Do you ever dream of having unbound riches but don’t want to put in any of the work? We all do, and some lucky people stumbled upon the most unbelievable riches. So, get ready to take a trip through treasures you couldn’t even imagine, but be warned. For some folk, all that money put a big target on their back. Let's explore some lucky discoveries that made people filthy rich.

Apple-1 Prototype

One lucky homeowner was going through a drawer in their house when they stumbled across one of the most era-defining pieces of tech of the last century. He discovered a prototype Apple 1 computer that was hand-wired and soldered by Apple founder Steve Wozniak himself. Over the years, their designs have become sleeker, but this was what Wozniak and Jobs used to secure Apple’s first big order of computers. Without this board, there’s no iPhone, Macbook, Airpods, anything!

After securing that big order that would change tech forever, this board sat gathering dust in the Apple Garage for years. Until, in the 1990s, Steve Jobs decided to gift it to someone. And apparently, they were so overcome with joy at receiving the useless cardboard computer that they stuffed it in a drawer and forgot about it until 2022. Well, the long game paid off. The board was matched to polaroids from the time to prove it was the real deal before going to auction where it sold for a whopping $677,000. Not such a bad gift after all!

Alexander Calder Necklace Found At A Flea Market

Norma Ifill was perusing a Brooklyn Flea Market in 2005 when she spotted a crazy necklace. Something about it tickled Norma’s fancy and the $15 price tag was a no-brainer. To the untrained eye, it might just look like someone welded your Grandma’s cutlery drawer together, but it’s a lot more than that. Norma had no idea what a bargain she’d grabbed until she went on a casual visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art three years later. There was an exhibit showcasing some work by renowned sculptor Alexander Calder, but something seemed a little familiar.

Calder was mostly known for large kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air, but the exhibit also showcased some of Calder’s jewelry. His rings, necklaces, and earrings were usually made of brass or steel and not for sale. They were gifts for friends. Ergo, the resales are enormous, just like Norma discovered. After having the necklace appraised as a genuine Calder piece, she auctioned it for a shocking $267,750.

Magnolias on Gold Velvet Cloth

One keen-eyed Indiana native was schmoozing in a furniture store when he spotted a painting of flowers he liked the look of. When he checked the price and saw it was going for next to nothing, he bought it, took it home, and used it to cover a hole in his wall.

Fast forward, and the man and some friends were having a games night, playing the board game Masterpiece. In the game, players compete in auctions for works of art. While playing, the man noticed that one of the pieces of art they were bidding over bore a striking resemblance to the painting hanging on his wall! The work in the game was by American landscape and still life painter, Martin Johnson Heade. And it turns out, this guy was a big shot.

The next day, he contacted the Kennedy Galleries in Manhattan who curated Heade’s paintings to see if his was legit. And, to his surprise, it was! Not only was it real, but it had a pretty sweet value of $1.25 million. Funnily enough, this isn’t the first time a Heade painting has showed up out of the blue either. Another painting sold at auction for $882,500 after the seller picked it up at a rummage sale for 29 bucks.

Hand Of Faith

We all know Australia is the smorgasbord of every animal-related phobia going. But for those bold enough to face their fears, like keen metal detector Kevin Hillier, the country might be worth your while. One evening back in September 1980, he awoke suddenly from a peculiarly vivid dream. So taken aback by the potency of it, he quickly scribbled down what he saw on a piece of paper and in his divine inspiration asked his neighbor to sign it for him.

But maybe he was really onto something. Kevin, a keen metal detectorist, was on the brink of a life-changing discovery. Twelve days later, on September 26th, he was out near Kingower, Victoria when his metal detector started going berserk. So, Kevin started to dig, and was shocked at what he found. Just 12 inches beneath the ground was an enormous gold nugget. The since-named Hand of Faith nugget measures a staggering 18.5 inches by 7.8 inches and weighs a whopping 60lbs.

But weirdest of all, that drawing Kevin got his neighbor to sign bears a striking resemblance to the nugget. And the good news doesn’t stop there. Big Kev’s divine intuition sought out Kovac’s Gems and Minerals, who sold the big nugget on his behalf. It was bought by the aptly named Golden Nugget Casino chain for a hefty $1m.

Anglo-Saxon Ship Burial At Sutton Hoo

In 1937, the owner of Sutton Hoo, Edith Pretty, was looking out across her vast garden when she noticed some strange, out-of-place mounds in the earth. Edith had a big interest in spiritualism and communicating with the dead but it's unlikely that she was prepared for what she’d find lurking beneath her home.

Trusting her intuition, she hired the assistance of self-taught archaeologist, Basil Brown, who started digging, and uncovered the remains of a giant Viking sailboat. It was heavily eroded after spending years underground, but this was still a monumental discovery.

And the crazy finds didn’t stop there. Over 200 artifacts were dug up including a solid gold buckle, shoulder clasps, and a royal, gold-hilted sword. Perhaps the most famous discovery though, and the key to unlocking this perplexing haul, was the now-iconic helmet in the image below.

It’s believed the helmet, and indeed the whole burial site belonged to King Rædwald of East Anglia who died around the year 624 CE. Upon his death, he was buried alongside his vast riches, but due to the acidic soil, there was little to no trace of His Highness. Whether Edith genuinely felt a strong pull towards it or not, that’s for you to decide. But this find was extremely significant for both British Early Medieval history, and for being worth a decent amount of money.

We don’t actually know how much King Rædwald’s cache was worth. Edith, an already wealthy woman, opted to forego selling it for profit and instead donated the entire collection to the British Museum. Then Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, tried to honor Pretty with a high-ranking accolade for her generosity, but the ever-modest Pretty declined again. Sometimes, money isn’t everything. True richness comes from the good decisions you make along the way.

Halley's Comet Opal

Back in 1986, the Lunatic Hill Mining Syndicate uncovered a shiny thing that was out of this world, almost quite literally. Found in Lightning Ridge, Australia, this magnificent opal weighs around 2,000 carats, or just under 14 oz, and is about the size of a man’s fist, making it the largest uncut black opal in the world.

You might think this magnificent stone arrived here from another planet, but you’d be wrong. Opals form when cracks inside rocks fill with water-rich fluids containing silica. Over time it crystallizes into these iridescent stones in all different shapes and colors. However, this opal is so striking it was named after a celestial body. Halley’s Comet opal is a tribute to Halley’s Comet, which passes Earth roughly every 75 years and is visible to the naked eye. And it just so happens that in 1986, when the opal was found, the comet flew by!

From the available information, the opal is still in the hands of the Lunatic Hill syndicate. But with an estimated value of $1.7 million, you’d be looking to cash in on it soon if you were them. While Halley’s Comet opal is the largest black opal, a special kind only found in Lightning Ridge, it’s far from the largest opal.

This colossal opal in the image below was found in Queensland in 2011, and it weighs in at a monumental 55,000 carats, 24 lbs, or about 4 bricks. For context, the former largest opal was just 6,100 carats or 2.6 lbs, so, this thing is a giant.

It was expected to fetch well over a million dollars when listed for sale in May of that year, however, it was pulled. Rumor has it that the owner joined forces with a designer and was looking to transform this into jewelry. It seems a shame, however, to break this huge thing up.

Brenham Meteorite

Brenham meteorite is a phenomenal space rock crash landed in Kiowa County, Kansas less than 1,000 years ago. Ever since, small portions of the meteorite have been discovered around the impact site. But it wasn’t until October 2005 that geologist Philip Mani and meteorite hunter Steve Arnold located and recovered the largest fragment (in the image below), weighing a whopping 1,430lb!

If you’re interested in owning a small chunk of space rock, you can buy them pretty easily online, but they’re not cheap. And the same goes for the Brenham. In 2016, it was valued between $717,500 and $1.1 million. But that’s just one chunk. In total over 15,000 lbs of this meteorite have been recovered. Imagine finding that all in one go! Well, using the auction price for the large piece, you can estimate that had all 15,000lbs been found whole it could fetch around $11.5 million.

Ghost In A Jar

eBay has a real eclectic mix of trinkets. You know the saying, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”? Well, one of the site's first-ever viral listings bends the meaning of “treasure” considerably. Way back in 2003, a seller named Teajay101 posted an ad for a highly unusual item. It was titled, ‘Ghost in a Jar! No Joke Serious Inquiry Only’, so it must be real. Why would they say “no joke” in the title?

Teajay claimed they found the jar in an abandoned cemetery plot in the 1980s. Somewhat suspiciously they were hunting for who knows what in the area when their metal detector beeped. So, they started to dig. Lo and behold, merely two feet down their shovel struck something solid. Intrigued, they dug a little further, and uncovered a rotten wooden box.

Now, this is when most would nope the heck out of there. But Teajay bravely pried the box open and found two peculiar jars inside, covered in strange symbols, alongside a tatty old journal. Only, while removing one of the jars, it slipped between their hands and shattered on the floor. From the broken shards, a thick, black mist seeped out and faded into the wind.

Unnerved, Teajay scurried home, but not without taking the remaining jar and journal with them. Later that evening, they cracked open the dusty tome to see what was inside. They never said what they read, but whatever it was made the hairs on their neck stand up.

That night, when they were asleep, they were visited by what they call “The Black Thing”. Teajay was jolted awake by something heavy pushing down on their chest. They tried to wriggle free, but the Black Thing pressed down and down like it wanted to completely crush Teajay. After what felt like a lifetime, Teajay wriggled free and the Black Thing disappeared. Panicked and sweating, they vowed to sell the jar and rid themselves of this horrible curse forever.

It's a creepy story, whether it’s true or not, we don't know. But it didn’t stop the bids flying in for the supposedly cursed artifact. Seven days after being listed, the auction was closed at a chilling $50,922 by a buyer called gary_the_gimp_horn. Sadly, many high-profile eBay listings default, and old gimpy-gary never actually coughed up. For all we know Teajay could still be living with the curse today!

Staffordshire Hoard

Back in 2009, outside the little village of Hammerwich, England, Terry Herbert was using a metal detector he’d purchased second-hand for around $3 when it proved to be a worthy investment. In the field Terry was searching, he discovered a small, shiny, gold object, and then another, and then another. In the space of just five days, Terry found a staggering 244 gold objects. But this was only the tip of the iceberg or goldberg.

Terry didn’t own the land he was searching, but farmer, Fred Johnson did, and that’s a key detail. Fred, having been made aware of the discovery on his land, organized a large-scale excavation to see just what he might be sitting on. And neither Fred nor Terry were fully prepared for what they’d find.

Between them, they’d uncovered the largest Anglo-Saxon gold and silver hoard ever discovered. In total, there were around 4,600 items comprising 11 lbs of gold, 3 lbs of silver, 3,500 pieces of elaborate jewelry, ceremonial weapons, and other sensational discoveries dating back to the 6th and 7th centuries. The hoard was most likely buried between 650-675 CE back when the area was part of the historic Kingdom of Mercia and had stayed hidden for almost 1,500 years.

Here’s where things get a bit touchy. At the time, the entire hoard was valued at a life-changing $5.4 million and was eventually purchased in full by the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Birmingham. But a fight broke out between Terry and Fred over who got to keep the money. In the end, the moolah was split fifty-fifty.

However, that didn’t stop the fighting. Terry claims Fred tried to walk away with the lot, and Fred refuses to talk about it. Sure, two rivals bickering over money shouldn’t overshadow the historical significance of this find though they should put their egos to the side. Without each other, they wouldn’t have anything.

Great Kentucky Hoard

In 2023, when one Kentuckian found a big bag of coins, he was shocked to discover it was worth far more than its dollar value. The man, who chose to remain nameless, was metal detecting in a cornfield in Kentucky, where exactly, he also kept secret. Sounds kind of suspicious.

But the treasures the man found were anything but suspicious. There were more than 800 Civil War-era coins, 700 of which were made of pure gold! There were 20 $10 gold Liberty coins from 1840-1862, 8 $20 Gold Liberties from 1857-1862, 18 $20 gold Liberties from 1863, and an undeclared number of Gold Dollars from 1854-1862.

The total cash value was probably somewhere around $1,200 at the time they were hidden. Which was a lot back in the day, certainly to bury and forget about anyway. During the Civil War, many wealthy Kentuckians were rumored to have buried their savings to hide them from Confederates. Whether the original owners passed during the war or simply forgot about their cash we don’t know.

But the juicy part is that a rare bundle of coins like this is worth way more than the $1,200-ish etched on them. Those $1 coins were listed on a specialist coin website for roughly $1,000 a pop, and some of the rarer coins were going for close to $400,000! So, all in all, this find is worth millions and millions of dollars.

The Accidental Invention of the Microwave

Back in 1939, American physicist and inventor Percy LeBaron Spencer was working for American manufacturer Raytheon. Percy was a really smart guy, he made radar components, which helped Allied forces in World War II detect enemy ships and planes, and even won an award from the Navy for his work.

But that’s not why he’s remembered today. The story goes: one day while building magnetrons, a complicated electric component that generates short radio waves, he noticed that a candy bar in his pocket had melted. Many of Percy’s colleagues had noticed this phenomenon too, but he was the first to question why.

So, he began conducting experiments with other foods like popcorn kernels and eggs. Turns out, all of them heated, popped, or exploded when focused on by radio waves! Percy discovered by focusing these waves on a metal box, he could cook food inside it, and just like that the very first microwave oven was born. Raytheon, Percy’s employer, filed a patent on October 8th, 1945, for a microwave cooking oven, and in 1947, the first commercially available microwave oven was released.

Not that it looks anything like the microwave you might have. The thing was 6 foot tall, weighed 750 lbs, and cost about $5,000, which would be akin to $68,000 today. That’s a lot for a soggy burger. But as the technology developed and microwaves became more commonplace, Raytheon has made in the region of $25 billion off the patent. Percy wasn't paid much, however. Raytheon paid him a measly one-off $2 gratuity and he received zero royalties. Full disclosure, it’s pretty hard to find any information to corroborate the authenticity of this story; it’s an urban myth that’s generally accepted as true.

Ambergris: Rare Whale Vomit

Not all lucky finds are shiny and beautiful. Some of them are actually pretty gross. That’s what 8-year-old Charlie Naysmith from Bournemouth, England discovered. He was walking along the beach at Hengistbury Head when he spotted an unusual rock. It was a yellowish-beigey color and felt waxy to the touch. What could it be?

Little Charlie had found a chunk of ambergris! This much sought-after substance is actually solidified sperm whale vomit. Sperm whales eat cephalopods like squid and cuttlefish, and as they eat, the indigestible parts like the beaks get vomited out. However, in rare circumstances, these parts can move into the intestines of the whale and bind together. Over the years they break down into a solid mass of ambergris, which is fated to eventually come out either the front or rear end of the giant mammal.

Ambergris is very sought after for use in perfumes. Once it dries out, it’s said to have a pleasant, musky odor. But sperm whales are protected, so hunting them is no longer a choice, and that drives the prices of whale barf pretty high, as much as $10,000 per pound. Our boy Charlie got his chunk valued at $63,000 though, and it’s only 1.3lbs!

Rare Frankenstein Poster

In one shut-down Long Island movie theater, something scary was hidden in the dark. Up in one of the old projection booths they found an original poster from the 1931 movie Frankenstein. The poster was found by a man who’d worked at the movie theater as a teenager. But this isn’t just any old wall art. This is the only original 6-foot poster from the movie known to exist.

Finds like these are so extremely rare that movie aficionados will cough up some serious moolah. The poster sold at a 2015 auction for a mind-boggling $358,000. Whether the gentleman who discovered it was allowed to keep the money in a case of finders keepers, it's unsure. But if he was, then that’s not a bad return for your first teenage job.

Rare Jackson Pollock Painting Found In Garage

As we go through life, we collect all sorts of sentimental goodies of times gone by. And just like this Scottsdale, Arizona resident discovered, your trinkets might be worth a few beans. In 2016, he was raising money to go into a retirement facility and remembered in his garage he had an old, signed L.A. Lakers poster that might fetch a couple of bucks.

Only, when the appraiser arrived, he seemed more interested in flicking through the man’s other possessions. Tucked away in a stack of modern art he spotted something that caught his eye. Something worth a lot more than a signed Lakers poster. Nestled amongst a load of worthless junk was a painting by American avant-garde artist Jackson Pollock.

It turns out the owner's half-sister, Jenifer Gordon Cosgriff, was a well-to-do New York Socialite. While the rest of her family stayed in the Midwest, she was rolling in the high-art circles of the 1950s. When she sadly passed in the 1990s, her brother, the homeowner, packed up her stuff and moved it into his garage.

Pollock's paintings go for more than a couple of dimes. Like, a lot more. So, to prove it was real, a private investigator was hired to track Cosgriff’s movements, eventually pinning her to a Pollock showing where she could’ve acquired the painting. After that, the work was sent for forensic examination by experts to prove its authenticity. Lo and behold, it was real! And it was expected to reach up to a mind blowing $15 million at auction.

Unfortunately however, it was pulled last minute due to unregulated buyers. The last disclosed news was that they were quietly looking for private buyers. Still, if it makes anywhere near the auction estimate, our friend in Scottsdale can retire one very happy man.

Crosby Garrett Helmet

Back in 2010, an unnamed metal detectorist was strolling in the village of Crosby Garrett in Cumbria, England when they discovered something life changing: a 2nd or 3rd-century ceremonial Roman cavalry helmet! This probably wasn’t used for fighting because it would be way too heavy. It was most likely used for demos and sporting events. Just like you might rock up to Medieval Times, the Romans had their own Medieval Times, except for people who came before them, like the Trojans.

But the fighting didn’t stop there. When the helmet was put up for auction it attracted a great deal of controversy. The Tullie House Museum in Cumbria said they wanted the helmet to be the focal point of a new Roman gallery due to open in 2011. They wanted it so bad they even raised over $2.7 million to bid for the artifact. Except, well, they lost, fair and square, to an anonymous art collector who placed a whopping $3.65 million bid. So, instead of the helmet being a public artifact in a museum it’s in someone’s private collection hidden away.

Woman Makes $800000 On A $13 Ring

Back in the 1980s, one anonymous woman purchased a cheap costume ring from a second-hand market for $13. It was cheap, sure, but she liked it. So much that for the next 30 years, she wore it practically every day. Then, in 2017, on a whim, she decided to have the ring appraised. She’d always found it strikingly beautiful and had received many compliments on it. Perhaps someone might think it was worth something.

Lo and behold, it was worth more than something. That gem embedded into it wasn’t fake. It was a big, fat, 26-carat diamond and the appraiser valued it at a hefty $400,000. But that wasn’t even close to the closing price. When the ring was auctioned it ended up selling for well over double that, a jaw-dropping $847,667.

What leaves me scratching my head about this is whoever first commissioned or purchased this ring surely knew its value. At what point did it change hands to someone who thought it was only worth a few dollars? There’s a lot of history we don’t know about. Hopefully one day we’ll get an answer.

Tommy Thompson, The Treasure Hunter

Some people will go to insane lengths to get rich. And people like deranged-looking treasure hunter Tommy Thompson are even willing to break the law.

On September 11th, 1988, Tommy became well known for discovering the wreck of the SS Central America. This 280ft sidewheel steamer sank during a hurricane in 1857 while transporting over 30,000 lbs of gold. Crikey. For 131 long years, nobody had the foggiest idea where this ship was. So, there was absolutely zero chance of some lucky diver stumbling across the giant treasure trove.

But in 1988, Tommy and his team used a special probability-based method called Bayesian search theory to locate it. Basically, they just figured out the most likely places it could be and looked in them. Anyway, after they found the sunken vessel, they piloted a custom remotely operated vehicle into the depths and successfully recovered the lost goods. Any idea how much all that gold was worth? $1 million? $10 million? No, in total, the huge haul was worth an unimaginably gargantuan $100-150 million. Indeed, a single gold ingot later sold for a whopping $8 million alone.

Understandably, that much money put a fat target on Tommy’s back. 39 insurance companies claimed it was theirs as they’d paid out damages on the lost goods back when they sank in the 19th century. Pretty whack claim if you ask me. Indeed, after a lengthy legal battle Tommy and the gang did eventually win 92% of the gold in 1996. But the legal troubles didn’t stop there.

All that gold must’ve gone to Tommy’s head. Remember that he used a custom submarine to retrieve the precious metal? Well, turns out he’d borrowed a lot of money from investors and lenders to build it. And throughout the mid-2000s he was sued over 160 times for not paying them back. Kind of hard to say he didn’t have it either. What’s more, 500 gold coins recovered from the wreck had mysteriously gone missing. So, in 2012, Tommy was ordered to court to disclose their whereabouts.

Only, he never went. In a fit of gold-induced madness, Tommy stashed over $4 million in offshore bank accounts and went on the run. But life on the run ain’t easy. He was tracked down in 2015 to a hotel near Boca Raton, Florida, and sentenced to two years in prison. Except, last time we checked Tommyboy is still there.

There’s a big legal argument over the whereabouts of those 500 gold coins. The courts say they’re going to hold Tommy indefinitely until he fesses up, but Tommy says he doesn’t know anything about them, claiming he suffers from short term memory loss. That means we’re in a big old stalemate. Tommy can’t leave and is being charged $1,000 a day as long as he’s inside. That’s now over $3 million. Is Tommy Thompson a modern-day pirate hero, or a grubby little fraudster lying to the judge?

I hope you were amazed at these insanely lucky discoveries that made people rich! Thanks for reading.