10 Lucky Finds of Great Value, Including Whale Puke

I have often thought about what it would be like while digging in my back garden wanting to insert another fence post, (I dig holes for fence posts now and again, as fences require ongoing maintenance). I often imagine while digging, I strike something valuable or find some precious gem stone or gold or platinum, Or even a hidden treasure, but no such luck has befallen me yet.

It’s a mental game I play with myself to make the digging experience more magical, if a digging experience can indeed be magical, although I must say I glean a certain satisfaction from the finished job, when I see my fence looking good. I think ‘I did that.’ It was the same when I did the concreting … Hold on, I’m going off topic here, just so you know this corporate dweller can do some handyman stuff too. Okay now that’s out of the way, onto the really lucky people.

A miner in Australia was a bit of a stone collector and one stone he collected, had a nice shimmer, unbeknown to him what he had collected was of great value, it was14 years later, when he showed it to a gem specialist, it was a black opal and they valued it at $3million.

Some kids messing around in an abandoned house in the USA, found some coins on the floor but then made an even greater discovery, they found $8,000 worth of coins in the walls of the abandoned house. Okay, I get it $8,000 isn’t much at all. However, the coins were collector coins, and the find suddenly jumped to a value of $200,000.

Then there is the curious case of the 8-year-old boy who found a weird-looking rock on the beach, it ended up being whale puke, or ambergris that is rather disgusting, but valuable too. They use whale puke as an ingredient in perfume production, and it was therefore worth $63,000. Not bad for some weird-looking rock on the beach.

A man in Wyoming purchased a house for $285,000 but with the house was a car left in the garage. The car was covered in thick dust; he cleaned it up and it was in good working condition; the car was a Ferrari worth $500,000.

A man’s father left him a collection of coins, twenty years later he had the collection appraised. One coin was an aluminium coin one of only 10 that were ever made and was worth $250,000.

Imagine discovering that you had a Van Gogh painting in your attic, a painting worth $50 million. The painting had been sitting in an attic in Norway, and only years later recognised as an original, the delighted owner wanted to remain anonymous, if I were so lucky, I would also remain anonymous.

A man went to a jumble sale and saw a golden egg, he sold it for $14,000 he turning a quick profit by selling it to scrap metal dealers, who purchased the egg. That was the best purchase that scrap metal dealer could have made.

The scrap metal was rather despondent because he thought he had overestimated what the tiny golden egg would be worth. Thinking that the gold in the egg would bring him only $500. He was so despondent having technically ‘lost’ $13,500, he typed the name on the egg into Google and came upon an article that stated that the egg he had was the Third Imperial Easter Egg, from Faberge, and they valued it at $33 million. That was the price it sold for at auction. The value of the egg was not in the gold content but the historic and artistic heritage of the egg.

A British farmer asked his friend to assist him find a missing hammer with a metal detector in one of his fields, They discovered a wooden box filled with jewellery and coins worth around $15million.

Another farmer was using a metal detector to find a ring that his daughter lost, and came upon gold and silver hoard worth around $5million. The hoard dated to the 7th century.

I think I need to invest in a metal detector… Oh and a farm oh and it needs to be in England, because that seems to be where the treasure is.

A guy bought a house in Utah and he found an attic with boxes of dollar bills, the value of the find was $45,000. Not bad for some boxes in an attic. He was however an honest man and decided to return the money to the rightful owner. This was a man of rich character, honesty and integrity.

Perhaps he believed in the negative effects of tainted money, as so many people do, cue the twilight zone music…