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If you accidentally find a wallet on the road, you can become several thousand rubles (or even dollars) richer, which, of course, is nice, but there is also a minus: your find means that someone has become several thousand poorer.
It is much more pleasant to find a thing that, firstly, does not actually belong to anyone, and secondly, it costs tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you’re especially lucky, the find could be worth millions and have enormous cultural significance.
Do you think this only happens in movies? But no: we present you 10 real stories when the finds overnight turned a person into a rich man.
10 Penny 1974
The father of Robert Danvers was a man who worked as a deputy head of the mint in Denver and, oddly enough, was fond of collecting coins. He bequeathed his collection, packed in an ordinary lunch box, to his son, who safely forgot about it for many years until he moved to live in another city.
While sorting things, Robert came across a lunch box with coins and decided to take them to the appraiser for the sake of interest. At first, the entire collection was valued at $300, which the owner was not surprised, since he did not count on more, but then …
Having carefully studied the coins, the expert found a real treasure among them: 1 penny of the 1974 sample, made of aluminum. It is believed that only 10 copies were minted, and since they were not accepted by the soda machine, they decided to destroy them. This “survivor” penny is now worth more than $2 million.
9. Copy of the Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence of the United States is considered the greatest document in the history of the country, the original of which is kept in the National Archives under reliable protection.
It is believed that there are only 25 copies of this document (meaning copies of the original on the same paper), each of which is worth a lot of money, depending on the degree of preservation.
In 1989, a flea market lover bought an old painting there for a few dollars, in which he liked not even the image itself, but the wooden frame.
At home, he decided to cut out the canvas and put another drawing in the frame, when he suddenly noticed a copy of the same Declaration on the back. In 1991, the man became a millionaire by selling it for $2 million plus change.
8. Action Comics №1
This comic for a true connoisseur is no less important than the Declaration of Independence, if not more. The fact is that it was in this issue for 1938 that Superman, the greatest hero in the history of this universe, appeared for the first time.
Such a room, in a rather shabby form, was found by one man in the wall of an old house, which he had recently bought and was doing repairs in it. At first, due to poor condition, the comic book was valued at $100, but after restoration, it has risen in price by 000 times and is now valued at $20 million.
7. Faberge egg
And again, we are talking about a lucky and enterprising American: one man was buying up old trash with the aim of reselling it after restoration. Among the things he bought, he found a metal sphere with pearl inserts, on the restoration of which he spent a lot of time and effort.
He hoped that he would be able to make at least $500 on the sale, and to make sure of this he went to the appraiser. He easily recognized in the product one of the Faberge eggs, which was considered lost. A private collector paid $33 million for it, making the restorer rich.
6. whale burp
The treasure, of course, is doubtful, especially in comparison with the Faberge egg, but such a substance costs money, and a lot of it. For 1 gram you can get about $ 20, and sometimes there are “cobblestones” weighing 15 kg.
This material is used in perfumery: having an extremely strong (albeit unpleasant) smell, it is added to perfumes in order to make their smell more durable and persistent.
5. Anglo-Saxon gold and silver
Treasure hunting with a metal detector is a popular pastime all over the world, in the US even the homeless have such a hobby.
One of them was fond of searching for almost 20 years, not finding anything really valuable, until one day Fortune smiled at him: he discovered a bunch of coins and weapons of the XNUMXth century, which overnight made a homeless millionaire.
Even though he was legally only able to get 50% of the treasure, it still amounted to more than $1,5 million.
4. Stradivari violin
The tools of the great master have always been considered a reference: they were given to kings, collectors are ready to give any money for them.
One of the instruments, found quite by accident, brought its owner an astronomical $ 10 million, although now the violin would cost even more.
3. The Royal One
A story like a fairy tale: Australian miner Bobby, who worked all his life at the mine, was preparing for his well-deserved retirement. On his last day at work, he was cleaning a bucket of dirt, mentally saying goodbye to his colleagues, when he suddenly discovered something strange at the bottom.
When cleaned, this “something” turned out to be a huge 306-carat opal, which, after processing, was worth $756.
2. Shelby Daytona 1964-го
In the 60s of the last century, the LeMans race was a serious struggle between Ferrari and Ford, to win which the latter company attracted Carol Shelby, who designed the legendary Shelby Daytona. In total, he created 6 cars, of which 5 survived.
The last car was considered destroyed, but actually stood in an old garage until it was discovered there by a woman who inherited the garage from her father. After the car was restored, it not only became the decoration of the largest auto shows, but was also sold for $ 4 million.
Tony Maron was fond of attending garage sales, where he tried to buy something valuable for a penny and earn a couple of bucks.
One day, for just $5, he bought a box of various documents in which he found old bills that gave the owner the right to own 1 shares of the old oil companies that later merged with Coca-Cola.
After talking with lawyers, Maron became the full owner of almost 2 million shares of modern Coca-Cola, the value of which on the stock exchange is about 130 million dollars.