- World’s Largest Pearl Found Hidden Under Bed for 10 Years
Location: Palawan, Philippines
Year Discovered: 2009
Est. Value: $93 million*
What’s under your bed? Most of us have a lot of dust bunnies, as well as some random items that might have slipped under there at some point over the years. One person in Palawan, Philippines found something completely unexpected: a 75-pound pearl that had been lying there for ten years.
The owner of the bed forgot it was there, though he originally stored the pearl, which came from a giant clam, under his bed as a good luck charm. Now called the Puerto Princesa pearl, this 2.2’ x 1’ pearl is displayed in the city hall of the town in which it was discovered. According to NPR, the pearl, which was originally found by a fisherman, is worth around $93 million.
2. Student Buys Flea-market Sofa, Finds Venetian Painting Inside
Location: Berlin, Germany
Year Discovered: 2018 Est. Value: $27,630*
Students often hit up thrift stores as a way to find cheap furniture. One lucky student shopper purchased a pullout couch for just $215 at a store in Berlin, Germany. When she unfolded the couch at her home, she discovered a painting worth around one hundred times that amount. After having it authenticated, it was determined that the 10” x 15” painting was “Preparation to Escape to Egypt,” created by an unknown artist working with Carlo Saraceni, a famous Venetian painter, from 1605 to 1620. How the painting survived in such good condition was amazing, and it was later sold at auction for nearly $28,000 in Hamburg.
3.Two Kids Find a Ferrari Buried in Their Backyard
Location: Los Angeles, California
Year Discovered: 1978
Est. Value: $853,000*
This is a wild story, and it all starts with two boys digging in their yard in California. They stumbled upon a rare 1974 Ferrari Dino GTS a few feet underneath the dirt in their yard. The Dino was crudely wrapped with towels and a tarp, indicating that its former owner meant to exhume it one day. But, that’s only half the story. As it turns out, the Dino’s former owner hired thieves to steal his own car and dump it in the ocean so he could commit insurance fraud. Instead, the thieves buried the car, hoping to return to pick it up in a plan that never panned out (though the former owner’s insurance fraud scheme worked). The plot of this wacky tale would make for a great IMAX movie.
4. Couple Finds $10M in Gold Coins Buried in Yard
Location: Northern California, USA
Year Discovered: 2014
Est. Value: $10 million*
A Northern California couple was out walking their dog when they stumbled across an amazing discovery, right in the heart of Gold Country. Buried within the shadow of an old tree were nearly 1,500 gold coins. Though the face value of the coins was in the tens of thousands, many of the mint-condition pieces were so rare that their face value was far higher. Much like the leprechaun on the cover of Lucky Charms boxes, this couple truly found a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The pair chose, understandably, to remain anonymous in the midst of this major news story, as they wanted to avoid an influx of people coming to their property with metal detectors.
5. Fairy-Tale Treasure Unearthed by Austrian Man Digging in Yard
Location: Wiener Neustadt, Austria
Year Discovered: 2011
Est. Value: Unknown
If this doesn’t inspire you to go digging in your yard, nothing will. In the spring of 2011, one Austrian man was turning dirt in his backyard when he discovered a treasure trove. The trove was full of hundreds upon hundreds of pieces of jewelry, including 200 rings, ornate belt buckles, brooches, silver plates, and more. Many of the fragments were encrusted with fossilized coral, pearls, and other valuable materials. The objects, when evaluated, were found to be around 650 years old. Though the Austrian government never assigned a monetary value to this treasure, it did call the find one of the “most significant” discoveries of Middle Age treasure in Austrian history.
6.Eccentric Doctor Hides a Car Worth $8.5 Million in his Dusty Garage for Decades
Location: Northumberland, England
Year Discovered: 2007 Est. Value: $8.5 million*
In his last few years, Dr. Harold Carr was a recluse, and even his children didn’t know what he was up to. The orthopedic surgeon passed away in 2007, and, when his kids began to go through his estate, they found a shocking surprise. Carr had hidden a 1937 Bugatti 57S Atalante, one of just seventeen in existence, in his garage. The car was valued at $8.5 million. Carr had purchased the vehicle from a Northumberland lord in the mid-1950s, and he kept it in his garage for decades, though he did drive it for a short while in the 1960s.
7. 1,100-Year-Old Treasure Is Unearthed by Teenagers in Israel
Location: Yavne, Israel
Year Discovered: 2020
Est. Value: $52,600* (Base Value)
Two teenagers in Israel were volunteering at an archaeological dig in Yavne when they discovered gold—literally. The two eighteen-year-olds unearthed 425 gold coins from a clay vessel buried in the earth. When dated, the coins were 1,100 years old. Based on gold’s price per gram, the coins’ estimated value is $52,600. But, considering their age and historical significance, their actual value is likely far higher. All of the coins are composed of pure, 24-karat gold, and the cache was one of the oldest found from this period (the late ninth century) in Israel. Sadly, the two teens do not get to keep their gold mine.
8. Buried 17th Century Treasure Found in the Bahamas
Location: Little Bahama Bank
Year Discovered: 2020
Est. Value: $250,000*
The Bahamas isn’t just a place with sandy beaches and turquoise waters—it is also a historically significant location, as the region spent centuries as a hub for traders and sea voyagers. Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas, a Spanish galleon, sank in 1656 off the coast of Little Bahama Bank. It hit its fleet flagship, then a coral reef, and then it sank, scattering its remains throughout the seafloor. For centuries, people tried to locate the Maravillas with no luck. That is, until 2020. An exploration finally found this wreck, uncovering 3,000 silver coins, anchors, amethysts, emeralds, gold coins, and more from the galleon’s wreckage.
9. Pot of Gold Found Under Italian Theater
Location: Como, Italy
Year Discovered: 2018
Est. Value: $400,000*
In 2018, workers were demolishing the Cressoni Theater, an abandoned theater in Como, Italy, when they stumbled upon a shiny, golden discovery. Underneath the theater was a soapstone amphora holding 300 coins, all of which dated back to the Roman Imperial Era of 474 A.D. The coins were stacked together in rolls. According to Maria Facchinetti, a coin expert, whoever buried the jar there hid it in such a way that, if there was danger, he or she could easily retrieve it. Life must have been easy for this treasure-hoarder, as these coins were not uncovered until centuries later.
10. Extraordinary Trove of Ancient Gold Rings Discovered in Romanian Grave
Location: Oradea, Romania
Year Discovered: 2022
Est. Value: $500,000*
The Copper Age, also known as the Chalcolithic Period, was an era that is characterized by the human discovery and manipulation of copper. Humans had yet to discover bronze alloys, but they were hot on the trail during the Copper Age. They also loved gold, it seems. In 2022, archaeologists in Romania uncovered a huge, extraordinary cache of golden rings that were once worn by a woman in her hair 6,500 years ago. The cache included 169 golden rings, an ornate spiral bracelet made of copper, and 800 bone beads. The size of the skeleton, and the fact that it was buried without weapons, indicated that this was a woman who was very rich, well-fed, and likely had an elite status in the Copper Age civilization.
11. Millennia-Old Gold Mask Found in China Stuns Experts
Location: Sanxingdui Dig, Sichuan, China
Year Discovered: 2021
Est. Value: $11,196* (Half-Pound of Gold Price)
At the Sanxingdui Dig in Sichuan, China, experts have uncovered not one, but two, golden masks. The half-pound mask finds were unprecedented. Sanxingdui has yielded many different artifacts since it was discovered in 1929, but this level of craftsmanship and luxury has not been unveiled until these masks. The foot-long golden masks were crafted by ancient people, and they were found among a cache that included 500 pieces, such as a bronze head, urn, jade knife, and more. A half-pound of gold is worth around $11,196, but this mask would likely be far more valuable because of the historical meaning attached to it.
12. A Once-Lost, $100 Million Pirate Treasure Uncovered off the Coast of Cape Cod
Location: Off The Coast Of Cape Cod
Year Discovered: 1984
Est. Value: $100 million*
Known as the Whydah Gally Treasure, this hoard remains the only pirate treasure ever actually discovered in the world. The Whydah was launched in London, and, in the 1700s, it was captured by “Black Sam” Bellamy, an infamous pirate who held a major role in the Golden Age of Piracy. In 1717, Black Sam’s captured ship went down off the coast of Cape Cod. Crewmembers who survived the shipwreck were quickly punished for piracy. The Whydah Gally’s treasure eluded people for centuries until 1984 when the wreck was finally discovered beneath fifty feet of sand. The treasure onboard this sunken pirate ship was worth $100 million, as the pirates had been hauling 10,000 pounds of silver, gold, gold dust, and jewelry at the time of the wreck.
13. Shigir Idol From 10,000 B.C. Found at the Bottom of a Peat Bog
Location: Ural Mountains, Shigir, Russia
Year Discovered: 1890
Est. Value: Priceless
The Shigir Idol, also known as the Shigir Sculpture, holds the distinction of being the oldest wooden sculpture in the world. The Shigir Idol was made shortly after the final Ice Age ended during the Mesolithic Period. The wood from which the Idol is carved is 12,000 years old. The Idol was discovered in 1890, thirteen feet below the surface of a peat bog in the Ural Mountains of Shigir, Russia. Researchers had been combing through the area for years, as many prehistoric objects had been found there. None, however, were as amazing as this Shigir Idol. It is thought that this tall, wooden monument could have served as a religious icon, a warning, or a navigational aid.
14. Treasure Trove Recovered from a 366-year-old Shipwreck in the Bahamas
Location: The Bahamas
Year Discovered: 2022 (This Trove)
Est. Value: $1.6 billion* (Total Shipwreck Estimate)
It’s amazing how many pieces of gold and precious jewels have been found at the site of shipwrecks over the years. In 2022, a treasure trove was discovered at the site of the Nuestra Senora de las Maravillas, a 366-year-old shipwreck that is 43 miles off the Bahamian coast. Maravillas was traveling from Spain to Colombia when a navigational mistake caused it to collide with another vessel. The crash was devastating, and the wreckage is now spread across the ocean floor. Though the $1.6 billion shipwreck has had its treasures looted over the years, the discovery of this new trove is exciting for researchers. All in all, Maravillas was carrying 3.5 million pieces of treasure when it went to its watery grave
15. 17th-Century Coins Found in a Fruit Grove May Solve a 300-Year-Old Pirate Mystery
Location: Rhode Island
Year Discovered: 2014
Est. Value: $200-$600 per coin*
Who doesn’t love a good pirate mystery? In 2014, someone wandering around a Rhode Island orchard with a metal detector found an Arabian coin dating back to the 1600s. Early European settlers didn’t trade with Arab merchants back then, so how did the coin end up in the colonies? This question led to the unraveling of a centuries-old pirate mystery. The Yemeni coin, which was minted in 1693, was potentially the possession of Henry Every, a notorious pirate captain. Every was thought to have set foot somewhere in New England (perhaps in Rhode Island) before his disappearance in 1696. It’s possible this coin was part of Every’s stolen loot, and he accidentally dropped it while on the run from pirate-hanging authorities. More coins were found in other New England states, further deepening the mystery.
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