They Found a Treasure That Was Thought to Be Lost Forever

Guess what?! A treasure that was thought to be lost forever has been found! Back in April, twenty fifteen, Deep Ocean Search, a team of treasure hunters, recovered fifty million pounds worth of silver rupee coins from the British steamship.

The ship sank in the forties during its journey from India to England. The wreck was found at a whopping depth of almost seventeen thousand feet, setting a world record for the deepest recovery ever!

To put that into perspective, the famous Titanic wreck is only found at a depth of twelve thousand five hundred feet. But don’t be duped, this was no easy feat. The team faced multiple breakdowns of their systems due to the pressure, temperature, and repeated dives at such a depth.

Did you hear about the epic treasure found on the Black Swan wreck? It was discovered by Odyssey Marine Exploration in two thousand seven off Gibraltar, and they hit the jackpot! The salvage team found a whopping seventeen tons of coins worth five hundred million dollars.

Can you even imagine that much money?! It’s said to be the biggest haul ever found in the treasure-hunting world. But the crew didn’t spill the beans on where they found it or what kind of coins they uncovered. They just hightailed it back to the US with their loot. Sneaky!

An old man in the Dominican Republic was selling a coin that ended up being the oldest coin ever minted in the New World! And that’s just the start of the craziest shipwreck story ever. The team at Deep Blue Marine used some fancy sonar to search the area where the coin was found, and they stumbled upon parts of a wrecked ship!

They also found jade statues, ancient Mayan bling, and gold coins from way back in fifteen thirty-five. Like, one set of four coins alone is worth a cool one million dollars! The crew got to keep half of their booty while the Dominican Republic authorities snagged the rest. It’s believed the ship sank during a gnarly hurricane just a few years after Columbus discovered the New World. No other shipwreck has ever turned up such ancient artifacts

We all heard about the Titanic, the OG shipwreck, known for its epic tragedy when it hit an iceberg in nineteen twelve. But what’s even crazier is that three hundred million dollars worth of diamonds went down with it! Like, can you imagine? American and French researchers who found the ship auctioned off nearly six thousand items recovered from the wreck.

We’re talking diamond bracelets, fancy dishes, and even a postcard a passenger wrote to their parents. Treasures from the Titanic are still popping up for auction! Like, some deckchairs from the first-class promenade deck were auctioned off for eighty-five thousand pounds. They’re too delicate to sit on now, but still a crazy piece of history.

The Schmitts, a family of treasure hunters, just stumbled upon over one million dollars worth of gold artifacts in shallow waters only thirty miles north of West Palm Beach! And get this, one of the coins was even meant for the King of Spain! These treasures were part of the seventeen fifteen Treasure Fleet that sank three hundred years ago due to a massive hurricane after leaving Havana, Cuba. Can you believe it was only fifteen feet deep in the water?

They found fifty-one gold coins and forty feet of ornate gold chain. Talk about hitting the jackpot! Brent Brisben, the owner of seventeen fifteen Fleet-Queen’s Jewels, LLC, said those finds were important not just for their monetary value, but their historical importance. But there’s more! The ship was recovered over fifty years ago, and divers have only found about fifty million dollars worth of treasure. It’s believed that there’s still over four hundred million dollars worth of treasure hiding below the sea.

The ultimate party of exploration just got a little more exciting! We’re talking about Vasco da Gama’s Esmeralda — the oldest shipwreck from Europe’s Age of Exploration, baby! This bad boy was wrecked in a gnarly storm back in fifteen oh three along the “India Route” from Europe in the Arabian Sea. But wait, it gets better!

The wreck was actually found way back in nineteen ninety-eight, but it took almost two decades to excavate it. And guess what? They found rare coins, a ship bell, and other cool artifacts that confirmed the identity of the ship. And the treasures are still being uncovered! Just last year in twenty seventeen, they discovered a unique navigational tool called an astrolabe at the wreck. How cool is that?!

A bunch of Indonesian fishermen found a super old ship from the ninth century off Belitung Island in nineteen ninety-eight. It proved that trading between China and the Middle East was totally a thing back then thanks to the “Maritime Silk Route.”

The wreck is so cool that it’s also known as the “Tang Treasure” because it’s the biggest collection of Chinese Tang Dynasty artifacts ever found in one spot. But there’s some serious drama going down over an exhibition of these priceless treasures. It’s like a battle between commercial treasure salvage and archaeological preservation of shipwrecks. Who will win? Only time will tell.

Meet the “holy grail of shipwrecks”! It’s the Spanish galleon San José, and it was loaded with silver, gold, and emeralds worth billions of dollars today! But get this, it sunk after a battle with British ships off the coast of Cartagena, Colombia, way back in seventeen oh eight. Crazy, right?

But here’s the kicker — three hundred years later, in twenty fifteen, some awesome peeps discovered the wreck on the ocean floor! The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution used a cool underwater vehicle to identify the ship by its distinctive cannons, and they’re still recovering treasure as we speak. So, if you’re feeling lucky, keep your eyes peeled for other hidden treasures that haven’t been found yet!

The ultimate jackpot, the sunken “mother lode” of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, was discovered off the coast of Key West, Florida in July nineteen eighty-five. Mel Fisher, the legendary treasure hunter, spent a whopping sixteen years searching for it! The Atocha was on a mission to bring back loads of riches to Spain from Havana, Cuba back in sixteen twenty-two, but got caught up in a gnarly hurricane.

To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the discovery, there was a sick auction where people could buy pieces of the Atocha’s treasure, like gold and emeralds. If you’re keen to see more of this epic haul, head to the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West. The whole shebang is worth around four hundred fifty million dollars, no biggie!

Hey, have you ever dreamt of finding buried treasure and becoming a millionaire overnight? Well, guess what, it’s not just a dream! Meet Forrest Fenn, the man who hid a chest filled with one to five million dollars worth of treasure in the Rocky Mountains. And get this, it took ten years for someone to finally find it!

Fenn announced the treasure hunt back in twenty-ten, and over the years, tens of thousands of people set off to look for it. The treasure chest was filled with two hundred sixty-five American gold eagles and double eagles, ancient coins, gold nuggets, and more. But finding it wasn’t easy. Fenn used a poem with twenty-four lines that had hints in it, and it took some serious decoding skills to figure out where the treasure was hidden.

Finally, in June twenty-twenty, the long-awaited news came — the treasure had been found! The lucky winner was Jack Stuef, a former journalist and medical student. The treasure was hidden under a canopy of stars in the forest in the Rocky Mountains, and it was so well hidden that not all the advertised treasures were found in the chest.

But don’t let that stop you from trying your luck at finding buried treasure! Who knows, maybe you’ll be the next lucky winner. And if you need some inspiration, just remember that Forrest Fenn’s only goal was to give people some hope. So why not give it a shot and see what you can find? Who knows, maybe you’ll become a millionaire too!