In [138]: class bad(object): def __init__(self, str): self._str = str def __repr__(self): return repr(self._str) def __hash__(self): return 1 .....: In [145]: set([bad("cat"), bad("dog"), bad("fish")]) Out[145]: set(['cat', 'fish', 'dog']) In [146]: [hash(i) for i in set([bad("cat"), bad("dog"), bad("fish")])] Out[146]: [1, 1, 1]