It's a snapshot of the ceramic stylus that was used on my old Garrard tone-arm. This photo is about twice or thrice it's actual size, so you can image how small and delicate it was.
I remember the difficulty I had with fixing the stylus. It was like having a tooth extracted. I'd lift up the tonearm head as high as it could go, move the old stylus to a vertical position - by this time, my own mouth would be wide open - and then gently ease it out of the spring-like lock mechanism in the head. Then, I'd do the reverse to fit in the new stylus carefully. Beads of sweat by now.
The test of whether the whole operation was done correctly was to flip the stylus from its 33/45 rpm position to the 78 rpm position. It should flip smoothly but firmly from one side of the head to the other, otherwise you'd have to do it again.
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