Accidentally finding a wallet on the road, you can become richer by several thousand rubles (or even dollars), which, of course, is nice, but there is also a minus: your find means that someone has become a few thousand poorer.
It is much nicer to find a thing that, firstly, actually does not belong to anyone, and secondly, it costs tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you are especially lucky, then a find can cost millions and have great cultural significance.
Do you think this only happens in the movies? And here it is not: we present to you 10 real stories, when finds overnight turned a person into a rich man.
10. Penny 1974
Robert Denvers' father was a man who worked as deputy chief of the mint in Denver and was fascinated, oddly enough, by 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 out, Robert stumbled upon a lunch box with coins and decided to take them to an evaluator for the sake of interest. At first, the entire collection was valued at $ 300, which the owner was not surprised, since he did not expect more, but then ...
Having carefully examined the coins, the expert found among them a real treasure: 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 "surviving" penny now costs more than $ 2 million.
9. Copy of the Declaration of Independence
The United States Declaration of Independence is considered the greatest document in the history of the country, the original of which is stored in the National Archives under reliable protection.
It is believed that there are only 25 copies of this document (referring to copies of the original on the same paper), each of which costs a lot of money, depending on the degree of preservation.
In 1989, a lover of shopping at flea markets bought an old picture for a few dollars, in which he liked not even the image itself, but a wooden frame.
At home, he decided to cut out the canvas and put another picture in the frame, when he suddenly noticed a copy of the same Declaration on the back. In 1991, a man became a millionaire, selling it for $ 2 million with a trifle.
8. Action Comics No. 1
This comic for a true connoisseur has no less significance than the Declaration of Independence, or even more. The fact is that it was in this issue for 1938 that Superman first appeared - the greatest hero in the history of this Universe.
Such a number in a rather shabby form was found by one man in the wall of an old house, which he had recently bought and made repairs in it. At first, due to poor condition, the comic was estimated at $ 100,000, but after restoration it has risen in price by 20 times and is now valued at $ 2 million.
7. Faberge egg
And again, we are talking about a lucky and enterprising American: one man was engaged in the purchase of old trash with a view to its subsequent resale after restoration. Among the things he bought, he found a metal sphere with pearl inserts, the restoration of which he spent a lot of time and effort.
He expected that he could “weld” at least $ 500 on the sale, and went to the appraiser to make sure of this. He easily recognized in the product one of the Faberge eggs, which was considered lost. A private collector laid out $ 33 million for him, making the restorer rich.
6. Whale burping
The treasure, of course, is doubtful, especially in comparison with the Faberge egg, but such a substance costs money, and considerable. For 1 gram you can earn about $ 20, and sometimes there are "cobblestones" weighing 15 kg.
This material is used in perfumery: having an extremely strong (albeit unpleasant) odor, it is added to perfumes in order to make their smell more durable, persistent.
5. Anglo-Saxon Gold and Silver
Searching for treasures with a metal detector is a popular entertainment all over the world, in the USA such a hobby happens even among homeless people.
One of them was fond of searching for almost 20 years, not finding anything truly valuable, until one day Fortune smiled at him: he discovered a bunch of coins and weapons of the 7th century, which they instantly made of a homeless millionaire.
Even despite the fact that by law he was able to get only 50% of the treasure, it still amounted to more than $ 1.5 million.
4. Violin Stradivarius
The tools of the great master have always been considered standard: they were given to kings, collectors are ready to give any money for them.
One of the instruments, found by accident, brought its owner an astronomical $ 10 million, although now the violin would have cost even more.
3. The Royal One
A story similar to a fairy tale: Australian miner Bobby, who worked all his life at the mine, was preparing to retire. On his last working day, he was cleaning a bucket of mud, already mentally saying goodbye to his colleagues, when he suddenly discovered something strange at the bottom.
After cleaning, this “something” turned out to be a huge opal of 306 carats, the price of which after processing was $ 756,000.
2. Shelby Daytona 1964
In the 60s of the last century in the LeMans race there was a serious struggle between Ferrari and Ford, to win in which the last 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 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.
1. Coca-Cola Mutual Certificate
Tony Maron was fond of visiting garage sales, where he tried to buy something valuable for a penny and earn a couple of bucks.
Once, for just $ 5, he bought a box with various documents in which he found old bills giving the owner the right to own 1,625 shares of 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.