Ask Mike: Sunken Treasure
Hey Guys,
Some of the best questions are the ones that can’t be answered. Sorry if that sounds a bit like a fortune cookie, but it’s true. The other day I stumbled upon a question that nobody could possibly answer, but it still stuck with me for days.
The always interesting Cheers UK (who I have given props to before) asked the community for their best estimates as to the value of all the sunken treasure at the bottom of the ocean. Now think about that for a moment. All of the sunken treasure. Would it be millions of dollars? Billions of dollars?
Knowing my best efforts would probably be fruitless, I still went and searched for an answer. I found an article from MSNBC on a recent discovery of treasure at the bottom of the Atlantic. Explorers brought it to the surface and found the loot to be worth $500 million bucks. Not a bad haul, but compared to all that’s out there, really just a drop in the bucket.
After some more searching, I found pay dirt. Well, kind of. An article from CNN estimates that the value of treasures under the world’s oceans range from billions to trillions of dollars. Furthermore, the article speculates that new technology will help folks recover nearly all that loot over the next “10 to 20 years.”
For some reason, all that treasure being brought to the surface strikes me as kind of sad or unromantic. But, on the bright side, at least we’ll finally have an answer to Cheers UK’s question.
Thanks for reading,
p.s. — What’s the strangest “treasure” you’ve ever discovered? A $10 bill in your pocket? A really cool seashell? $500 million in ancient coins? What?
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I found a really nice road bike by the side of the road – I put ads up for weeks about this bike, knowing it was probably stolen, but no one ever responded – treasure!
i think if sb take the titanik out , it would be the best one.except the price imagine how many people would come and visit it for long long time in future(maybe i am wrong)
While going through cars in a pick-your-part yard, in California, I saw a small piece of paper sticking out from under the chrome strip on the ‘door jamb’ of a car, and, after pulling it up, found that it was actually a $10 bill! (Of course, older brother, who was with me, claimed that I was on his side of the car when I found it.) I just laughed at him.. LOL
Hi Mike,
Here’s something that may add to the dilemma if it may be considered a dilemma. What about all the treasures that were buried with the Pharoahs in ancient Egypt?For that matter,what about all the treasures buried underground throughout the world. If it were found would it render the economic market powerless or just the opposite omnipotent or another scenario balance the economic market? Would it render a new age to the whole world where politics are nonexistent and every human would get a fair share of all the riches that the world has to offer?I don’t think it would be fair for you to attempt to answer these questions, but I think I’m entitled to your views on the possibilities. Thanks
Faithful Y!Aer,
Joseph M. The Emissary
a gold ring that looked exactly like the one from the lord of the rings (it even had the writing carved into it!). i mean i don’t know if it was actually gold but still. i couldn’t find the owner of it so i kept it. i found it at my old school.
I had the experience of catching money on the wind. I managed to snag over 50 bucks in a 40 – 60 mile/hr wind. Somebody somewhere lost a bunch of cash. I would estimate there was $1000 blowing in the wind and from where? No one knows. It could have been on the other side of the metroplex at those wind velocities.
When I was little, I discovered that my grandmother used these really old huge coins to hold the curtains thruout her house from flying around…I brought one to her, and she let me choose 4 of them to take home for my Dad’s B-Day…they were 1800′s Liberty dollars…talk about catch of the day!!! I gave them to my Dad because he collected coins–he flipped out over them…30 yrs. later I now know why…they were quite rare indeed. Wish I kept just one!!!
Fun thoughts going on with this one!!!
one time in Vegas, i was in the outdoor hottub at the Mirage; a $100 bill just came floating my way and landed right on my chest; i decided it was time to go up to the room
Memories are the best treasures. I found my best
girlfriend in a tiny village in the Black Forest, Germany. It turned out we were both from the Los Angeles County & we’ve been friends for 24 years now.
Also, when someone in the family has a baby, it is present to everyone. They bring so much joy & affection.
I once found a $100 bill laying on the sidewalk, not that that is all that interesting, but I was stoked for the day!
My mother works at a hotel and was cleaning out the Lost & Found. She came across a tattered shaving bag, opened it and found $7000!!!
Her assistant was with her at the time, so they split it.
The money was still bundled with the paper wrapping!
thank you for all of answering
I once wasted $340 in Vegas at the blackjack tables. I should’ve just thrown the money out my hotel window.
Recently on a visit home I was looking through old photo albums that I hadn’t looked at since I was a child. I found pictures of my parents when they were children and was so pleased to see how much my son looks like my father. My mom let me keep the old photos, too. That treasure is now framed and sitting on my mantle.
As a kid from the Bronx, N.Y.C was wasting time sitting in the back of my fathers car, when I put my hand down into the back seat and found a coin. Now I, with all my 7 year old strength, picked up this heavy seat, and found a treasure of coins of all denominations, left by the passengers that my father took to thier destinations, minus some coins. How’s that for luck!
There is an interesting post above stating that if all the treasures were discovered then everybody would be rich. If we look at it from another view point it’s not the value of the treasure that makes it rich/valuable but the undersupply of that which makes it valuable. If everybody gets enough of everything there is no need for the word rich in our dictionaries. If we look at it treasure is nothing but metal and papers.
Hope my post gets selected as The Silliest on Yahoo,
Cheers,
I won some contest at the local Gamestop and got a free copy of Rock Band. Swish!
I found a diamond necklace that my birthmother gave me that I had thought i lost years ago.
i found a quarter on the ground one day and i was suprized i did.
I find it strangely reassuring that there is at least one thing we are not able to put a quantitative value on. It has long (sorry) been my gripe that this drive to value everything, ultimately devalues everything.
My greatest treasure…I was in second grade, and walking toward the office. (Doing something for the teacher, I guess. I was quite the little suck-up…) There was a little room I had never noticed before, and a teacher inside. She seemed to be cleaning up the room. I saw her throw out two drawings. I walked up to her and said they were pretty, and asked if I could take them home for my parents. She said sure, and helped me carry them into my classroom. (They were at least two feet taller than me each.) I gave them to my parents that night, only to find out in the following months that they were worth several thousand dollars each! I was left with a baby sitter for a weekend…they hit Vegas.
Not that it was MY treasure, but still, quite the find, wouldn’t you say?
Yep, that $500 million was me. I am on answers.com trying to figure out how to cash it in. They wouldn’t take my ancient coin at the gas station. I wasn’t sure if it was the currency or if it wasn’t enough to cover the fill-up???
I recovered $200 that I had been unable to find after putting in a “Safe Place”. I tore my house apart and found it stuck between the well read pages of the book “Atlantis” by Clive Cussler. It was pure luck, the book was one of many in a stack that I was moving to look behind for the money. The relieved smile on my lasted quite some time.
Found 5 tons of silver ore mined by the spainards that contained over 100 ounces per ton silver.
Interesting read is “Ship of Gold In The Deep Blue Sea” Quite a true tale of a recent deep water treasure find worth today about 2 billion dollars in gold.
My husband was in a crawlspace of a house (working) when he found a german helmet (just like the guy wears in Hogan’s Heros); a flight jacket; a potatoe masher; and a LIVE UNEXPLODED bomb, all from World War 1 or 2. He told the homeowners who had just bought the house and had no idea it was there. The local city police bomb squad was called in and they determined that it was a military issue so they called in the bomb squad from our local air force base. Since my husband had taken some pictures of it on our digital camera, they asked to see the camara so they could try to see the bomb before going into the house. Anyway, they decided that the safest way to remove it was to detonate it first. So they did, right there in the crawlspace. It made the local news and CNN even picked up the story. Very cool.
In the case of treasure from the Spanish, i heard they are claiming it or some court said that a percentage of all Spanish found had to go to Spain. In my opinion it should go to Mexico and the other countries the Spanish stole it from in the first place.
i totally agree. taking out treasure is sad and unromantic. and i havent rly found much tresure. when i was little i used to go to the ocean and have fantasies about finding treasures. i guess i was a little over obssesed. ppl started worrying lol. =]
My treasures? First is my Neice, Krista. She is 17 now, but since she was born, she’s still my little girl!
I helped raise her and she is the absolute light of my life!
She is my sisters daughter and the only child born to
myself and my siblings. My other sister has health issues ans has never been able to cocieve. As for me,
it just doesn’t seem to be in the cards.
I feel a love for her that I have never felt in any way in my life .
i found out bout yahoo answers
i think i know ways to stop finch from hacking habbo
close down habbo
I used to go metal detecting a lot.
I have found a pair of wire, Franklin style, glasses wrapped in an oil rag, under a tree. A jar, by a fence post, with a Silver Dollar and a pocket watch, in it. A Civil War mini ball amongst some bones. A set of false teeth, and many, many other “treasures.”
recently? my parents just found an old birthstone ring of mine buried a foot deep into the dirt of the backyard that i hadn’t realized i lost. it was…..is one of my favorite rings, too ^ ^
I had been having the worst day of my life [seriously]. I was just trying to walk home without sobbing, and I just wanted to die. I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and just sat, wondering why I was in this position. Suddenly, a green piece of paper hit my foot. I looked it over; $50. I took that as a sign, and now I live my life with a new view.
WOW !!
Trillions of dollars in sunken treasure might actually buy me a tank or two of gas !
One time I found a .45 Cal Slug lying on the ground… Wanted to have it engraved, but I lost it. Hey! More treasure for someone else!
The most common, unknown treasure that people don’t realize they have is a foreign car bought as is. I bought a foreign car as is off eBay for $500 (specifically a Mercedes 300 E) and after I got it, I managed to strip it for roughly $2,500 worth of parts. The average car owner doesn’t realize that the headlight and tail-light covers individual are worth around $200 a piece. Just a tip for anyone willing to put a little effort out for a significant profit.
As for my own biggest surprise treasure, I found a wallet when I was 18 that I had lost when I was 10 somewhere in my house (it ended up in the attic for some reason) and it only had $80 in it but it had so many old memories such as pics and what not it was amazing that I found it.
About 11 years ago now. Hubby and I bought a pack of Playoff Contenders football cards. He opened the pack, looked at them and sat them on the counter. Two weeks later he got around to putting them in his album. He noticed that one of them had a gold football instead of a silver one. It was a Barry Sanders gold 1 of 1.(the only one like it). We sold it for $1650.00! Pretty good return on $6.
A group of friends and I were on the Superman at Six Flags in Illinois. Near the end of the ride we went over this field and we see all these bills in the grass. At first I thought it was just a bunch of singles, but as we got closer, I realized they were all $20! There had to be $200 there! When we got off we ran over to where it was, I guess it must have fallen out of someones pocket on the ride. We split the money and went out for dinner afterwards
I also think that it should go to Mexico and the Spanish stole it from in the first place.
when i was sixteen my grandparents asked me what kind of car i wanted. i said i wanted an old vw bus. they freaked out and said there was no way i was getting a “pot bus”. i asked them why they called it that and they said my greataunt and her husband bought a vw bus to travel in and when they were cleaning it out they found 100 pounds of reefer in the walls! (and yes, theyre old, they gave it to the police)
I found an old, lonesome, abused, and Tijuana Ugly cat whom I found a home for. The little girl that adopted gave him what everyone is looking for, love, pets and a safe place to sleep.
Treasures that warm your heart, is there anything better? No I don’t think this is sappy, it is honest and realistic.
My best friend and I used to junk cars. One day he spotted a car stuck in the brush back on some property his uncle was looking to buy.
As the property was abandoned, he came back with his wrecker and after a time pulled it free.
It was a 1966 Mercury Cyclone GT, in way better shape than it should have been for where it was. The engine was missing, other than that it looked really good. Considering we were all Ford-heads, it was the find of the century.
He never could find a 390GT to put back in it, but a guy who restores picked it up. He paid well for it, too.
I imagine it’s winning shows, somewhere.
STs!
Actually Mike, the value of whatever salvage that can be retrieved from a sunken ship depends on the type of ship and the shipment it contains.
If it was a tea ship, most likely, the value of tea after being emerged in salt water for a period of time would not fetch even a dollar, a privateer or even a pirate ship would have fetched a higher yield, dollar-wise.
Galleons are known to have contained richer historical artifacts for the mere fact that these are trading ships that do not specialize. These ships transport on a commecial basis, therefore, whatever their agents would assign to be boarded on the ship for other destinations are loaded without question.
Warships, specially those commissioned by a king or queen for a specific purpose like protection because its navy are insufficient for the job, on the other hand, are a different thing. It is not unknown for pirates (I cannot recall the names for the moment without a careful research) to be commissioned by the king or queen at the time to help its navy cope with threats to its coastlines.
A military ship would “NOT” normally carry anything of value except military artifacts. Whatever value you will find will be from loot of corrupt officers (yes, there were corrupt officers already at that time).
I hope that history will bear with my answer and I also hope that I have satisfactorily answered the question posed by Cheers UK.
Now back to you Mike.
About 10 or 12 years ago, I found a blue $10 bill! It was in the pocket of an old pair of my father’s pants that my mother had washed, and had obviously been dyed blue by the pants. The bill had to have been in that pocket for 5 years or so, and they were about to put the pants in a pile set for donation. It’s just so…blue, and makes for a neat conversation piece whenever I bring it out. Of course I’ll never spend it!
About the question about what would happen if all this treasure was found and the general public could use it: the person who mentioned supply and demand is right. I’m no economist but I think that if everything was brought to the surface and everyone was “rich” it would affect the economy to the point where the value would be close to nothing. Like in post WWII Germany when the Germans were getting all this financial help from the US but it suddenly cost an entire wheelbarrow of money to buy a single loaf of bread.
hmm………I found a public boarding school in the middle-of-no-where-Alaska with a program that allows you to get your pilots license. seriously, 460$ and I can fly planes, that my friends has changed my life.
happy high flying ‘n’ typin’
finding happiness is essential, i suggest cutting open your heart and looking inside…Lol; figuratively only please.
Not sure who came up with the stupid idea to “get a fair share of all the riches that the world has to offer”.
Those antique is valued very high because it’s rare. Once you discovered billions of them. it is worthless.
Imagine there is enough gold to distribute 10,000 pounds of gold to everyone on earth. People would be sitting at home and watching TV all day without working because they expect to be able to “buy” stuff with those gold. but since everyone is at home and nobody is producing anything. your 10,000 pounds of gold can no longer buy anything at all. therefore. worthless.
During the war here in the Philippines, the japanese army that governed our country for a time hid gold and treasures through out the land. There are rumors that these treasures exist up to this day. If you, by any chance, find those treasures underground of your lot or backyard, you don’t want to shout it out or tell anybody your story. The government has this law or something that those treasures belong to them and that if you were caught keeping or making fortune out of them, you’d be punished! That sucks (if you find any).
I found around 20$ in total until this day in paper bills lost by the side of the road while riding my bike.
I recently found my lost cheap black glasses which are a very important material possession to me in the grass in my mothers garden
I found a brand new screwdriver on a parking lot under the bridge a year ago while riding my bike.Not highly valuable but useful.
I found a relatively large yellow Calcite crystal while walking down the forest path to the beach growing out of the ground.I excavated it with a knife our of a ground filled with rocks.Its value is unknown to me.
One day on our way into the Dollar Store, the wife and I stumbled across a $20 bill! It was SWEET. Sure, it wasn’t a LOT of money but it made our day and week even!
bought a home in Salt Lake City after the death of the owner. Cleaned the place for weeks to get it back to decent condition. Finally managed to get the basement cleared and cleaned. When we were closing the door after a job well done we went to move the door stopper. It was a big rounded block that was pitch black. The sucker was really heavy, 50 lbs. It was a silver ingot. One big chunk of silver that was so tarnished you had trouble telling what it was. It equaled the down payment on the house.
When I was maybe 7, 8, or 9 my godmother bought me diamond earrings and told me they were princess cut, I didn’t believe her, and I actually wasn’t to concerned. My family was all like oooh Diamond earrings! And so I wore them. That night I took them out and put them on my way to messy dresser, someone accidentally knocks off a shirt, my earrings go with it, and I lost them. I found one right away, but the other I lost for three years. After 3 years I all of a sudden had this urge to look for the missing one in my room, and after about a week my mom found it for me behind the dresser while I was at school. Now I am WAY more responsible and I will never do that again, after all they are real diamond earrings!! I know it’s not some random find 10 bucks but I still found the treasure I was missing!
Yo, It’s been a while since I can honestly could say I found somthing great. But I found twenty dollar bill one Mothers Day. I was walking to the store,and right on the ground in front of my foot was a dollar it look to be , I bent down, pick it up, looked around no one was around, so I just kept walking to store. Brought some flower’s for the wife and a small box of chocolate, and a big arguement cuase she didn’t believe I had found the money on side of the street.
I’ve discovered something which to many would be considered a “treasure”, lol, unfortunately I can’t reveal what it is, otherwise it would either disappear or be abused by the masses and then disappear, LOL.
I find dimes. Everywhere. Just dimes. I started finding them after someone close passed away. As corny as it sounds, I think that they are being left for me to find as acknowledgement from the other side. Yes, I know how incredible that sounds, but I’ll stick to that story…I always seem to find them when I’m depressed or broke…and I treasure and save each of them.
My son found a beautiful diamond ring. He advertised it in the local lost and found but it was never claimed. He gave it to his Mother for her birthday.
I once found 1000 bucks on the ground– the very 1000 bucks that my dad lost hours ago in Church. I was walking home from choir practice really late at night, and it was really dark. I saw a light colored something in the grass and instinctively picked it up. It was slightly shiny and I thought it was a cigarette wrapper. When I got home, I checked it and there it was, 1000 bucks.
I am like the master at finding money on the ground. At the local fair while I was growing up, I found maybe 30 bucks total over the years from there alone. I found a fifty in front of the beer cases at a 7-eleven. Found a fifty at the gas pump on our way home from a family vacation with my sister and family when I was a teen. Found two twenties crumbled behind the toilet in a bathroom in a JCPenny’s. My luck even extends to those with me. My husband found a twenty in the parking lot of our favorite chinese place and my uncle found a twenty in the mulch around the bushes at a Walgreens. I was with them both when it happened so maybe I’m good luck lol
When my husband and I bought and moved into our first house, we found a stray cat that roamed the neigborhood. The everyone in the neighborhood looks out for her and feeds her. She would always run up to the car when we arrived home, she’d lay in the grass as I gardened, and beg my husband to scratch her ears. She was the best find we could have ever asked for.
It was social security pay day. I went to the local grocery store ATM. I was digging through my wallet when I looked downm and saw a piece of paper folded up on the ground. It looked like it had security printing on it. It was a money order for $240. If it had a name I would have returned it but it was totally blank
I found- something I can not talk about- but it is grand!
If you could pile up all the dreams and wishes of finding something- then that my friend is what I found. I want to answer this- but I can’t-
In India when we find someone’s lost money and no one claiming such money we put it to donations……..
What my parents tell me to do is to buy some foodgraoins or somethings to be given to birds etc.
That I think is good use of some money
If talking about gold, I understand that if you amassed all the gold ever mined from the earth (this includes gold fillings, gold jewelry, gold in Fort Knox, gold in Swiss bank vaults, gold sunken in ships, gold in ancient tombs, etc.), all that gold would be a 25 foot cube. So, you can figure from that and today’s prices how much the gold would be worth.
I once found a ted williams signed baseball in a trunk of stuff at a garage sale, and offered six dollars for the trunk w/ the stuff, and ended up with some amazing finds like the ted williams baseball, babe ruth baseball card, and mickey mantle signed baseball. It was an amazing find for a sports addict like me, and I treasure them dearly!
As an antique dealer I am always at sales and auctions and have found my share of real treasures but the most recent has got to be my favorite.
We were at an annual school fundraiser and from across the gym I spotted this very unique and colorful item… I made a beeline for it.
It is called a Reuge Mosque Musical Cigarette Dispenser. It is stunning with a blue tole painted metal cap and bottom, silverplated base with lion heads on the feet, a cherub is on the top and when the music box is playing the porcelain doors swing open and there are silver pockets to hold cigarettes. In the center of the opened part sits Pan the flutist of mythology.
It is so much fun to “play” with, stunning to look at and will be on my shop site for sale soon.
I never was any good at making money so when I find anything it is fun to find out about it.
A long time ago i found a flat washer on the ground and put it in my toolbox. For some reason now that i am old I am still finding flat washers and i get the greatest peace of mind when i do. It is like my day is complete, and the day was a success when I find one in my walks.
They always come in handy when I am tinkering and I have never had to buy any washers; except the one I bought my wife that came with a dryer.
Several years ago, I had just returned home from a shopping trip, at night and when we pulled into the driveway and I got out, I saw something shiny next to the grass. Turned out to be a man’s 14K ring with 3 diamonds. I took it to a jeweler and the gold was real, but the “diamonds” turned out to be zirconiums. Then I was in Walmart and found a gold bracelet with real tiny diamonds in it. I tried to find the owner, but was unable to.
hey all….5-6 billion in gold is underground in New Mexico. Been out there and have seen this site. Since 1860 (or so), about 15 billion in gold hase been brought out of the state of Arizona. There are certain states where the land owner owns 1/2 and the person who finds the ‘treasure’ own the other 1/2. Most people don’t know how much wealth is under ground.
It’s not a matter of obtaining wealth or not…it’s a matter of the government wanting us to beleive in what they tell us, to scare us in to following like sheep. There’s enough oil in North America to fuel us for many generations….5 buck as gallon…please!
peace
When I think about finding something that is meaningful I think back to the time that I found a quarter in a video game as a kid. As a kid I was very excited to find a quarter (it’s not much now), but it meant the world to me than so when I ever find coins on the ground I would pick it up, think about my childhood and put the coin(s) in my pocket. Good memories. Thanks for sharing the sunken story.
“What’s the strangest ‘treasure’ you’ve ever discovered?” Love.
If you mean rare but tangible, then a human skull found near a kitchen midden on Cape Cod, MA. It was given to authorities for proper handling. It was several hundred years old and considered priceless.
If you mean “classical treasure”, then a pouch of jewelry found in the sand on a public beach. The woman who claimed it could describe each piece inside the pouch: A Wedding band and Engagement ring with a 3 carat diamond, a ruby ring, a necklace of matched pearls and a broach. She had taken them off to go swimming and lost them before she went home.
I found a gold chain necklace on the beach under 3 feet of sand and my dad found 7 unexploded bombs laying on the beach on an island
I doubt that theyll find everything thats just immposible. Strangest….not sure exactly
That’s an interusting question! The worth of it alone is priceless but you know how some rare things, prices go up dramatically. I think it’s worth a lot more than trillions.
The strangest treasure I’ve ever discovered… can’t say I’ve seen anything strange but I did find a $5 bill in my winter coat. May be common, but it’s wonderful to someone who’s always constantly broke!!
The strangest treasure i have ever discovered is a briefcase holding 1 million dollars in cash under a bed in a motel!
I WAS JUST KIDDING!
My greatest treasure is a set of perfectly preserved and nesting seashells I was given on a first date.
They are gorgeous and represent time and energy, a love of the outdoors, and a lovely person. The man that gave them to me sort of just slipped away, He was full of self doubt, so the present to me was full of his potential.
I think that by the time the treasures under the sea and buried under ground, are discovered we will have new treasures. We will value different things.
Perhaps these will be the disappearing skills and creativity that are hiding in the population: plasterers and masons, the patient folk who pollinate and preserve heirloom seeds.
I can see that, people dreaming of the perfect tomato seed or a delicate and vulnerable fruit that is rare and desired.
Don’t forget the languages and cultures that can teach us, entertain us, give us options and inspiration.
It is no stretch to imagine the quests for these treasures. There will always be treasure.
That’s a very interesting question.
As for my treasure: I’ve never really found anything, but my best friend once found a hundred-dollar bill on the street. :O
I found a dollar bill in a cash register in Georgia, in 1998. It was written on, and had names and stuff. I bought it, and took it home to show my daughter. Her and her friend had given it as a gift to someone in Illinois in 1993. I called the treasury, at the time I found the bill, there were more than 8 billion one dollar bills in print. It’s priceless.
I discovered a great treasure once. A bible that appears to be from the early 1800′s. There is writing in it from the person gifting it to their grandchild. From the notes in the margins and some dates given my guess is it is from 1820-1830. I still have it.
I found a spoon once on Atlantic Beach in North Carolina. I figured some kid had lost it and just stuck it in my pocket. When I got home, I noticed it had a really thin handle and looked kind of strange. When I wiped all the sand off of it, the handle had the initials U.S.L.H.S. stamped on it. The museum in Beaufort said the initials stood for United States Light House Service and the spoon dated back to the 1800′s. Cool!
I just read an article in National Geographic Adventure magazine today about some lost treasure. It’s off the coast of England and is apparently the “holy grail of ship wrecks” but it has no treasure. Currently, there aree three teams out there searching for it. One man has devoted weekends and two-weeks each summer to it’s discovery for the past 20 years. Truly an amazing story! It goes to show that the real value of the ships lies in the history, not the gold.
The best treasure I’ve found is a bunch of old junk, pictures and assorted items from the attic at my grandparents’ farm in Indiana. There were all sorts of things from when my mom was growing up as well as newspapers, books, decorations and pictures from over the past 50 years. My grandparents used it to store things out of the way. My cousins and I loved it despite the heat up there in the summer. Sadly, the ladder doesn’t open anymore so nobody has seen the “treasures” for over five years.
This is a testament to the eternal plundering of people by other people. The vast majority of so-called “treasure” was not legal trade, but the result of thievery.
I once found $50.00 on the ground the same day I had discovered that my house had beeen broken into and all the christmas presents had been stolen. I used the money to buy a few trinket items to replace the ones stolen that I had purchased for family and friends. I managed to buy something for each one on that $50.00. As I explained to my loved ones and told them what I had intended for them to have in the first place they simply hugged me and told me they were just glad I wasn’t home when it happened.
Their understanding and support was the best treasure I ever discovered.
a brand new nike soccer ball which i actually needed at that moment lol
Wow, that does sound interesting.
And even more interesting is that you really looked for the answer! Kudos to you Mike.
As for that treasure thing…
I guess the things i keep forgetting inside my pants pockets count… i was talking about a person once and just so happened to have a picture of him in my pocket…
I find it very heartwarming (although part of me can’t believe they did this) that a recent find in Lake Ontario of a 1700s British Revolutionary war ship was photographed, then left alone. The discoverers documented the find, then left everything intact. Very admirable, but would anyone blame them for claiming the treasure there? They’re thinking was that it belonged to Britain. They also did not let anyone know of its location.
I would agree with Candy. It’s not the strangest thing, but I found a 20 dollar bill in a pair of shorts that I had just unpacked for the summer. Not really strange or anything, but it was great to someone that is usually broke.lol. I always wondered where that 20 went, guess I need to apologize to my cousin.lol
i found 20$ in the bottom of a lake once. it was amazinf also i was sooo happy because i had some spending money. it hadnt been there long.
i think the money found in the ocean should be kept by the UN and split among different causes. one should be new fuel/greener options and helping africa
i found a pair of my baby booties in my grandmothers attic! that was cool
The strangest thisg I have ever found… I was in my town’s public pool – swimming with goggles – and I looked down and saw a $10.00 bill. It was great. I was with my friends so I brought lunch for everyone.
I think everyone would probably consider the strangest to be a poem I wrote for my ex. He saved it when we broke up and it had been about a year, little more. I went to spend time with his sister and he had it in his room in a frame over his bed. I thought it was sweet that he still had it, so he made me a copy. I think it’s a unique treasure.
you
it wasn’t me but my sister who stumbled upon a treasure. Our grandmother had gven her a gaudy looking ring. We all assumed it was costume jewelry and she (10 yrs old at the time) wore it everywhere and ALL the time. She found a little ring on theroad and my parents took it to get it fixed and appraised- she was told it was worth about $80. Before they left, ‘just for fun’ they decided to have the costume jewelry appraised. It was found to be an antique, completely real and worth about $7,000!!
my treasure was a weird stone which turned out to be an anceint coin
that really is a great question. i, too enjoy the type of questions that have no answer; they make ya think, and can sometimes put things into perspective.
)
i’d have to say the strangest treasure i can remember finding would be a 20 dollar bill in the under side of one of my drawers. (occasionally, i hide some of my money in the event that i find it when i might need it
Mike i really enjoyed your article about sunken treasure but are they only looking at monetary value? What about historical value,for example wouldn’t it be neat if they found some things like ameala earharts airplane or some of the people that disappered on ships and planes in the triangle,wouldn’t it be great to finally know the answers to some of those mysteries?
As a kid, my cousins and I used to just go digging – and I found a tiny porcelain dog figurine. I still have it and keep it on a shelf in my room. My dad once found a penny that had a smiley face punched out of it and he gave it to me to have as a good luck charm.
When I was a teenager my grandmother gave me a ring. Honestly, the glass looked like a piece of coke bottle and the band seemed really flimsy and was broken. I almost threw it away several times. Years later when I was almost 60 years old I finally took it to a jeweler along with some other items. The ring is appraised as ‘very old and unique’ and the flimsy mounting is platinum and 14kt holding 11 diamonds (.05 kt each) and the ‘coke bottle’ is a 7.5 x 7.5 emerald appraised at $800. The ring appraised at $1836. I only wish the jeweler had been able to make some estimate of its age so I could guess at least the generation of the original owner.
i too have asked a question for which i have still not got an answer
It’s a bit out there, but sunken treasure is worth what someone is willing to pay for it, same with all precious metals and gems. Anything that doesn’t serve a vital function in life is granted a value based on its desirability by those who already have everything else they need. If the worlds crops died off tomorrow, sunken treasure might be worthless… just something to think about.
Well, Though I get excited about five bucks left in the pocket of something I wore last year (Laundered money! LOL!) A neighbor of mine was hoeing in his garden (we live in Italy) and hit “paydirt” when his hoe stuck a glass jar. The glass jar was full of gold coins hidden by someone escaping during the Second World War worth a small fortune.
Gives new value to gardening now doesn’t it?!?!??!
Congratulations, you’ve answered a question “that cannot be answered”
Such type of question cannot be answered, only on discovery, it can be valued depending upon the time of loss and recovered time value.
It sort of hard to answer this one because you are all over the place with it, but here go, the value of the treasure would be what the heart put on it as far as the mind would permit. Now the value of the treasure that is lost and could be found would be the value that human’d would put on it at the time it is find.
I think that there are some questions on Y! Answers for which there is no answer, or at least no “real” answer, because I believe that there are more questions than there are answers for them.
I was walking a plowed field when I found a strange stone, which I latter found out to be a shawmans stone, It was round ,taperedto the top, and had a stick figure carved into the top of it. while showing it to a friend he rolled it on a table and it made a perfect circle. We had a great time with a toke and a roll.
Your post begs the question, why isn’t there a category called “Rhetorical”?
In response to your final question, a toupee that floated up to me while i was swimming. It’s interesting. A toupee is one of those objects that looses value when it’s lost: I gained nearly nothing from finding it, but someone out there lost quite a bit by having it wash off. I’ve also found bathing suits and a folding chair but those aren’t quite as funny.
I am tryin to find out who sings a song and no one can answer it for me. its called little willie i believe can you help me?
I find treasures all the time. Coins, fossils, shells, crystals, rocks. I have to remind myself to look up and watch the view that can also be a treasure.
One of my favorite finds was a pewter belt buckle in the shape of an electric guitar. Or maybe it was the meteorite. I really like the arrow head points that I have collected over the years from the ground. Someone told me recently that I am not supposed to pick them up, and since then I haven’t found any, but I am not sure I’d be able to just leave one on the ground.
The oldest coin I found was up on one of the San Juan Islands. I was walking down to the beach and spotted what looked like a penny. It turned out to be a liberty nickel from 1896.
many moons ago, when i was 11, i found $200 on the street of my neighborhood, it made my summer.
I really hope people won’t become money hungry and dig up all that has been lost. It would just be a tragedy. You’re right, treasure is treasure b/c it is sacred and secret and yes, beautiful. Leave the wonders of the sea in the sea, b/c there is always a little beauty in the mystery.*
When i was snorkeling in Cozumel last summer i found many broken sand dollars. but i saw one half buried in the sand a figures it too was broken. i picked it up and it was a perfect sand dollar about 6 or 7 inches in diameter.
There were two times:
I found in a parking lot over 4 Dollars in pennies in a pile.
What was pretty shocking, is that that pile of pennies
has been there a while( Condition, dirt between the
coins, etc).
I know a lot of kids go through this parking lot. And
nobody even noticed this.
Scooped them all up.
2nd time
One afternoon while, waiting for a bus
I noticed a quarter on the
street. Picked it up, then I saw another one a
few feet away. Also, picked it up, then saw a few dimes, nickles. Pick almost all them up. A
dollar coin.
Then I noticed that there seem to be coin
money all over the street picked up as much
until my bus arrived. Came back
later in late evening after work to see if I
could get any more money. I DID.
I got at least 12 dollars in change that day.
I think what happened is that someone had all
this in a bag or something while riding a
motorcycle & didn’t know he/she lost them
all.
ALSO, a surprise the road was less that
1000 feet walking distance from the main
library. I know a lot of kids & teens walk
along this road and nobody even noticed all
these coins on the street.
Strange huh?
Thanks for a second shout out Mike – and the excellent research which has provided insight into my question.
All the best
Ch??rs
A $100 bill. I was in college and was literally starving. It isnt a big deal now but it felt like a miracle at the time.
Now, think of this. How far can a human mind go in terms of imagination and creativity? Will there ever be an end to it (not in the sense, end of the world…!)
I found two coins dated from the 1780′s as well as a book alsom from that time frame. I kept the coins and donated the book to a museum, as it was signed by Capt Cook, the European that discovered the Hawai’ian Islands.
the best treasure i have ever found was when i was 7. I had gone on a 3 week trip out of the state with my grandma, just us 2. it was the longest trip i had ever went on without a parent. when i got back home, my best friend and my family were outside and greeted me.
I know it is not worth millions of dollars but it is to me.
You have to think though that if all this treasure is found, won’t the value of gold and other valuable metals go down immensely, therefore devaluing the entire haul by a staggering percentage. Just my two cents…
When I was 6 I was on a t.v. show titled Juvenile Jury. I called the studio and they found an old, tape of one of the episodes I was on. What was even more cool about it is my sister was on the same show asking a question and she was 14 at the time, she is 8 years older then me and I didn’t even remember her when she was 14!
Always enjoy reading your blogs, Mike
Years ago when I was going to college, I used to deliver newspapers. I’d gather up all the money and take the paper their cut, and keep what was left over. I spent a lot on gas, even then.
I paid the newpaper what I owed them one time, but must have forgotten about the leftover money. One day I was going thru my closet, and came up with a coat that had around 70 bucks in it! That was a great find!
I live in an area that is loaded with mine shafts and have
dropped camera with light down inside a few, Treasure
is some of the antiques thrown down these holes over the past 90 years. Some very interesting items down these
shafts and quite sure that some were never meant to be brought up and have been warned that to do so could prove more dangerous than the shafts. But is very interesting anyway. Lost camera and equipment
at shaft 21372, confiscated and tossed down shaft by
friendly citizen. His comment,oops, Sorry.. Some peoples trash another peoples treasure…
I have to agree with you. I mean, I’m all about getting a little bit of gold. However, just the thought of removing the sunken galleons and treasure from the ocean makes me sad, almost like we’re taking an undefendable animal from its habitat just because we want to make money off of it. I say that we go ahead and explore and take samples for museums/collections/research, but, aside from those activities, that we leave the mysteries and treasures of the ocean in peace.
when I was a young boy, I used to go to the local reservoir with my grandmother and mom. we went there many times during many summers of my youth, and usually in the night time when my mom was cooking dinner, me and grandmother would go on “treasure hunts”, walking up and down the shore line. we’d come back with odds and ends, and nothing worth anything ever, but at the time, when I was young I thought it was one of the greatest things in the world, and I ALWAYS looked forward to our “treasure hunts”. They were priceless, as was the lady leading me on them*.
I found a treasure when I was about five years old. My parents and I were at the beach in Los Angeles and it was my bedtime, so we started to go home, but I saw a glint of something shiny and gold in the sand. I ran back to look at it despite my parents’ impatient calls, and found a large golden watch studded with sparkling jewels. We took it to the jeweler’s (spelling?) and it turned out to be worth $500. Yay!
It was in my graduating party. I was wearing my rob and feel proud of my self to continue my higher education inspite of my hard times, being a wife and a mother. This is my real treasure to challenge my circumstances and be!!! Thanks for this brain storming
Ha one time i was in my basement and my mom always told me not to play down there, but as always i never really listened and one day while scavengering threw some old of my grandparents junk( it use to be there home) i found a Pogo Stick, The only really unique thing about it was that it was an Orignal Superman (Chest Up) Pogo Stick and it ended up being worth a bundle
Trillions and trillions of dollars? Wow!
But if I were to answer that question, my answer would have to be “Priceless”, just to be sure.
I have this big, big world map from National Geographic, detailing where most probably sunken ships and treasures could be lying.
One of these days …… hahahahahaha!
Thanks for the idea.
Aref
I found a 10 bill in the beach in the water. My brother at the same time found a 5 bill. lol i thought that someone must of died
Yeah… I live in the Philippines and the strangest “treasure” I’ve ever found was a 100 peso bill in my pocket. I didn’t know how it got there. Happened to me just last week.
The greatest treasure I’ve ever found isn’t very interesting to most people. My dad was destroying the yard in order to lay down a new water line, it went from our house, to our lylac bush (which got completely uprooted but survived it all. Hardy little thing) to the barn we refer to as a garage. Well, its been a few years and you can still see the perfect line that was dug up and stomped back in. Its really ugly, but one day I was walking outside and saw something shiny in the dirt. I bent over and dug a little bit and found that it was a small, translucent, aqua colored stone (probably something from a glass bottle) but it looks like it was cut for a ring (maybe hand cut) and is almost the exact same size, width and shape as the emerald in my ring. I still have it, and even though it probably isn’t worth a thing, I still like it. It has a kind of mysterious, mystical quality to it.
i enjoy reading your block
UHM R U THE OWNER
im 13 and thers about 3 main websites i male money from every month. and when you add it all up its about 150 a month.
1st is http://treasuretrooper.com/305231 this is where i get most of my money
2nd is http://cash crate.com/404211 (without the space) and you also get poins everytime you complete an offer and you can trade them in for real stuff and u still get he money. for example an xbox 360 is 6000 points, a psp is 3600 points a camera is 3100 points and a bunch of others.
3rd is http://www.centsports.com/?opcode=182509 and u start with 10 cents and u have to bet on real sports events like baseball games football games basketball boxing soccer and alot more. so far ive reached 68 $ on this website just betting on games
http://treasuretrooper.com/305231
http://cash crate.com/404211
http://www.centsports.com/?opcode=182509
Through topics such as this one I can really see what the word ” stranger ” means – When I see so much interest for money and diamonds, I say to myself precisely :”This is the kind of thing which lets me icy” and therefore “people who write this are deeply materialistic and boredom” – You are boredom – to me boredom people are strangers – we’ll never be friends -
When I was a teenager, I went on a nature hike with my boyfriend. We were sitting in a meadow taking a break and he was professing his love for me. I’m not really the “romantic” type so I looked down in embarassment and found a heart-shaped rock!
I once went to the Andes in Peru and found $100 bill on the edge of a cliff.
wow you really must have put alot of work into finding out this answer! thank you, as i have been wondering this for a long time, even though i am only 11
the best treasure iv ever found was love…. but another persons trash is another persons treasure…i dont think that quote counts for this.
I FOUND THAT GOD IS THE ONLY WAY. WHAT MAKES THIS A STRANG TREASURE IS THE FACT IT WAS NEVER A LOST TREASURE, HE WAS ALLWAYS WITH ME , EVEN BEFORE I CAME TO BE.
yeah
i found a car shaped stone in my back garden it was
about 50 cm long
the strangest treasure i found was when i was new jersey and i found like ten $100 bills!!!!!!
it was awesome!!=:)
I need a sponsor
I find it odd that everyone talks about treasure in the forms of money. My treasure was when a friend called to tell me of an abandoned dog near her home, a year old female dalmation. She knew i had always wanted one so i went and picked the dog up. Her feet has extreme soft tissue and she had heartworms, an obvious sign of abuse. but 500 dollars in vet bills later she is healthy. Dalmations are known for alerting their owners to fire but mine actually saved me from drowning. I fell asleep on a floatie in my pool and turned over into the pool, waking and gasping and not able to touch the bottom; she jumped right in and actually pulled me up by my hair. So was she worth 500 dollars before i really knew her temperment or anything about her….yes. She is the treasure, for how could the love she has more me ever have a price tag?
um…probaly my dog.i found him in a shopping cart
you really need to get a life dude…
I am the couger
our teachers say if they catch us on anything uneducational so i was wondering if there was a way to make it LOOK educational?