From small treasures to massive fortunes, be sure to join us as we explore some of the
biggest sunken treasures ever discovered.
8.
Gold Coins And Chains The use of a metal detector to find treasure
has quickly become one of the most popular stories out there, and you'll find some of
them on this list believe it or not.
If you're in the right area, land or sea, you might just find something cool.
Like the person who found a gold chain that they were able to sell for a couple hundred
dollars.
But in Florida one time, a scuba diver was doing some searching underwater when their
detector found them a gold mine of treasure.
Over 50 gold coins AND a golden chain.
Apparently, the treasure came from a sunken Spanish vessel carrying treasure, and parts
of the treasure were scattered all over, and people have been finding it ever since.
7.
The Curedale Hoard Not all treasures are sunk in the oceans depths,
there are other watery places to find treasures like this you know.
For example, in 1840, some men were working near the Cuerdale River near Preston, England.
As they dug into an enbankment, they came across something that they didn't expect,
a giant lead box.
Don't worry, there weren't bodies inside the box, it was actually Viking treasure!
8600 pieces to be exact.
Of the lot were silver coins, ingots, jewelry, and many other items from that period of Viking
history.
While this may seem odd, you need to remember that Vikings loved to travel, they roamed
many parts of the old world, including going to England.
And they left their mark by burying some of their items.
The box itself actually had many different pieces from various groups of Vikings.
After some examinatino, they were confirmed to be from Scandinavia, Italy, and Byzantium
groups.
Quite the selection don't you think??
So what happened to the now called Curedale Hoard?
Simple, the mass of it was presented to Queen Victoria as a gift.
Because who doesn't love Viking treasure?
The value of the treasure is measured at $3.2 million, which was worth a lot back then.
Some of the pieces of the Hoard can be found in the Britain Museum.
So go take a look if you want.
6.
The Ophel Treasure Remember when I said that not all treasures
are sunk in the ocean?
Well, you can also be sunk within the Earth itself.
And many great treasures have been found this way.
Such as In Jerusalem in the country of Israel, when aarchaeologist Eilat Mazar was doing
excavation work around Temple Mount.
After doing some digging, they found a 36-piece treasure collection that no one had even considered
would be there.
A treasure that was around 1400 years old.
The "centerpiece" of this collection was a gold medallion that had the Menorah (the Jewish
Symbol for Hanukkah) engraved on it.
There were other gold coins found as well, as well as coils and ornaments there were
said to tie back to Torahs used in the nation.
There are a lot of mysteries as to how and why this treasure came to be sunken in the
earth around the temple.
The origin of the "burial" was traced back when the Persian Empire took over Jerusalem.
More speculation states that this particular treasure was not "hidden" from the Persians,
but rather abandoned due to reasons lost to time and history.
Regardless of the reason, many are happy it's been found, and who knows what other treasures
are hidden in the holy city of Jerusalem.
5.
Greek Shipwreck When it comes to "sunken treasures", one of
the most beloved kinds of finds is that of shipwrecks.
Because when there's a ship involved, that means there's a true history of what happened
there, and almost assuredly there is a treasure of some kind being found there.
Sure enough, a find by divers once led them to a Greek ship said to have been sunk over
2000 years ago.
And there were indeed many treasures within it.
Not the least of which was a bronze statue, as well as many pieces of gold and Greek jewelry.
The find in its entirety is said to be worth millions of dollars.
This is due in part to the fact that the Greeks are one of the most important nations in terms
of history, they brought many things to the world, and their treasures hold a higher value
than most.
4.
Belitung Shipwreck Let's keep going with the shipwrecks, shall
we?
Specifically, the Belitung Shipwreck, which is a vessel that went down in 830 AD.
It was an Arabian ship, one that headed from Africa to China, and it did make it to China.
But as it was trying to get back hom, the ship went wildly off course for a reason that
no one understands.
Due to this, the ship went down off the coast of Belitung Island, Indonesia.
Then, in 1998, the shipwreck was found in the Gelasa Strait.
But weirdly enough, it wasn't that deep underwater, only about 51 feet.
Making one wonder why it took over 1000 years to discover it.
Just as interesting, it was a group of fisherman that found it.
When they did, they sold the location of the ship to a company so that they could excavate
it.
The company went under and they found all sorts of wares from China, ones that were
steeped in history.
Some of the items found included: the largest Tang dynasty gold cup ever found, gold bowls,
green-splashed bowls from Iran, motifs from Central Asia and Persia, gilt-silver boxes,
gold dishes, and many valuable and expensive artifacts from various dynasties.
The word "plethora of treasures" would not be inaccurate to use in this case.
They even found 60,000 of "Dusun" storage jars.
How they got all of that on a ship is beyond me.
When calculated all together, the Belitung Shipwreck is worth $90 million dollars.
Now that's a sunken treasure find, don't you think?
3.
Drug Lords Millions Should we really be surprised that the Discovery
Channel found a massive amount of treasure one time?
Because I'm not.
But what makes this treasure is that it's not technically historical, but it is from
an infamous man of history, Pablo Escobar.
Pablo Escobar was a man who made billions of dollars smuggling illegal drugs into the
United States and beyond.
Business was booming for him, and for a long time he was viewed as untouchable, and even
able to get out of the most dire of situations.
Eventually, he died in 1993, and the search for all the secret deposits of cash that he
left behind began.
Because he no fool, he knew that he couldn't leave it all in one place.
Enter two ex-CIA agents who decided to take a look themselves, and even got a Discovery
Channel show out of the deal to showcase their journey to find the treasure.
Clues were hard to come by, and they had to dig deep into the life of Pablo Escobar to
find what they were looking for.
Eventually, the two agents found a submarine that Escobar had used to smuggle some of his
drugs off the coast of Puerto Rico.
Inside said submarine was a large box, one that contained $3.2 million dollars worth
of items.
2.
S.S Central America You know you've found something special when
the shipwreck you've discovered is eventually labeled as the "Ship of Gold".
This would be the S.S Central America.
This ship was actually a steamboat, and it sank in 1857.
So why was it called the "Ship of Gold'?
Simple, it was carrying gold, a LOT of it.
In fact, it was carrying over 10,000 pounds of gold.
Which today is worth over half of a billion dollars.
So imagine how made certain people were when it went down into the ocean.
Eventually, in 1988, a small salvage company was able to find the ship, and they got about
$150 million dollars worth of gold out of it.
Weirdly enough, the company was actually sued of sorts by various insurances companies who
claimed they had "Damages" to be paid for when that ship went down in 1857.
After a legal battle, the salvage company won and only had to give up about 8% of the
gold.
Which is still pretty good.
Where is the other $350 million in gold?
The ocean probably took it.
It's been over 150 years after all.
1.
Saddle Ridge Hoard Ok, this is a story that is too good to be
true, and yet, it's entirely true.
A couple in California was walking their dog on their private property in Gold Country,
which is Sierra Nevada, California, in 2014.
Nothing out of the ordinary, right?
Well, on this day, they went down a slightly different path than usual, and when they did,
they saw a metal can sticking up out of the ground.
Odd, but hardly life changing.
until they looked inside and saw gold coins within.
Yep, this happend.
The couple had found 1427 gold coins with this rather large can.
Now, if you were to take the literal value of the coins, they would be worth almost $30,000.
A nice score for anyone.
However, the coins held a historical value as well.
Which meant the hoard itself was worth around 10 million dollars.
The range of the coins in terms of dates was also impressive, as they ranged from 1847
to 1894.
So how did that range of coins get into a singular can?
No one really knows.
Rightfully paranoid, the two hid the coins until they could be verified.
And they have kept their identities and their location a secret so no one will come and
search their land.
But speaking honestly here, can you believe it?
That was a barely sunken (within the earth) treasure!
Why can't we get that lucky?
Thanks for watching everyone!
What did you think of these sunken treasures?
Were you surprised where some of these treasures were found?
Do you have an itch now to go and try to find some sunken treasure near you?
Let us know in the comments below, be sure to subscribe, and we'll see you next time!