You know that feeling when you find some extra cash in an old jacket pocket? No matter who you are, it always brings a smile to your face, and you walk away feeling lucky.
Now imagine that on a much larger scale. Imagine you were lucky enough to happen upon something worth millions!
In this article, you will read about people who were going about their normal daily lives when suddenly, they found themselves in possession of bags of cash or a lost painting worth a fortune.
Keep reading to find out how these 25 valuable discoveries happened in the most unusual places.
Now imagine that on a much larger scale. Imagine you were lucky enough to happen upon something worth millions!
In this article, you will read about people who were going about their normal daily lives when suddenly, they found themselves in possession of bags of cash or a lost painting worth a fortune.
Keep reading to find out how these 25 valuable discoveries happened in the most unusual places.
Declaration Discovery
While browsing a flea market in Philadelphia, a financial analyst was drawn to a painting of an old country setting because he really liked its wooden frame. After purchasing the painting, he brought it home and removed it from the frame. At first, the man was very disappointed because the frame had fallen apart. But between the painting and its backing, he discovered an antique copy of the Declaration of Independence from July 4, 1776.
This incredible find is one of just 24 copies still in existence today. Its value is estimated to be between $800,000 and $1.2 million.
Secret Theater Found in Paris Underground
In 2004, a movie theater with seats cut into the stone of the catacombs was discovered by police beneath a region of Paris. It even had a fully functional bar. It left the police baffled because none of the discovered films were obscene or illegal. Someone merely wanted to set up a spooky home theater. The designers of the unauthorized structure had even stolen power from the apartments on the streets above.
Upon their return to catch the perpetrators, the French police were left red-faced as the theater had been dismantled. But they did find a note that read, "Don't try to find us."
A Mammoth Discovery in Iowa
In 2010, a man and his two sons were out blackberry picking in the fields behind their home in Iowa when one of the boys spotted what he thought was a ball. Following a closer inspection, the boy and his family discovered that the weird item was actually something much larger, and they began to excavate. After hours of digging and some investigation, they soon realized that they had unearthed a four-foot-long dinosaur bone.
The family brought the bone to the University of Iowa, where specialists identified it as a femur from an old woolly mammoth from the Ice Age.
California Couple Hit the Jackpot
Keep reading if you have ever fantasized about discovering hidden treasure. At a Sierra Nevada property in California, a couple who claim to have walked over the same area numerous times over many years unearthed eight rusty old cans holding rare gold coins while digging on their property. Thanks to their discovery, the couple is now worth an estimated $10 million. It is believed to be the most valuable coin find in U.S. history.
The face value of each gold coin is approximately $27,000, but coin experts estimate they are worth about $1 million each due to their rarity.
The Adventures of Huck Finn Have Been Found
After being missing for over a century, the handwritten manuscript for half of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was finally found in a California attic in 1991. For close to 30 years, the manuscript was simply left sitting, waiting to be found in one of six trunks. While the trunks belonged to a Buffalo, New York, attorney, he is known to have communicated with Mark Twain when he was alive.
Scholars of Mark Twain described the 665-page document as a remarkable literary find that would rekindle discussion about one of the world's most widely-read works.
Buried Backyard Ferrari
In a Los Angeles backyard in February 1978, two children were playing in the dirt when they heard a loud thud that resembled a car roof. To their delight, the vehicle was identified as a Ferrari Dino 246 GTS from 1974. It turned out that a few years previous to the incredible discovery, the automobile had been declared stolen. It was also clear that its new owner intended to return for the fabulous Ferrari.
There were towels in the vents and tape on many of the seams, but the windows weren't properly closed, so there was a lot of damage on the inside.
Man of Steel Found in Minnesota
A man in Minnesota who bought an abandoned house near Elbow Lake found an incredible discovery hidden in one of the walls that made his investment worthwhile. As he was exploring his newly acquired property, David Gonzalez discovered what can only be described as the "Holy Grail" of comic books. Among the items found was a copy of Action Comics No. 1, featuring Superman. It features the man of steel on the cover lifting a vehicle above his head.
The iconic 1938 comic book that debuted Joe Schuster and Jerry Siegel’s Superman fetched a whopping $175,000 at auction. Sometimes it pays to take a risk!
Farmer Finds Viking Ship in Field
Archaeologists accidentally found a huge Viking ship buried under a farmer's field in Norway while using ground-penetrating radar to search the area. It was pure chance that the boat was discovered. Initial scans were intended to uncover a long-lost village for archaeological investigation. Aerial scans showed that one of the nearby fields had a big object buried under a thin layer of dirt. After some careful excavation, they got quite a surprise.
The ship was 16 or 17 meters long, and the archaeologists estimated its age to be greater than 1,000 years based on the length of the keel.
This Buddha Has a Secret
Buddha statues are pretty common and they can be found anywhere from a mountain top to a trendy restaurant. This Buddha statue, on the other hand, is rather unique. According to an inspection conducted after experts flipped the statue over for a CT scan, they found a 1,000-year-old mummy concealed inside the bronze-like shell. Experts believe that an incredibly creepy procedure known as "self-mummification" was what happened to this particular person.
The original "Breaking Home Bonds" painting later brought $15.4 million at auction. Not only did the brothers make a fortune on the painting, but they also uncovered quite the story.
Self-mummification was a procedure practiced by Buddhist monks who endured asceticism, or severe self-discipline until they were almost dead. Then they entered mummification while still alive.
Self-mummification was a procedure practiced by Buddhist monks who endured asceticism, or severe self-discipline until they were almost dead. Then they entered mummification while still alive.
$15M Painting Hidden From Ex-Wife
While two brothers were searching their late father's house, they discovered something concealed between the walls. It was a Norman Rockwell painting worth millions of dollars. The problem was that an identical Norman Rockwell was already hanging on the wall across from it. There were two identical paintings—one concealed and the other displayed. The father had hung a fake after hiding the real one from his wife during a divorce.
The original "Breaking Home Bonds" painting later brought $15.4 million at auction. Not only did the brothers make a fortune on the painting, but they also uncovered quite the story.
Suspicious Fossil Found in Desert
A tiny, oddly formed, 6-inch-tall skeleton was discovered in the Chilean desert in 2003. Several people were baffled by this creature's strangely stretched-out skull and enormous eye sockets. The finding raised questions, prompting suspicion that it may be an alien life form. In 2018, genetic information, CT scans, and X-rays confirmed that it was a human fetus, but its bone structure was equivalent to that of a 6-year-old. People remained suspicious.
The skeleton also had a lot of strange genetic anomalies, including 54 mutations that have never been seen before and are hard for scientists to understand.
Safe Discovered With Clues to the Hidden Treasure
While remodeling their kitchen, a couple in Phoenix, Arizona, came across a mysterious safe in the wall. Upon opening the safe, they discovered a stash of cash and alcohol inside. But there were also clues to a hidden treasure. They uncovered a string of items—a book, photos, and other items—but it was the handwritten instructions that caught the couple's attention. So they began to decipher the clues to the hidden treasure.
Unfortunately, they have not yet figured out how to decode the clues. Whoever left the safe there made sure no one would ever crack the code.
2000 Year Old Computer
While it was found in a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901, the highly intricate device known as The Antikythera Mechanism is thought to be around 2000 years old. It has been called "the first analog computer in the world." A contraption so complicated that no scientists can fully agree on its origins, it is constructed of bronze and features gears and mechanisms that were well ahead of their time.
There is disagreement on the machine's operation and purpose. Some experts believe that it was used to read the stars to make accurate future predictions.
8,000 Pounds Quartz Discovered
Quartz may be found in many forms, from rock to precious stones. Gem variants include the purple amethyst and yellow citrine, and it is the second most abundant mineral in the Earth's crust. Quartz can be found just about anywhere, but a natural quartz slab weighing in at 8,000-pounds is a rare find. The Berns Quartz found in 2016 is about eight feet tall and is the biggest piece of quartz currently on display in the United States.
Because of its exceptional purity, quality, condition, and rarity, the enormous cluster of crystals was valued at $4 million. That's one for the bucket list!
Virginia Family Have Good Fortune
Due to the coronavirus lockdown, a family with cabin fever decided to go on a drive. While they were out, they found two bags of cash totaling over $1 million. Like a scene straight out of a Hollywood movie, David and Emily Schantz of Caroline County, Virginia, were traveling with their children when they spotted the bags lying in the middle of the road. What they assumed was trash turned out to be a fortune.
These fine citizens were rewarded for doing good deed. They stopped to pick up what they thought was rubbish, only to find $1 million.
Pet Cemetery in Preu
The ancient Peruvians valued their pet hounds highly and viewed them as family members. Since 1993, Peruvian researcher Sonia Guillen and her colleagues have excavated 82 dog graves in pet cemetery plots. These pet plots were discovered alongside human mummy tombs in a cemetery of the Chiribaya people, who predated the Inca Empire. The cherished pets employed to herd llamas were buried in separate sites alongside their human owners, and many were buried with goodies and blankets.
Guillen's team is presently working to establish that the Chiribaya shepherds have descendants who live today and that the dogs are a distinct South American breed.
An Attic Full of Antiques
David Whitcomb purchased a house in Geneva, New York without realizing it contained over a thousand priceless artifacts estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Whitcomb made the discovery in late 2020, a few weeks after he purchased the property for his legal office. When he was giving a guest a tour of the residence, his eyes lit up when he saw part of an ancient drop ceiling on the third level.
Whitcomb discovered almost a thousand antiquities in the upstairs studio of photographer James Ellery Hale. The appraisers put the value of the artifacts at $150,000-$200,000.
Jungle Flower Is the Largest in the World
In 1818, a French scientific voyage to Asia found an unique flower in the Indonesian rainforest. The biggest flower in the world is the Rafflesia arnoldii, whose single bloom may be up to three feet across. This plant is no lightweight either. It can weigh up to fifteen pounds. It's so big that you can even hear it when it starts blooming. But before you take this plant home to your loved one, it has a strong stench of decaying flesh.
Although the scent of the plant may not be to everyone's taste, it does draw pollinating insects. The plants then bloom once again after a year.
Mystery of the Underground Chapel
In 2010, the Farla family members were enjoying beverages at their Telford, Shropshire, house when they decided to investigate a metal grill they had discovered sometime before. They managed to squeeze through the meter-long rectangle after removing the grill. After some scrambling and climbing, they eventually found themselves in a little, creepy crypt that resembled a church. Experts think it was a hiding spot for Catholics who were given the death penalty.
Another theory is that Churchill's secret army utilized the space as a bunker during World War II. Whatever it was used for, it certainly was an amazing find!
Five-Million-Dollar Figurine Found in an Attic
A tiny Russian statue concealed in an upstate New York attic for 70 years was auctioned off for an incredible $5.2 million in 2013. This diamond-encrusted figure was produced around 1912. Only a few years before his death, Czar Nicholas II gave it to his wife. According to experts, it is one of just 50 similar monuments that still exist today. In 1934, George Davis of the Hammer Galleries in Manhattan bought it for $2,250.
Mr. Davis's relatives discovered the statue in its original box when searching through his estate after his death. I wonder if Mr. Davis realized its value.
A Great Set for a Horror Movie
After browsing through old photographs of his 500-year-old family house in Sussex, Freddy Goodall found a doorway in the library. He realized that a bookshelf had concealed the entrance and decided to investigate. The 23-year-old describes finding a corridor connecting to basement chambers before revealing a dim, vacant room. According to Mr. Goodall, in the 1800s, servants may have utilized the passages to enter the main property secretly and without the landlord's knowledge.
Also, he found desks and ancient textbooks from the 1900s, when the place housed a boarding school. A spooky discovery straight out of a horror movie!
Craigslist Cash
After a Rabbi purchased a desk on Craigslist, he received far more than he bargained for: over $100,000 in cash. Noah Muroff of Connecticut paid $200 for the robust wooden desk, but when he removed the drawers and cupboards to get it through his front door, he discovered a shopping bag full of $100 bills. After discovering the cash, the Rabbi immediately called the woman who sold him the desk.
After receiving the phone call, the woman quickly realized that the cash was her inheritance money. She explained to the Rabbi that she had forgotten where she left it!
Pullout Couch Reveals Expensive Painting
Secondhand stores occasionally throw sell valuable items worth hundreds or even millions of dollars without realizing it. Take this German student for example; she was literally sitting on a fortune. After paying $215 for an old couch bed at a flea market in 2006, the student reportedly only briefly used it as place to sit. Eventually she managed to remove the bed from the sofa only to discover that the sofa was concealing a Venetian artwork.
"Preparing to Escape to Egypt" was painted between 1605 and 1620 by an unidentified artist, and it was sold at auction in Hamburg for $27,630.
Largest Diamond Ever Discovered
Believe it or not, Arkansas is home to the biggest diamond ever discovered in the United States. In 1924, a farmer named John Huddleston unearthed a white diamond known as the Uncle Sam Diamond in a quartzite outcrop in Arkansas. The immaculate 12.4-carat pink diamond was cut from a crystal weighing a massive 40.23 carats. The Huddleston family once owned the land that is now Crater of Diamonds State Park.
A private collector purchased the stone in 1971 for $150,000, which is equivalent to over $1 million in today's value. It was donated to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in 2022.
Chinese Vase Found in Old Shoe Box
An 18th-century Chinese vase that had been abandoned for decades was auctioned off for €16,2 million in 2018. The porcelain vase, found in a shoe box in a French attic, was manufactured for Qing-era Emperor Qianlong, according to auction house specialists. They also stated that finding this vase is comparable to finding a Caravaggio. The vase was in great condition and is the only one in the world with such intricacies.
The vase, which features images of deer and cranes, was discovered by chance in a house in France, together with hundreds of other Chinoiserie items.
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