides each had a letter indicating an English or Latin word; as {P} meaning put down, {N} nothing or L. nil, {H} half. See Total.] A child's toy, somewhat resembling a top, and twirled by the fingers.
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. I have another 30 or 40 dice at work, but obviously not enough to make 2501. However, I do solemly swear that the next chance I get I will go out and by 150 dice. 
