Top 10 Craziest Real-Life Treasures Ever Discovered

In the late ‘80s, art dealer Forrest Fenn was diagnosed with apparently terminal cancer. Fenn decided to leave a treasure chest behind after his death, filled reportedly with coins, gold, jewels, and other valuables; hiding it somewhere in the Rocky Mountains in the United States. While Fenn survived, the hunt for his treasure did as well. On June 6th, 2020, the treasure was reportedly discovered at last. As of this writing though, precious little is known about who found the treasure or much of what it contains, but initial reports include antique coins and gold nuggets. Although the exact value of the chest’s contents varies, most estimates are that the treasure is worth somewhere between 1 and 5 million dollars.

Discovered in England in 1840 by workers along the River Ribble at Cuerdale, this hoard of buried treasure contains objects and coins from Viking raids and plunders. One of the largest Viking hoards ever discovered, the Cuerdale Hoard is mostly made up of various silver objects, including coins and jewelry. Estimated to have been buried sometime around the 10th century, the exact origins and history of the hoard remains unknown, although it’s speculated that it was some form of war chest that was intended to be retrieved later. Its total value is estimated to be around 3.2 million dollars.

Uncovered in Hoxne in Suffolk, England in 1992 by the use of a metal detector while searching for a lost hammer, the Hoxne Hoard is a large collection of Roman coins and other artifacts, the biggest ever found in Britain. The hoard contains over 14,000 coins — mostly silver, though with some gold and bronze — as well as jewelry and tableware. While the original owner and the history of the hoard remain unknowns, the dates on the coins indicate the earliest it could’ve been buried is 408 AD. The hoard’s total worth has been valued at around 3.59 million pounds in today’s currency, or around 4.42 million dollars.

Deposited some time during the 7th or 8th centuries, the Staffordshire Hoard is currently the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver treasure found to date. Discovered in 2009, by another metal detector, the Staffordshire Hoard is unusual in that all of its contents have primarily religious or martial significance, containing many fittings for swords and other weapons, rather than the typical coinage or jewelry found in most hoards. While its exact purpose and origin is unclear, the hoard was deposited during the time of the kingdom of Mercia. The hoard’s value is estimated at 3.285 million pounds, or around 4.1 million dollars.

Named for the town of Środa Śląska where it was discovered, the Środa Treasure was first discovered in 1985, during renovations on a telephone exchange building. Over the next several years, the treasure was unearthed by various parties, leading to several criminal investigations and attempts to buy the treasure back by the Polish government. The hoard consists primarily of 14th century coins from Bohemia, although several gold coins and pieces of jewelry were also found with it. Although its precise origin is unconfirmed, the consensus is that the treasure belonged to Charles IV of Luxembourg, who pawned the treasure to a local banker and never reclaimed it.

First discovered in 1900 off the coast of the island of Antikythera in Greece, this shipwreck has yielded treasures for over a century and counting from several expeditions. Artifacts recovered include bronze statues, bronze and silver coins, gold jewelry, and, perhaps most notably, a hand-powered device considered by many to be the world’s oldest analog computer. Estimates for the age of the wreck and its contents place it somewhere around the 1st century BC, making this one of the oldest treasures on our list. Meanwhile, its total value is said to range between 120 and 160 million dollars.

In 2007, American company Odyssey Marine Exploration recovered a sunken treasure off the coast of Portugal, which they codenamed Black Swan Project. The treasure consisted of around 500,000 silver and gold coins. It was soon discovered that the vessel in question was the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, a Spanish treasure naval frigate sunk by the British in 1804. This led to a legal struggle between Odyssey and the Spanish government, who claimed that it constituted looting. And well they should have been angry, considering the total worth of the treasure is somewhere in the neighborhood of half a billion dollars!

First found at the Tillya Tepe archaeological site in Afghanistan in 1978, the so-called Bactrian Gold, despite its name, actually doesn’t just contain gold. The hoard consists of over 20,000 different items of various precious materials. The hoard was interred in six burial mounds, five of them for women and one for a man. The general consensus among scholars is that these people were wealthy nomads of some kind, interred there sometime around the 1st century AD. The hoard contains items from China, India, and Rome. The diverse origins of the hoard’s contents are likely due to its owners traveling along the crossroads of the ancient world, which also makes the collection a priceless one, at least from a historical perspective.

Quite possibly the smallest treasure trove on our list, the Panagyurishte treasure consists of a mere 9 gold objects, mostly drinking instruments or vases. Found in the Bulgarian town which gives it its name, the treasure dates back to the 3rd or 4th centuries BC, and comes from the Thracian culture that inhabited the region at the time. While the monetary value of the gold is relatively small, at least for this list, the total haul is still 13 pounds of 24 karat gold! Still, the historical value of these ancient gold artifacts is where their true value lies, and they’re considered priceless.

Before we get to our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:

Saddle Ridge Hoard
Rusty Cans Full of Gold Coins

Frome Hoard
Roman Coins Found With a Metal Detector

Le Catillon II Hoard
Massive Trove of Celtic Coins Worth Millions

Belitung Shipwreck
Sunken Treasure From a 9th Century Arabian Ship

SS Republic Shipwreck
American Civil War-Era Steamship With Coins and Artifacts

This one is a bit of a two-fer! There have been several notable finds in the harbor of the ancient coastal city of Caesarea, Israel in the last few years. The first was in 2015, when divers located 2,000 gold dinar coins on the seafloor. These coins dated from the 11th century and were from the Islamic Fatimid Dynasty. Another find in the same area in 2016 saw divers discover a trove of Roman artifacts, including bronze statues and candlesticks. An exact value for all these incredible items hasn’t been calculated, but if you’re looking for sunken treasure, this is definitely a hot spot.