9.
VINTAGE BUGATTI
In 2009, divers pulled a 1925 Bugatti Type 22 Brescia Roadster from the bottom of Lake
Maggiore along the border between Italy and Switzerland.
After sitting underwater for 73 years, it had become heavily damaged and rusted.
Despite its condition, the car sold at auction for around $400,000 (£294,000).
But how did it get to the bottom of a lake in the first place?
According to records, the Bugatti was registered to a French address when it became submerged
in 1935.
Grand Prix driver René Dreyfus had reportedly lost it to Swiss playboy Adalbert Bodé in
a drunk poker game the previous year.
Adalbert allegedly tried to bring the car to Switzerland, but he didn’t want to pay
the hefty import taxes that came along with it.
So he told the authorities to do whatever they wanted with it, and they supposedly handled
the matter by rolling the car into Lake Maggiore.
The vehicle wasn’t worth much.
A diver named Ugo Pillon rediscovered it in 1967, but it wasn’t until over 40 years
later that a local diving club rescued it with plans to sell it and donate the proceeds
to a charity dedicated to combating youth violence.
Peter Mullin, who owns the Mullin Automotive Museum in California, bought the Bugatti and
put it on display there.
He did not restore it but left it “as is,” placing it in an exhibit that recreates the
feel of being at the bottom of a lake.
8.
ROMAN-ERA COIN HOARD
During a recent family vacation to the Spanish coastal town of Xàbia, brothers-in-law Luis
Lens Pardo and César Gimeno Alcalá went snorkeling.
Their original goal was to clean up trash, but plans changed when one man noticed something
glimmering on the Mediterranean seafloor.
He went to investigate and found that it was a coin.
After cleaning it off, he saw it featured an ancient Greek or Roman-like face.
The coin was in a small hole, and the pair suspected that there were more where it came
from.
They returned with a Swiss Army knife and found seven more coins.
Lens Pardo and Gimeno Alcalá reported the discovery to local authorities, who dispatched
a team of archaeologists to the site.
They found 53 gold coins dating between 364 and 408 A.D.
when the western Roman Empire was in decline.
The coins are extremely well-preserved, bearing identifiable images of the Roman emperors
Valentinian I, Valentinian II, Theodosius I, Arcadius, and Honorius.
There’s only one coin with an unidentifiable portrait.
It’s one of the largest Roman coin hoards ever found in Europe, and it’s especially
valuable because it could help to shed light on the circumstances of the empire’s last
days.
Researcher Jaime Molina Vidal told LiveScience that the discovery reflects the type of fear
someone might have when burying their treasure hoard to hide it from invaders.
Researchers have found no nearby shipwrecks, further pointing toward the possibility that
someone concealed their treasure.
7.
NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LAS MERCEDES WRECK
Back in 1804, a treasure-laden ship called the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes sank off
Portugal’s Cape St. Mary during a battle.
Odyssey Marine Exploration discovered the wreck in 2007.
The U.S.-based salvage company raised 594,000 gold and silver coins, totaling a value of
roughly $394 million, and sent the treasure to Tampa.
Subsequent dives led by Cartegena’s National Museum of Underwater Archaeology (ARQUA),
which is managed by Spain’s Culture Ministry, began in 2014.
The first of three expeditions so far yielded thousands of artifacts as researchers ventured
into the heart of the ship, including “anchors, iron and bronze cannon, copper and tin ingots,
a silver dinner service and cutlery, silver candlesticks, a gold pestle, and others,”
according to a report from the University of Warsaw.
The treasures show what early 19th-century life was like, making their scientific and
historic value immeasurable.
Researchers believe the ship sank before Spain joined France in the Napoleonic Wars against
Britain, which started after the breakdown of the 1802 Treaty of Amiens between France
and Britain.
6.
RIVER WEAR HOARD
A pair of British divers named Gary and Trevor Bankhead have made hundreds of dives at historical
sites around the world.
While working under a contract with the British government in 2007, they uncovered a trove
of gold and silver treasures from the River Wear outside Durham Castle.
The 32 objects, which were once owned by the Queen, the Pope, and other leaders, included
goblets, medals, crucifixes, and more.
They date back to different periods, including the medieval, Saxon, and Roman eras.
The Bankhead brothers also found a solid gold Japanese coin marking the 60th renovation
of the Grand Shrine of Ise, the country’s most important Shinto temple.
But what was it doing in England?
The explanation is simple.
The 24-karat piece belonged to Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey, who received
it during a 1973 trip to Japan.
While visiting, he met Nikkyo Niwano, the president of the country’s Buddhist movement.
The coin is worth around $16,500 in today’s money.
Altogether, the divers uncovered hundreds of treasures, known as the River Wear hoard.
At least 30 belonged to Ramsey.
Besides the Japanese coin, Ramsey’s items included a silver trowel from India, an 18-carat
gold medallion, and a 19th-century Russian icon.
Among the other objects, there was a brothel token featuring a woman’s legs.
It was the first of its kind ever found in the U.K.
The collection also included a 13th-century seal and a brooch depicting Queen Elizabeth
and Sir Walter Raleigh, a historically famous statesman, and explorer.
Nobody knows how Ramsey’s belongings ended up in the river.
One theory holds that he threw them in there as a gift to the locals after he retired to
Durham in 1974 and before he died in 1988.
5.
THAI BULLET COINS
Before Thailand got its current name in 1939, we knew it as Siam.
Historically, Siam and the kingdoms before it used a type of currency called phatdouang,
also known as bullet money or bullet coins.
They were mostly made from bars of silver bent into a round shape and stamped with marks,
and were issued according to the baht system of weights, which is also what modern Thai
currency is based on.
Bullet coins were first commonly used sometime between the 13th and 15th centuries, during
the Sukhothai Kingdom.
They remained in use during the subsequent Ayutthaya, Thonburi, and Rattanakosin kingdoms.
The currency was de-circulated in 1904 in favor of flat coinage.
Modern divers, nicknamed “Indiana Jones,” scour Thailand’s riverbeds for ancient treasures.
Copper points can reap as much as $15 each, which is twice the country’s average daily
wage.
But bullet coins fetch an even prettier penny, selling for as much as $300 each.
Most people outside of Thailand wouldn’t recognize a ‘bullet coin’ unless they
knew what they were looking for, since they don’t resemble the coins that we’re used
to using.
So, to anyone with an untrained eye, these artifacts would be very mysterious to come
across.
If you found a valuable coin, what would you do with it?
Let me know in the comments and remember to subscribe to the channel.
4.
SAN JOSE SHIPWRECK The Spanish loaded the galleon, San Jose,
with gold, silver, and emeralds, then the British attacked it off the Cartagena, Colombia
coast in 1708.
It was sailing as part of the Spanish treasure fleet when the ships crossed paths with a
British squadron.
The encounter erupted into Wager’s Action.
San Jose’s powder magazines exploded during the skirmish, causing the galleon to sink
with most of its crew and all of its treasure still aboard.
Only 11 people survived the harrowing ordeal.
Nobody knows what caused the explosion, but some experts speculate that the ship’s captain
shot them because having the treasure plunge to the seafloor was better than letting it
fall into British hands.
The wreck remained missing for centuries as treasure hunters scrambled to locate it, hoping
to cash in on an enormous fortune.
Based on the cargo that reportedly went down with the San Jose, experts have estimated
the goods to be worth upwards of $14 billion in modern currency.
When the Sea Search Armada (SSA) expedition funded by U.S. investors claimed to have found
the wreck in 1981, the Colombian government was quick to establish a new law giving themselves
the rights to the treasure.
Authorities refused to let the discoverers excavate the site, and they retaliated by
suing.
Long story short, the courts declared the wreck property of the Colombian state.
The country’s Navy rediscovered the submerged ship in 2015 and the custody battle ensued,
this time with Spain trying to lay claim to some of the goods.
The Indigenous Qhara Qhara people of modern-day Bolivia, whose land the Spanish extracted
the treasures from, have also expressed an interest in collecting the fortune.
Sea Search Armada is also still fighting for its piece of the pie, and the case currently
lies in the hands of the Columbian Supreme Court.
3.
ANCIENT OFFERINGS Along the modern-day border between Bolivia
and Peru, Lake Titicaca was one of the ancient Incas’ most sacred sites.
The once-powerful civilization considered the lake to be their place of origin, and
its significance increased dramatically during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Explorers have found many artifacts at the site that speak of its importance.
During an underwater survey a few years ago, archaeologists discovered a small box.
Someone made the container from a locally sourced volcanic stone called andesite.
Explorers retrieved the artifact 18 feet (5.5 meters) below the water’s surface, where
it had sat undisturbed for over five centuries.
It contained a llama figurine made from a rare and valuable coral shell, as well as
a small rolled sheet of gold.
Researchers believe ancient people immersed the items in the lake as part of a ritualistic
offering to the Inca gods.
The box is just one of the many discoveries at Lake Titicaca that were likely deposited
as part of a spiritual ceremony.
Divers have recovered over two dozen stone boxes from another part of the lake, but they
found the contents of only four intact.
They contained offerings, including figurines of male and female humans, as well as llamas,
made from precious metals and other valuable materials.
Christophe Deleare, who co-authored a study of the artifacts, told National Geographic
that the offerings contained requests of varying amounts and contexts, including political
and agricultural pleadings.
He also said that the Inca who lived along Lake Titicaca was likely influenced by previous
cultures, such as the Tiwanaku, who inhabited the area between 200 B.C. and 1000 A.D.
But the exact meanings and dynamics behind the offerings are up for debate among experts,
who are still trying to interpret them.
2.
A LOST EMPIRE’S GOLD
Between the 7th and 11th centuries, the powerful Srivijaya Empire controlled much of Asia’s
maritime trade.
The civilization was headquartered on what is now the Indonesian island of Sumatra in
the city of Palembang.
It left behind little archaeological evidence, leaving modern experts with limited knowledge
of what the Srivijaya Empire was like.
No one has ever found traces of the city’s buildings, perhaps because a volcano buried
them or because they were made from wood and deteriorated.
Much of what researchers know about Srivijaya comes from the eyewitness accounts of travelers
who passed through.
It was reportedly rich in gold and used its wealth to build helpful relationships with
China and other powerful societies.
The empire also financed Buddhist monasteries and temples in China, Java, and India.
Nobody has ever carried out official archaeological excavations in the area.
But people began finding coins, jewelry, and other treasure along the Musi River in 2011
and the discoveries continue to this day.
Late last year, divers found gold rings, beads, precious gems, a Buddha statue, and other
objects that are thought to be from the Srivijaya Empire.
British maritime archaeologist Sean Kingsley suspects Srivijaya was a floating city made
of wood, which rotted after the city’s abandonment and caused artifacts to sink to the bottom
of the river.
Indonesia imposed a moratorium on underwater archaeology back in 2010, but this isn’t
enough to stop people from conducting their dives in search of valuable items, and those
who find artifacts by chance are unlikely to report their discoveries.
Unfortunately, this leaves experts empty-handed and unable to learn more about the mysterious
civilization and its unexplained collapse.
1.
SS AMERICA HOARD
The SS Central America, nicknamed the “Ship of Gold,” was a steamer that sank off the
South Carolina coast during a hurricane in 1857.
It was en route from Panama to New York City when it went down, taking thousands of pounds
of gold and 425 people with it to the bottom of the ocean.
Eager to find the wreck, treasure hunter Tommy Thompson convinced 161 investors to fund an
expedition during the 1980s.
They ponied up $12.7 million for the project.
In 1988, Thompson and his crew discovered the wreck 8,000 feet (2,438 meters) below
the water’s surface.
The following year, they recovered around three tons (2.7 metric tons) of gold coins
valued at over $50 million.
A slew of lawsuits ensued until finally, a decade later, courts awarded the team a 92
percent share of the wreck.
But the lawsuits continued as many investors and companies claimed that Thompson and his
crew cheated them out of millions of dollars.
In 2012, Thompson failed to appear in court and went into hiding with his girlfriend.
They lived in a hotel for the next three years, keeping a low profile while paying all their
expenses in cash to avoid being traceable.
The authorities eventually caught up with the couple and put Thompson in federal prison
while the case gets sorted out.
He claims he doesn’t know where the treasure is and has stubbornly stuck to this story
while languishing behind bars for the past six years.
Although Thompson has some supporters, the judge refuses to buy his story and has continuously
demanded answers.
Whether or not the disgraced discoverer will eventually crack remains to be seen.
Which of these rescues did you find most interesting?
Tell me your thoughts in the comments.
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