Many people look forward to the day when a fortune will fall on their heads and they will live a carefree life from now on. In fact, there are really not many cases of overnight wealth, and most people should not expect to make a fortune by falling pie in the sky. But the following seven were indeed lucky, and a fortuitous discovery led them to achieve wealth freedom.
1. Unemployed youth recover millions of dollars in dog head gold
Australian Kevin Hillier made a living doing odd jobs, but later lost his livelihood to do odd jobs due to a back injury. So he embarked on a metal detector and embarked on a treasure hunt, often fantasizing that he could find treasures to change the family's predicament, until one day in September 1980, Hillier's dream became a reality. Outside Wildbourne, Victoria, he found a piece of dog head gold that, to his surprise, he dug for hours and weighed as much as 27.6 kilograms. In February 1981, he sold the dog-headed gold for $1 million to a Las Vegas Golden Brick Casino. To this day, this dog head gold is still the largest natural gold nugget in the world.
2. Stumble upon a baby hanging in your home
Martin Johnson Hyde was a 19th-century American painter. During his lifetime, his work did not attract much attention until the 1940s, when his work began to be favored by scholars and collectors, and prices soared. His works during his lifetime also began to be slowly excavated from unexpected places.
In 1999, a young man in Indiana, USA, who was playing an art game, found that one of the paintings in the game was exactly the same as the one used to cover the wall holes in his home. So after checking the corresponding information, he submitted the painting to the experts of the Kennedy Gallery in New York for identification. Experts were surprised to find that the painting was indeed Hyde's 1890 magnolia on velvet, and that even the frame was original. The painting was eventually bought by the Houston Museum for $1 million.
3. The first edition of the Declaration of Independence discovered by accident
The American Declaration of Independence produced 200 printed copies overnight on the night of its signature on July 4, 1776. Only 26 of the first 200 printed copies are still alive, and only 3 of these 26 are privately owned, and its preciousness can be imagined.
A collector in Pennsylvania bought a painting because he liked the frame of the painting. When he disassembled the frame, he was surprised to find that behind the painting was a copy of the first version of the Declaration of Independence, and it was in excellent condition, which was really a burst of character. The Declaration of Independence was subsequently auctioned for $2.42 million. Nine years later, the Declaration of Independence changed hands again, selling for $8 million.
4. Good luck treasure hunters
Tanzanite is an ore produced only in Tanzania, and its price has climbed all the way up the international jewelry market since the 1960s. Many individuals and companies in Tanzania make their living in search of Tanzanite.
Saninu Ryser was part of a treasure hunt, and his family had thirty children to raise, and the pressure was understandable. Lyser was also the luckiest of the treasure hunts, having found two huge Tanzanite stones weighing 9.3 kilograms and 5.1 kilograms at once in June 2020, which he sold to the Tanzanian government for $3.4 million. Lyser's good fortune did not end, and two months later he found a 5.3 kg of Tanzanite and made a profit of two million dollars.
5. Find the hammer and accidentally find the treasure
On November 16, 1992, Peter Watlin, a farmer in the village of Hawkeson in Suffolk, England, lost a hammer while tending to his rented field and could not find it, when he remembered his friend Eric Rouse, an amateur metal treasure hunter. Rouse took his metal detector to the ground to search and accidentally found a lot of gold coins, and they quickly contacted the government. Finally, it was found that this was a gold and silver cellar in the Roman period in England, and more than 14,000 ancient Roman gold and silver coins and copper coins were excavated, as well as about 200 gold and silver utensils, with a conservative estimated value of 1.75 million pounds. The treasure was identified as an ownerless burial, and under relevant British law, the discoverer received a cash prize equal to the value of the treasure, which was borne by the institution that ultimately collected the treasure. In the end, the good friend Rouse, who came to help with the metal detector, was rewarded with £1.75 million, and he was happy to share the prize with Watlin.
6. Windfall before exiting
Australia is rich in color opal, which is sought after for its strong color change effect when it inhales light, and is one of the world's top six gemstones.
Bobby is an opal miner in New South Wales, Australia. In 1999, on the eve of Bobby's decision to quit mining, he made a major discovery in his last mining, digging up a black opal weighing 306 carats of excellent quality. Perhaps to wait for the stone to appreciate and sell for a good price, Bobby hid the stone under the bed, and it was not until fourteen years later, in 2013, that the opal was auctioned in the United States, and finally sold for $3 million.
7. Major discoveries of amateur treasure hunting
In May 2010, an amateur treasure hunter in the Uk discovered a Roman-era cavalry helmet in Cumbria. This helmet is extremely precious due to the fact that it has a complete mask. Unlike the gold coins found by the farmers earlier, this is a copper unowned burial, while British law only stipulates that the gold and silver artifacts belong to the state, so the discoverer can legally own and dispose of the artifacts. The helmet ended up selling for $3.6 million at auction in October of that year.
8. There are hearts planted flowers and flowers that do not bloom, and willows are shaded without hearts
Faberge Eggs are egg-shaped crafts made by the famous Russian jewelry craftsman Peter Karl Faberge for the Russian Tsar in the late 19th century, mostly made of enamel, gold and precious stones. During the Russian Revolution, many of the Faberge eggs in the royal collection were missing.
A man in the United States found a beautiful egg at a bazaar, and he bought it for $14,000, which he had only taken a fancy to the gold on it. When he returned home, he found that the gold on the egg was not worth $14,000 at all, which made him very remorseful. The man tried to search the Internet with the easter egg and the text above, and he was surprised to find that the origin of the easter egg was not so simple, some people estimated that the easter egg was worth $33 million, and finally the easter egg was bought by a collector, and the price was not announced.