- [Voiceover] History
and Mother Nature leave the darndest
things lying around. Many times they're
found by experts actively searching for them, but sometimes an amateur
blunders into something fantastic that just
happens to make him very, very wealthy. Number one is the Hoxne Hoard. In 1992, British farmer
Peter Whatling lost a hammer, so he asked his friend
Eric Lawes to search for it with a metal detector. What Lawes ended
up discovering was tens of thousands
of Roman coins, along with jewelry and
other small valuable items. All totaled, the Hoxne
Hoard contained more than seven pounds of gold
and 50 pounds of silver. As required by law,
Whatling and Lawes reported it to the authorities, and the items were
eventually placed in the British Museum. However, the government
was required to reimburse Lawes for fair market
value that was calculated at 1.8 million pounds, which today is worth
$4.6 million dollars. Lawes split the
money with Whatling, and laws were actually
changed to require such a division between
finder and landowner in future cases. Number two is the
Staffordshire Hoard. The Hoxne Hoard isn't
even the richest archaeological find
found by amateurs. In 2009, Terry Herbert
discovered gold items in a recently plowed field
in Staffordshire, UK. Eventually, over 3500
pieces dating from the seventh and eighth centuries
were eventually excavated. The original find was valued
at 3.3 million pounds. Finds continue to be made
at the site, however, and the finder's fee
continues to apply. Number three are the works
of Martin Johnson Heade. In the last 20 years, three different
paintings by 19th century American artist
Martin Johnson Heade have transformed from cheap
purchase into major sale. In 1996, his Magnolia
Blossoms on Blue Velvet sold for almost $1
million dollars, after having been bought
along with another piece of art at an estate
sale for $100 dollars total. Then, in 1999, Two
Magnolias on Blue Plush sold for $882,000 dollars, after having been
bought for $29 dollars at a rummage sale. A month later, Magnolias
on Gold Velvet Cloth sold for $1.25 million
dollars after having been bought for next to nothing. Number four is Action Comics #1. In 1938, someone builds
a house in Elbow Lake, Minnesota and stuffed
the walls with newspapers and other cheap paper
materials as insulation. Included in that material
was Action Comics #1, which features the first
appearance of Superman. At the time, it
wasn't worth anything. Today, a mint condition
Action Comics #1 can fetch $2 million dollars. This was far from mint
condition, however, as it had been stuffed
in a wall for 80 years before finally being
discovered in 2013. Graded a mere 1.5 out of 10, it still fetched
$175,000 dollars for the man who bought
the home for just over $10,000 dollars. Number five is the
Royal One Opal. It was an opal miner's
very last day on the job when he found the Royal One
at the bottom of his bucket. At first glance it appeared
to be of poor quality. Only after cleaning it
up did he get a hint of what he had. For the next 14 years, the 306-carat black opal
was kept in a bank vault. Besides being large, it has exceptional color,
clarity, and purity, all of which factor
into its value. In 2013, it went on sale
with an asking price of $3 million dollars. Number six is the Amarillo
Starlight Diamond. Crater of Diamonds
State Park in Arkansas is the only diamond-bearing
site in the entire world that's open to the public. You can just walk in, dig,
and keep what you find. And that's just what
W. W. Johnson did. While vacationing
with his family, he unearthed a 16-carat diamond, the largest find since
the park opened in 1972. It was later cut
down to 7.5 carats, and is thought to
be worth $150,000 and $175,000 dollars today. Number seven is a 1964
Shelby Vobra Daytona. Designed exclusively
as a racing car, only six 1964 Shelby Cobra
Daytona's were ever built. Of these, the original
went missing in the 1970s and was feared destroyed. In fact, it had been put
into storage by Donna O'Hara, daughter of a bodyguard of
music producer Phil Spector, who previously owned the car. Then, in 2000, she
committed suicide, and her mother discovered
and sold the car for a cool $3 million. The sale has not been
without challenges. Spector claims he'd
only put it in storage, not transferred ownership. And a friend of Donna's
has paperwork willing the car to him. The mother eventually
settled with the payment of $687,500 dollars. Number eight is the
Declaration of Independence. In 1989, a man spent $4
dollars on a painting at a flea market because
he liked the frame. As he attempted to
remove the painting, the frame fell apart and a
piece of folded paper fell out. It turned out to be
one of the first 500 printed copies of the
Declaration of Independence, made in 1776. Only 23 were known
to have survived, and only two of which were
in private collections. When it went to auction in 1991, it was thought to fetch up
to $1.2 million dollars. In fact, the final price
was $2.4 million dollars. Number nine is the
12-pound gold nugget. In 2013, a man who wishes
to remain anonymous was searching in a field
in Ballarat, Victoria, in Australia, looking for gold, just as hundreds of people
have done before him. Sizable nuggets have
come out of Ballarat, but what this man
found was 12 pounds and nine inches long, resting just 23 inches
under the ground. By weight the nugget is
worth $300,000 dollars. However, the rareness of
its size could increase the price substantially. Number 10 is a golden orb. A scrap dealer bought a
gemstone-embellished gold orb for $14,000 dollars, hoping to sell it for
its raw material value. However, prospective
buyers thought he had overestimated its worth
and turned him down, so it sat on a shelf for years. One day he Googled
Vacheron Constantin, the name etched onto the piece. Results included an
article featuring a picture of the egg and the headline, "Is this 12 million-pound
nest egg on your mantelpiece?' He'd actually come across
the Third Imperial Egg, one of the 50 Fabergé
eggs created in Russia in the late 19th century. It was reportedly sold
to a private collector for $33 million dollars. For more top lists
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