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Clearing out your home can uncover all sorts of trinkets long forgotten, but for one resident of the Yorkshire Dales it led to the discovery of six genuine treasures he never knew he had. And now the rare Australian banknotes hiding under the lining paper of his chest of drawers have fetched a staggering £410,490 at auction. The elderly owner in his 80s, who wants to remain anonymous, was due to move into a retirement home and called in his local auctioneers to go through the house and see what they could sell for him. Rodney Tennant, of Tennant's Auctioneers,...

LONDON — For the jobless man living on welfare who made the find in an English farmer’s field two months ago, it was the stuff of dreams: a hoard of early Anglo-Saxon treasure, probably dating from the seventh century and including more than 1,500 pieces of intricately worked gold and silver whose craftsmanship and historical significance left archaeologists awestruck. When the discovery in Staffordshire was announced Thursday, experts described it as one of the most important in British archaeological history. They said it surpassed the greatest previous discovery of its kind, a royal burial chamber unearthed in 1939 at Sutton...

Deputy head of Portable Antiquities Scheme, British Museum This treasure paints a new picture of our past and the Dark Ages. What makes it outstanding is the sheer quantity - we're talking about 1,500 objects, almost entirely precious metal. Normally you would expect a handful of objects each year of this quality for the period in question, which is the 7th Century. A metal detectorist finding just one of these objects would consider it the find of their life. To find 1,500 is bizarre and it would blow the average person's mind. Now, everybody wants to know who it belongs...

13 gold coins have been found, wrapped together, by the river in Córdoba If you know where to look, buried treasure can still be found in Spain. The latest find was not however thanks to a map marked with an ‘X’, but came as part of an archaeological excavation as part of new drainage works in Córdoba, close to the famous Roman Bridge in the city centre. 13 gold coins, escudos, from the reign of Carlos III, dated from 1776 to 1801, and wrapped in a cloth, were found under a layer of limestone which has kept them in a...

Roy Langbord had guessed that someone in his family might have hidden away a great treasure decades before, but not until his mother had him check a long-neglected safe-deposit box did he realize just how great it was. Inside the box, opened in 2003, he found an incredibly rare coin, wrapped in a delicate paper sleeve. It was a gold $20 piece with Lady Liberty on one side, a bald eagle flying across the other and, at Liberty’s left, the four digits that made it so valuable: 1933. The famous “double eagles” from that year were never officially released by...

A very large and important find of a hoard of Roman coins was recently discovered by a novice metal detector user in the Shrewsbury area. This is probably one of the largest coin hoards ever discovered in Shropshire. The finder, Mr Nic. Davies, bought his first metal detector a month ago and this is his first find made with it. The hoard was discovered close to a public bridleway on land that Mr Davies did not have permission to detect on. All land is owned by someone and it is important that permission to search is obtained in advance. The...

The largest-ever known number of coins from the time of Bar-Kochba, the Jewish leader against Roman invaders, has been discovered in the Judean Hills by cave researchers from Hebrew and Bar-Ilan Universities.

Last month we told you about people who stumbled upon their fortune. If you haven’t found your own copy of the Declaration of Independence or a few thousand Ancient Roman coins, let me give you a push in the right direction with these tales of lost treasures that are just waiting for you to find them. 1. The Lying Dutchman? Arthur Flegenheimer, who went by the alias “Dutch Schultz,” was a New York mobster during the 1920s and ’30s known for his brutality and hard-nosed business tactics. By the time he was 33, Dutch had taken on the Mafia in...

While the Western & Official Islamic Iranian Media ignores the story, a Turkish lawyer has claimed that his Iranian client, Esmail Safarian-Nasab, has transferred an $18.5-billion treasure from Iran to Turkey through "courier services" - reportedly two truckloads as opposed to the original story of just one. The TWO container-TRUCK loads of "courier services" of US dollars and gold bullion was delivered to Ankara Customs last month. (Watch video below for visuals only unless you speak Turkish) but efforts have been made by Turkey (even denying any money arrived) and some Mullah friendly Press, to confuse/misdirect it with a smallish,...

MORE than a thousand years ago a Saxon thief, desperate to hide his plunder, stashed a hoard of stolen gold in what is today a nondescript West Yorkshire field. What became of the thief is lost to the ages and his precious loot lay safely buried in that same field for the next millennium. There it remained until a treasure hunter, out with his trusty metal detector last year, experienced the moment he will never forget when he unearthed the amazing find on the farmland near Leeds. Archaeological experts say they believe the three gold rings, half a gold ingot...

A TREASURE hunter has unearthed a 14th-century silver ring at the back of a farmer's field in Flintshire. Douglas Fletcher, 44, of Flint, found the decorative, gilt, 97 per cent silver ring in the field in his home town, in January last year. At an inquest in Flint yesterday, the find was declared treasure by John Gittins, deputy coroner for north east Wales. Mr Fletcher, who has been treasure hunting for three years with wife Linda, came across the ring on one of his regular solo hunts. The Mold Historical Search Society member had to dig just six inches into...

The remains of a 1,500-year-old Saxon burial ground have been uncovered by two Sussex metal detector enthusiasts. Bob White and Cliff Smith unearthed brooches, a bronze bowl, a spear and a shield from the graves of a man and two women on farmland near Lewes. Mr Smith, of Eastbourne District Metal Detecting Club, said he knew he had found something special when he noticed part of a bowl and a piece of skull. It is thought the family were relatively wealthy and of high status. Mr Smith and Mr White called Sussex Police as soon as they uncovered the items...

Californian is fighting heirs in Texas over the right to dig for it If Nathan Smith's plan to search for a buried treasure near the Texas Gulf Coast using Google Earth and a metal detector sounds like a Hollywood movie, it should. After all, Smith, a California musician, was inspired by the hit National Treasure movies starring Nicolas Cage. And like any good swashbuckling flick, there's a dramatic tale — this one involving cannibalized 19th-century sailors who supposedly left the pot of gold and silver behind in Refugio County in South Texas. Trying to bankroll his art by becoming a...

THREE treasure hunting friends have struck gold again after unearthing Bronze Age treasure in the same spot near Wrexham for the second time in three years. William May, Joseph Perry and Peter Skelly, all from Liverpool, found a pure gold bead and wire piece in a farmer's field outside Rossett, near Wrexham, in August of last year. At an inquest in Flint yesterday, the find was declared treasure by John Gittins, deputy coroner for north east Wales. The latest find belongs to the so-called "Burton Hoard", which was discovered by the three friends in 2004 on the same field in...

For 40 years, Maurice Richardson has been braving all weathers to scour the countryside with his trusty metal detector, dreaming of buried treasure. But he almost ignored an unpromising-sounding beep as he searched for debris from a wartime air crash while being pelted with rain. However the 59-year-old is glad his curiosity got the better of him after his persistence in digging through more than two feet of Nottinghamshire mud yielded a stunning 2,000-year-old gold treasure. Metal detector enthusiast Maurice Richardson discovered this 2,000-year-old gold torc while digging through two feet of Nottinghamshire mud Now the artefact, an Iron Age...

A SAXON hook tag found in a Herefordshire field field has been declared as treasure. Assistant county coroner Roland Wooderson confirmed that the item, used for securing clothing or bags, was treasure at an inquest last week. The silver hook tag was found in Brampton Abbotts in June 2007 by Maxine Jones, from Swansea. In a statement, she said she spent her spare time looking for treasure using a metal detector and had sought permission from Mr Scudamore, who owns the land where the item was found. After the discovery was made, the hook tag was sent to the British...

Ten years ago, at a spot known locally as "Black Rock", two men diving for sea cucumbers came across a large pile of sand and coral. Digging a hole, they reached in and pulled out a barnacle-encrusted bowl. Then another. And another. They had stumbled on the oldest, most important, marine archaeological discovery ever made in South East Asia, an Arab dhow - or ship - built of teak, coconut wood and hibiscus fibre, packed with a treasure that Indiana Jones could only dream of. There were 63,000 pieces of gold, silver and ceramics from the fabled Tang dynasty, which...

RARE Anglo Saxon jewellery worth an estimated £250,000 has revealed a fascinating link between East Cleveland and the royal family of 1,400 years ago. Exciting archeological finds dating back to the seventh century have been ruled to be treasure during five separate inquests at Teesside Coroners’ Court. Experts have described the finds as ‘unparallel in the North East’ after historians discovered 109 graves near Loftus from around 650AD - one of which is thought to have contained the body of a princess. Though the acidity in the soil means the remains no longer exist, dozens of high status items have...

ORANJEMUND, Namibia (AFP) - Archaeologists are racing against the little time left to salvage a fortune in coins and items from a 500-year-old Portuguese shipwreck found recently off Namibia's rough southern coast. Despite its importance, the project, in a restricted diamond mining area, is itself costing a fortune in sea-walling that cannot be sustained after October 10. "The vast amounts of gold coins would possibly make this discovery the largest one in Africa outside Egypt," said Francisco Alves, a Lisbon-based maritime archaeologist. "This vessel is the best preserved of its time outside Portugal," he said. "But the cultural uniqueness of...

When a Kent metal detecting enthusiast found something in a field of stubble he thought it looked interesting...and he was right! The gold pendant he discovered dated back more than 1,500 years and has been declared treasure trove. Fork lift truck driver Andy Sales, from Deal, found the ancient artefact near Worth. A coroner has declared the item treasure trove after an expert from the British Museum examined and dated it to between 491-518 AD. In his report to the hearing, the curator in early medieval coinage, Dr Gareth Williams, said it was a gold tremissis bearing the image of...

TREASURE dating back to the time of the Vikings has been found in a Bridlington field. The Viking finger ring has a silver content of 98% which, combined with its age, meets the criteria for it to be officially classed as treasure. The ring, found by Paul Rennoldson, has been sent to the British Museum in London where it will be valued. Alan Worth, chairman of the Bridlington Metal Detecting Society, said finding any items dating back to the Viking age was very rare. "The Vikings were around in about 700AD which is an incredibly long time ago," said Mr...

A ROMAN ring that was discovered in a field near York has been classified as an item of treasure, an inquest heard. The silver ring which could date as far back as first century AD, was discovered by Peter Spencer, while he was searching a field in Dunnington using a metal detector. The jewel, whose value will be determined by the treasure valuation committee, was despatched to the British Museum, where it was examined, and a report on it completed. The report, by Ralph Jackson, at the museum’s department of pre-history and Europe, described the find as a small, Roman...

Harold Heckle in Madrid, Spain Associated PressMay 9, 2008 Spain formally laid claim Thursday to an 1804 shipwreck that yielded a reported U.S. $500 million treasure, saying Spain has proof the vessel was Spanish. Officials demanded the return of the booty recovered last year by a U.S. deep-sea exploration firm, saying the 19th-century shipwreck at the heart of the dispute is the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes—a Spanish warship sunk by the British Navy southwest of Portugal in 1804 with more than 200 people on board. Tampa, Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration on Thursday disputed Spain's claim. In May 2007, Odyssey...

MADRID, Spain — Spain formally laid claim Thursday to a shipwreck that yielded a US$500 million treasure, saying it has proof the vessel was Spanish. Officials demanded the return of the booty recovered last year by a U.S. deep-sea exploration firm, saying the 19th-century shipwreck at the heart of the dispute is the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes — a Spanish warship sunk by the British navy southwest of Portugal in 1804 with more than 200 people on board.

500-year-old shipwreck found by diamond firm Last Updated: 1:47AM BST 01/05/2008 A shipwreck, believed to be 500 years old, containing a treasure trove of coins and ivory has been discovered off the southern African coast. The site yielded a wealth of objects including thousands of Spanish and Portuguese gold coins A Namibian diamond company, Namdeb, said on Wednesday that it found the wreck during mining operations in the Atlantic. "The site yielded a wealth of objects including six bronze cannon, several tons of copper, more than 50 elephant tusks, pewter tableware, navigational instruments, weapons and thousands of Spanish and Portuguese...

Boy, 9, and grandfather find medieval silver treasure in Sweden Posted : Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:36:04 GMT Author : DPA Stockholm - A 9-year-old boy's search for shrapnel on an old battlefield resulted in a huge find of medieval silver coins near the Lund in southern Sweden, local media reported Monday. Alexander Granhof, 9, and his grandfather made the recent discovery, dubbed "silverado" by archaeologists. "We went out on the field looking for cannonballs," Alexander Granhof told the online edition of the Sydsvenskan newspaper. "I found a piece of metal and thought at first it was shrapnel from a...

Viking treasure found on Silloth beach By Sarah NewsteadLast updated 11:28, Thursday, 27 March 2008 TREASURE has been unearthed on a Silloth beach by a man out with a metal detector. Rare find: The silver Viking handle found at SillothCarlisle Coroners’ Court heard that a silver Viking jug handle discovered at Beckfoot could be over 2,000 years old. The court heard the handle, dating back from between the first and fourth centuries by the British Museum, is made mainly from silver and is in the form of a stylised snake’s head. North and West Cumbria Coroner, John Taylor, ruled yesterday...

Archaeological treasures found in Roscrea Friday February 22 2008 By Peter Gleeson A 'beautiful' Bronze Age axe and a number of ancient burial grounds have been unearthed near Roscrea during the construction of the new Dublin-Limerick motorway in the area. The bronze axe was found in Camblin, south of Roscrea. Archaeologists say the find dates to the later Bronze Age and appears to have been hidden in a shallow pit and never recovered by the person who concealed it. On a second site in Camblin a medieval iron 'bearded' axe was discovered while two Bronze Age enclosed settlements with two...

Treasure hunters find Bronze Age axes Last Updated: 2:06am GMT 22/01/2008 An amateur treasure hunter has unearthed a hoard of bronze age axe heads thought to be worth about £80,000. Tom Peirce started combing a field with his metal detector after dropping off a school coach party at a farm. Within a few minutes it began beeping and he found the first axe head fragment 10in into the soil. When he dug deeper, Mr Peirce found dozens more and, over the following two days, he and a colleague, Les Keith, uncovered nearly 500 bronze artefacts dating back 3,000 years. The...

A man seeking Confederate gold and his own family's hidden history uncovers a cryptic trail that may stretch back to a secret society and Jesse James. HATFIELD, ARK. -- Deep in the woods near Brushy Creek stands an old beech tree, its smooth bark etched with dozens of carvings, including biblical references, a heart and a legless horse. Bob Brewer was 10 when his great-uncle, W.D. "Grandpa" Ashcraft, pointed it out on a logging trip 57 years ago. "He said, 'Boy, you see that tree? That's a treasure tree,' " Brewer recalled on a recent visit to the site. "...

Lost pre-Inca treasure found in Spanish lock-up Dale Fuchs in Madrid Thursday December 6, 2007 The Guardian(UK) Police have uncovered a hidden storage room in Spain holding 1,800 pieces of pre-Colombian art, including ceremonial masks, ceramics, jewellery and a suit of 37 plates of gold - artefacts from a collection last seen in public 10 years ago. Many of the metallic pieces, including four copper masks, four gold rattles and four gold nose pendants, derived from the ancient tomb of the Lord of Sipan, one of the most important vestiges of pre-Inca Moche culture in Peru. The treasure, "of incalculable...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2007 – A nonprofit group is using a treasure hunt to get people interested in helping military families. “We hope treasure hunters, individuals and corporations will generously donate to the scholarship fund for the families of our brave men and women in uniform who protect our freedoms each and every day,” said Gayle Osterberg, a spokeswoman for the group, ThanksUSA. “More than 1,300 scholarships have been awarded to the kids and spouses of active-duty military personnel in all branches of the service, … including those in the Guard and reserves.” ThanksUSA is a supporter of America...

Jeff Bidelman already was dragging a huge bag of old coins when he noticed a hole in the wall of a dilapidated Windber home. “The woman said when she was a kid, there were always rumors that that’s where they threw money,” Bidelman said at his business, Rare Collectibles, in The Galleria in Richland Township. Within minutes, Bidelman and the former residents’ daughter discovered that the rumors were true. Bidelman found himself literally wading in old, valuable coins. “They think they are going to get (at least) $100,000,” Bidelman said. “I think they will probably get $200,000.” The home had...

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spain has again seized an American treasure-hunting ship over a dispute with its owners over who has rights to millions of dollars worth of booty recovered from the sea, officials said. Spain seized the "Odyssey Explorer" -- owned by Odyssey Marine Exploration based Tampa, Florida -- as it sailed out of port in the British colony of Gibraltar on Tuesday. Armed Spanish government vessels were waiting for the Explorer when it reached 6.4 kilometers (4 miles) off Gibraltar's shore and entered what Spain considers its territorial waters. The vessels forced the Explorer to dock at Spain's...

Ancient world treasure unearthed By David Willey BBC News, Rome The head of a satyr was discovered during the dig After seven hot summers of digging, an Italian archaeological team believe they have discovered one of the most important sites of the ancient world. Fanum Voltumnae, a shrine, marketplace and Etruscan political centre, was situated in the upper part of the Tiber river valley. It lies at the foot of a huge outcrop of rock, upon which is perched the mediaeval city of Orvieto. A walled sanctuary area, 5m-wide (16ft) Etruscan roads, an altar, and the foundations of many Roman...

Oak Island News Release NEW READING OF MYSTERIOUS OAK ISLAND INSCRIPTION Theory points to possible connection with nearby Birch Island FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE HALIFAX, Nova Scotia: Wednesday, July 12th, 2006 - - For the past two centuries, the tunnels of Nova Scotia’s Oak Island have piqued the imagination of historians and treasure hunters alike. Now, a new theory by First Nations researcher Keith Ranville may add fresh speculation to the mystery. Based on a unique reading of an inscription once found in the “Money Pit,” Mr. Ranville believes that the answer to the riddle may be found on nearby Birch...

The Spanish Civil Guard has intercepted a boat operated by a US company amid a row over treasure from a shipwreck. The guard had been ordered by a Spanish judge to seize the vessel as soon as it left the British colony of Gibraltar. Gibraltar officials and Odyssey Marine Exploration, which owns the ship, said Spain had boarded the ship illegally as it was in international waters. In May, Odyssey said it had found $500m (£253m) in coins from a 17th Century wreck somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. Madrid suspects the sunken galleon may either have been Spanish or have...

Volvo’s treasure hunt finds real-life pirate treasure worth $500 million Posted on: June 22nd, 2007 Filed under: Industry News, Volvo Remember Volvo’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End treasure hunt? The Volvo treasure chest is filled with $50,000 in gold and a key to a new Volvo from the sea floor. Well the retrival of that chest will hang in the balance until controversy dies down over the discovery of real life treasure by Volvo’s Hunt partner, Odyssey Marine Exploration. Earlier this year, Volvo selected Odyssey to sink a treasure chest in the Western Mediterranean. They had planned to...

A mysterious golden pot discovered in a Bavarian lake in 2001 has been the focus of interest for archaeologists, art dealers -- and now the German and Swiss police. Its convoluted history involves Nazi cults, treasure hunters and modern-day profiteers. So there it was, the legendary "Holy Grail" -- in a safe not far from the Zurich airport. Investor Svetlana K. from Kazahkstan had been prepared for almost anything on that day last March. But when she saw what had been described as "probably the most important art-historical discovery in the Western Hemisphere" in front of her, all the other...

IT WAS billed as the shipwreck find of the century with £250m of treasure recovered from a sunken 17th-century vessel lost off Land’s End. Mike Williams, senior lecturer in underwater cultural heritage law at Wolverhampton University, said the situation was making the British authorities uncomfortable. “There is the potential here for a serious diplomatic incident,” he said.

Spain traps US ships in row over treasureBy Mike Elkin in Madrid Last Updated: 1:38am BST 07/06/2007 A Spanish court has issued a warrant for the capture and search of two American exploration ships suspected of removing sunken treasure from Spanish waters. The ships, belonging to Odyssey Marine Exploration, which is based in Florida, are docked in Gibraltar and cannot leave because Spain controls the waters surrounding the British enclave. A Spanish Culture Ministry spokeswoman said investigations by the Civil Guard, the Defence Ministry and Spanish prosecutors produced sufficient evidence to suspect that the vessels were operating illegally in the...

(AP) -- A Spanish court has ordered police to capture and search two vessels belonging to a Florida firm that recently announced it had found a shipwreck laden with an estimated $500 million worth of colonial-era treasure, news reports said Tuesday. The court in the southern port city of Cadiz instructed police to capture the vessels should they leave the British colony of Gibraltar, on Spain's southern tip, and enter Spanish waters, radio Cadena SER and other media outlets said. The two ships, Odyssey Explorer and Ocean Alert, belong to Odyssey Marine Exploration and are believed to have been involved...

MIAMI (Reuters) - The Spanish government filed a lawsuit in a U.S. federal court on Wednesday seeking to block claims by Florida-based treasure hunters Odyssey Marine Exploration to any Spanish property recovered from shipwrecks. ADVERTISEMENT The suit does not refer specifically to Odyssey's claim on May 18 that it had legally recovered gold and silver coins worth an estimated $500 million from a colonial-era wreck code-named "Black Swan" at an undisclosed location in the Atlantic Ocean.

Treasure hunters who recovered a £250 million bounty from a shipwreck off Cornwall may have left the most valuable haul behind. An American salvage crew has landed 17 tons of loot from the wreck of the Merchant Royal, including 500,000 silver coins, using remote-controlled submarines. But The Mail on Sunday has learned that the vessel's greatest treasure of gold coins and bullion, at least some of which was held in a locked chest on its lower deck, is still languishing on the ocean floor.

A hoard of pirate’s treasure worth £200 million at today’s prices is to be raised from the seabed. The notorious pirate ship the Whydah, which was captained by Devon-born “Black Sam” Bellamy, sank in heavy storms in the Atlantic off the coast of Massachusetts in April 1717. When the ship went down she was laden heavily with ingots of gold, valuable gem-stones and dozens of tusks of precious ivory. The booty was so vast that each member of the 180-man crew was entitled to 50lb (23kg) of the haul by weight......

Investors are dancing in the Streets in Tampa, Florida, and it is not even the Gasparilla Festival yet. Treasure salvers occupy a beloved place in Florida lore, and the work of high tech salver Gregg Stem has hit stratospheric heights with today's announcement. In what is believed to be the largest collection of coins ever excavated from a shipwreck, Odyssey Marine Exploration (Amex symbol OMR) has recovered over 500,000 silver coins weighing more than 17 tons, hundreds of gold coins, ......

MADRID, Spain (3 Apr 2007) -- In February 1694, British admiral Francis Wheeler set sail from the Bay of Gibraltar with an important mission. He was to bring a large sum of money to the Duke of Savoy in order to buy his loyalty and to ensure victory in Britain's ongoing war against France's Sun King Louis XIV. But when the HMS Sussex arrived in the Strait of Gibraltar, it was hit by a violent storm, and Wheeler struggled in vain to save it. The 50-metre warship went down with more than 500 men, 80 cannons and an estimated 10...

Treasuring Brunei's past By Jon Tampoi The tomb of the 5th Sultan of Brunei Darussalam, a historical monument situated at Kota Batu's hillside. - Photos: Jason LeongShards of pottery from business activities with China in the past. Brunei has a rich history of trade, and often received tribute. Many of the great civilisations in our world's history had marine origins, whether they evolved in Europe, the Americas or Asia. The kingdom of Brunei Darussalam is no exception, as historical evidence lends veracity to this claim. Relics of Bruneian culture have been found around river estuaries and ancient settlements, as proven...

Emperor's treasures found Richard Owen ROME The lost treasure of Maxentius, the last preChristian Roman emperor, has been unearthed by archaeologists. Imperial standards, lances and glass spheres, right, were buried on the Palatine Hill by Maxentius before his battle with Constantine the Great in AD312. Archaeologists believe that he planned to retrieve the treasure if he won. In the event, he and his closest aides were killed, so that no one knew where it was hidden.

Tomb raiders find treasure trove From correspondents in Jakarta January 19, 2007 FARMERS have sold hundreds of gold artefacts stolen from skeletal corpses unearthed at a newly-found ancient burial complex in Indonesia, media reported today. Skeletons wearing chains of gold rings around their necks, heads, hands and feet were found in the tombs in a rice field at Kendal Jaya village, about 60km east of Jakarta, the Seputar Indonesia daily said. They were buried with other accessories made of precious stones or gold as well as axes and other pottery articles. Between 15 and 25 people are estimated to have...