YEP EVEN MORE ...............................
41. Giant Reservoir of ‘Hidden Water’ Discovered on Mars
Location: Mars
Year Discovered: 2021
Est. Value: N/A
A Chinese space probe called Zhurong landed in Utopia Planitia, a plain in the northern hemisphere of Mars, in 2021. It landed in the same spot that Viking 2, NASA’s lander, arrived in 1976. Zhurong’s mission was to find ancient life, and the craft is still orbiting Mars now.
Data came back from Zhurong that excited scientists and believers in life on other planets. The probe found data that indicated that the Utopia Planitia Basin was filled with water, meaning that Mars was not as cold and dry as investigators once thought. Finding wet minerals indicates that there could be life, whether presently or in the past.
42. American Declaration of Independence Found in Thrift Store
Location: Pennsylvania
Year Discovered: 1991
Est. Value: $2.18 million*
You can find a lot of weird things in thrift stores, and some people are even lucky enough to find items of serious value. That was what happened to a collector at a Pennsylvania flea market. He bought a “dismal” painting for $4 because he liked the frame surrounding the artwork. When he took the art out, he discovered a copy of the Declaration of Independence.
After having it authenticated, he learned that this copy was the first printing of the historical relic. When it went up for auction in June of 1991, it was valued at $1 million (about $2.18 million in today’s money).
43. Couple Finds Medieval Well Under Their Living Room Floor
Location: Plymouth, England
Year Discovered: 2015
Est. Value: Unknown
A British couple was attempting to find out why their living room was not level when they found an amazing discovery underneath their foundation. When they pulled up the floorboards, they discovered a thirty-three-foot-deep well that dates back to medieval times.
After some research, the well was built in the 1500s as part of an aqueduct. Sir Francis Drake built the aqueduct to carry water from Plymouth to Dartmouth. Since discovering the well, the homeowners have covered it with a trapdoor and installed lights to show it off. Let’s just hope this won’t wind up as the plot for the next installation of PARA.
44. Mysterious Safe Discovered in the Middle of a New York Field
Location: Barre, New York
Year Discovered: 2020
Est. Value: Unknown (For Now)
2020 was a year of strange events, and this one definitely makes the list of strange occurrences. In the center of an agricultural field in NY, Kirk Mathes discovered a 600-pound safe. The metal safe would have had to be transported by heavy-duty machinery, though no one knew who put it there, when, or why.
A note attached to the safe read, “If you open it, you can keep what’s inside.” The farmer, Kirk, has no desire to open the safe, as he thinks mystery does a good job of distracting people from the humdrum of their daily lives. When asked who he believes put the safe in the field, Mathes was unbothered, saying he expected that some “jokers” and “wise guys” did it. It’s certainly a question that no amount of Googling will ever solve.
45. $4 Million Chunk of Quartz Found in Arkansas
Location: Coleman Mine, Arkansas
Year Discovered: 2016
Est. Value: $4 million*
If you go to the Smithsonian Museum, you will find an eight-thousand-pound lump of quartz. This one-of-a-kind stone, called the Berns Quartz, was discovered in a mine in Arkansas in 2016, and it is now in charge of welcoming people to the Smithsonian as part of the National Gem and Minerals Collection.
A piece of clear quartz is just $14 on Amazon, but a clear cluster this big is rare and valued in the millions. The cluster likely formed after the Ouachita Mountains started to erode millions of years ago, exposing the Berns Quartz, among other deeply-buried veins of crystals, within the Arkansas mountain range.
46. Stonehenge-Like Structure Discovered at the Bottom of Lake Michigan
Location: Lake Michigan, USA
Year Discovered: 2017
Est. Value: N/A
Archaeologists were looking underneath the waters of Lake Michigan when they discovered something eerie and impossibly cool. Using remote sensors, scientists found a Stonehenge-like structure forty feet below the surface of the waters of Grand Traverse Bay.
We’ve all seen documentaries about Stonehenge on The History Channel, and, to this day, people do not know how the prehistoric structure was built. To find a similar structure underneath the waters of Lake Michigan just adds another layer to the mystery. In addition to this fascinating find, the scientist also discovered a pier from the Civil War and a lot of sunken cars and boats.
47. Nanotechnology Found in an Ancient Roman Chalice
Location: England
Year Discovered: 1950s/1990s
Est. Value: Priceless
This 1,600-year-old Roman chalice is called the Lycurgus Cup, as its scene involves Thrace’s King Lycurgus. While it might seem like a regular, if fancy, ancient drinking vessel, it is actually far more than that. This cup contains the key to technology that could diagnose diseases or identify security biohazards at airports.
The cup looks jade-green when you light it from the front, but it turns blood red when you light it from behind. It took decades to figure out how this cup, which was discovered in the 1950s, could do this, but researchers found the answer in 1990. It turns out that ancient Romans were nanotech pioneers who had used precious metals to alter the cup’s electrons. Far from being a HBO Game of Thrones decorative piece, technology like this could hold answers to both future and historic questions.
48. Giant Stone Sphere Discovered in Bosnian Forest
Location: Zavidovici, Bosnia
Year Discovered: 2016
Est. Value: $3,200* (Iron Content Value)
This ten-foot-wide, 35-ton stone ball has raised a lot of questions for academics as to whether it was formed by a lost civilization or Mother Nature. If the answer is the former, what could these people or aliens have used it for?
The gigantic sphere was discovered in 2016 outside Zavidovici, Bosnia. The prehistoric ball helped earn its discoverer, Semir Osmanagich, the nickname the “Bosnian Indian Jones.” The sphere could be quite valuable, as it likely has a high iron content. If the stone is man-made, then it is the largest structure of its kind in Europe, and it could point to past advanced civilizations that we do not currently know much about.
49. Action Comics #1 Found Hidden in Wall
Location: Minnesota, USA
Year Discovered: 2010s
Est. Value: $176,000*
It’s amazing what people find in their homes when they are renovating them, particularly if the homes were built decades ago. David Gonzales, when renovating his home in Minnesota, discovered a copy of Action Comics #1, which marked Superman’s first appearance in the DC series.
The Marvel competitor’s Action Comics comic books were among its most lucrative, and the earliest versions are now hard to find among comic book collectors. Gonzales’ copy, which he later sold for nearly $200,000, was in better condition than many others out there. Believe it or not, the former homeowners, who constructed the property in 1938, had been using the comic book, along with a host of other papers, as insulation for their walls.
50. Piano Tuner Discovers Gold Sovereign Coins Inside Piano
Location: Shrewsbury, England
Year Discovered: 2017
Est. Value: $400,000-$600,000*
Bishops Castle Community College sent an old piano to a tuner to have it repaired. When the tuner took it apart, he discovered what would later be termed the largest hoard of gold coins ever discovered in Britain. The gold’s former owner had hidden the coins in the piano, never to return to get them.
The Coroner’s Court of Shrewsbury declared the find “treasure,” which meant the College and tuner got to split the proceeds. The 913 gold sovereigns dated from 1847 to 1915, and their total value was estimated at around $400,000 to $600,000. Though fifty people came forward to claim the treasure as their own, the county coroner, John Ellery, believed none of them and ruled the true owner’s identity “unknown.”
51. Man Unearths Haunting Discovery During Pool Dig
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Year Discovered: 2011
Est. Value: N/A
Some people believe that New Orleans is one of the most haunted cities in America, and finds like these could prove those theorists correct. Not all discoveries are of buried treasure—some are more the material of a Halloween tale. While digging in his French Quarter backyard, one man found an old cemetery.
He found thirteen caskets on his block, which is one of the oldest neighborhoods in New Orleans. As it turns out, the homeowner’s neighborhood was the site of the first-ever graveyard back in the 1700s. The homeowner said he expected to find “something,” being that this was the French Quarter; he just didn’t expect that something to be human remains.
52. Hidden Catacombs Beneath the Streets of Indianapolis
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Year Discovered: Late 1800s
Est. Value: N/A
We all know about the Parisian Catacombs, those large, creepy underground systems. But, what people might not know is that there are catacombs all around the world, including beneath peoples’ feet in Indianapolis, Indiana’s City Market.
There is no outside entrance into the catacombs underneath City Market, and the interior entrance is hidden from the public. If you do get through, you’ll see stairs leading to a concrete basement. From there, you can head into the catacombs, where over 140 columns create a labyrinthian underground maze. The brick catacombs can be reached through the basement of the 1800s-built Tomlinson Hall, a four-story, multi-purpose former convention center.
53. 239 Rare Gold Coins Discovered in Walls of French Mansion
Location: Brittany, France
Year Discovered: 2021
Est. Value: $356,000*
Rare gold coins are the classic idea of treasure. When a pirate opens up his treasure chest in a movie, that’s what we all expect to be in there. Usually, these treasure troves aren’t found in walls of manors, but that is exactly what happened in an historic property in Brittany, France.
Construction workers were renovating the manor when they discovered a metal box hidden in the wall. When they opened it, the box revealed 239 rare gold coins that were minted during King Louis XIII and XIV’s reigns. The workers found a cache hidden near a wooden beam, too. The total monetary value of these finds was around $356,000.
54. Couple Finds Stolen ‘Buried Treasure’ in Their Backyard
Location: Staten Island, New York
Year Discovered: 2018
Est. Value: $52,000*
For some of the findings on this list, what seems like buried treasure is actually stolen treasure. In Staten Island, the Emanuels were excited when they found a rotting, rusted metal box buried in their backyard. The couple Matthew and Maria, found the box while they were planting trees.
When they looked inside, they discovered $52,000 in valuables, including $100 bills, diamonds, gold, and jade. Inside the bag was also an address that belonged to the Emanuels’ neighbors. Matthew and Maria went next door and asked them if they had ever been robbed. The neighbors said they had several years ago, and, long story short, the NYPD reunited the robbery victims with their $52,000 in valuables.
55. 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.
56. 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.
57. Tombstones Found Washed up at the Beach
Location: Ocean Beach, San Diego, California
Year Discovered: 2012
Est. Value: $1,000-$3,000 per tombstone* (Adj. For Inflation)
Well, this is certainly a good way to put a damper on a fun beach day. In 2012, two beachcombers discovered something unusual on Ocean Beach in San Francisco. They found the tombstone from twenty-year-old Emma Bosworth, who died in 1876. Just a month after this discovery, yet another tombstone floated ashore.
This one was dated back to 1890, and it belonged to Delia Prescot, who died at just twenty-six-years-old. The tombstones found their way onto Ocean Beach because San Francisco moved cemeteries within city limits to Colma, CA. During the movie, tombstones were left behind, where they were repurposed into a sea wall. When parts of the seawall broke off, these stones washed ashore to creep out beachgoers.
58. Mysterious Cone-shaped Structure Found in the Sea of Galilee
Location: Sea of Galilee, Israel
Year Discovered: 2013
Est. Value: Unknown
There have been a lot of strange things found at the bottom of oceans, lakes, and other bodies of water. Researchers were testing sonar equipment in Israel’s Sea of Galilee when they found something unusual at the bottom of the water.
The cone-shaped structure confused scientists, as it was massive, stretching 230 feet in width with a height of 39 feet. It was estimated that this giant undersea cone weighed as much as 60,000 tons. The structure is similar to other burial sites discovered nearby, so it could be a ceremonial structure. But, because it is so deep underwater, it is hard to study, though researchers have estimated that the cone is 6,000 years old.
59. Couple Discovers 1950s Suitcase Packed with $23k in Rafters
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Year Discovered: 2016
Est. Value: $23,000*
While doing renovations, a couple in Cleveland, Ohio made a valuable discovery worth tens of thousands. They found a suitcase from the 1950s that was jam-packed with cash wrapped in wax parchment paper. The total value of the cash was $23,000. Based on a Plain Dealer tucked in the suitcase, the cash was hidden in 1951.
The anonymous couple, who said that they would be using the cash to pay off their mortgage, had been living in the home for years before making the discovery. He and his wife had been focusing on improving the century-old house, and this renovation task was one of the last items the couple had to accomplish.
60. Mysterious Figures Found Inside an Alabama Cave
Location: Alabama
Year Discovered: 2022
Est. Value: Priceless
For one thousand years, the largest cave art in North America remained hidden. That is, until 2022 when researchers conducting 3D scans found massive Native American cave drawings in the dark, cramped interior of the Nineteenth Unnamed Cave, located in Alabama (the name is kept hidden to keep the cave from being vandalized by thrill-seekers).
The drawings include four humanlike figures in elaborate outfits and an eleven-foot-long diamondback rattlesnake. The true history behind these figures is unknown, though some historians believed that they might depict spirits, as Native Americans regarded caves as sacred portals to the underworld.
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