here are six of the luckiest discoveries in history that turn normal people into millionaires number six the hand of Faith gold nugget it's the Year 1980 and Kevin Hillier was living in a bus with his wife and four children at a caravan Park in Victoria Australia the family struggled financially and their situation was made even worse when Kevin was injured at work forcing him to have surgery on his back luckily the operation was a success and his doctor recommended he go for walks to help his back heal and to regain his strength thinking he could make these walks a little more enjoyable he used one of his workers compensation checks to buy a metal detector now Victoria was an area of Australia that actually experienced a gold rush in the 1850s so who knows maybe there was some gold still left underground in the area but nobody could have predicted what Kevin was going to find except maybe Kevin himself see one night Kevin had a dream of finding a huge gold nugget the dream was so vivid that when he awoke he immediately drew it on a piece of paper and asked his neighbor to sign the drawing as a witness 12 Days Later Kevin and his wife beep were walking around King owner State Park and of course they brought their metal detectors with them they quickly went their separate ways searching in different areas of the park suddenly be hears Kevin screaming in the distance her immediate thought was that Kevin had hurt himself again and she rushed through the woods to find him she soon found Kevin on his knees in the bush crying he was praying and looked like he'd seen a ghost in front of him was a hole he had dug and at the bottom of the hole was a Shiny Gold Nugget beep joined her husband on the ground and and they began digging around the Nugget which just kept getting bigger and bigger when they finally found the bottom of the Nugget and lifted it out of the ground it was nearly 2 ft long and weighed 60 lb they loaded it into their car and drove back to the Caravan Park where they waited until the coast was clear before carrying it into their bus they told no one about their Discovery aside from their kids and a close friend who knew a gem dealer who could help them find a seller while waiting for the sale Kevin and be slept with their enormous gold nugget hidden under their bed eventually the Nugget was sold to the Golden Nugget Casino chain for $1 million needless to say Kevin and his family don't live in a bus anymore though they still do go walking with metal detectors hold on I I think I found something what is it hello a shark that's right you just found the sponsor of today's video surf shark surf shark is like pants for the internet it keeps all of your private stuff private so your sensitive bits aren't hanging out there for everyone to see with surf shark bpn you can browse the internet saf L and securely especially if you're someone who's always signing into public Wi-Fi you never know who's out there sniffing your packets if you know 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painting he actually didn't really care for the art but it was cheap and he loved the old looking frame it was in so when he got home he decided to tear out the existing painting and behind it he found an old folded piece of paper he unfolded it and found himself staring at what appeared to be a very old copy of the Declaration of Independence in case you need a history lesson the Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776 and was the founding document of the United States of America the man with the frame assumed it was old but didn't think much of it and set it off to the side for a few years until one day he showed it to a friend who encouraged him to have an expert take a look at it the man contacted SBE a renowned auction house and when an expert came to look at the man's document he was shook see way back on the night of July 4th 1776 immediately after the Declaration of Independence was confirmed a man named John Dunlap rushed to print 200 copies at his printing press which are now known as the Dunlap broadsides these are now recognized as the first ever printed copies of the Declaration of Independence the copy that was hidden behind this $4 picture was in fact one of the Dunlap broadsides which at the time only 24 were known to have survived not only did it survive it was in pristine condition the document appeared to have been folded when the ink was still wet meaning it was possible the copy was hidden in that painting for two centuries this copy was auctioned off in 1991 and the man walked away with $2. 4 million this same copy was then sold again in the year 2000 for 8.
14 million but honestly I don't think the first guy who turned $4 into 2 million was all that upset Number Four The hawen Horde on November 16th 1992 a farmer named Peter Watling lost a hammer in one of his fields in eastern England after searching for a while with no luck he called his friend Eric laws who was an amateur metal detectorist to help him find it Eric came over with his metal detector and began searching Eric's detector began beeping so he bent over to see if he'd found the hammer no luck on that because instead he found a scattering of jewelry and gold and silver coins the two not knowing what was going on contacted the local government and reported what they had found the next day a team of archaeologists arrived on the farm and began an extensive excavation in the field nobody expected what they were about to dig up a massive pile of treasure from the late Roman Empire was found in the field and what appeared to be the remains of a wooden chest the team discovered 569 gold coins over 14,000 silver coins 24 bronze coins gold jewelry silver spoons and ladles and various other fine silver antiques all which it appeared to be undisturbed for over a millennia the estimated worth of the treasure was 1. 75 million British pounds or around $3 million at the time the findings were declared a treasure Trove by the government meaning it was hidden with the intention of being dug up later by its owner under English common law all such treasure belongs to the crown if no one claims ownership but before they could rage against the machine the men were told that it was customary for the person who discovered a treasure Trove to be paid a finder fee and Eric was given the full 1. 75 million pounds which he shared with his farmer friend Peter the treasure now known as The hawen Horde is on display at the British museum Peter's Hammer was also found during the excavation by the way and is also there as well number three the Crosby Garrett Roman helmet in May of 2010 a man in his 20s with a stop me if you've heard this before metal detector in Northwest England was searching for Treasure near an ient Roman Road he had found a few coins in the area in the past but he' never seen anything like he was going to find on this day when his metal detector went off he dug down 10 in and discovered 67 pieces of metal that appeared to be folded and placed neatly on a stone slab he assumed it was an artifact from the Victorian era but upon taking it home and searching the internet he discovered that it was actually an ancient Roman artifact the helmet was restored and revealed it was a ceremonial Cavalry helmet from the second or 3rd Century most likely used in competitions performed in front of Emperors or Army commanders there had been a couple of similar helmets discovered earlier in history but none were this complete and in this condition now the interesting thing about this helmet was unlike The hawen Horde from earlier because this was a single piece it did not meet the criteria to be considered treasure so the man who found it was free to do whatever he wanted with it so of course instead of donating it to a museum he brought it to Christies to auction off as soon as he could a museum did attempt to win the helmet at auction but was outbid by a private collector for the sum of 2.
3 million British pounds or roughly $3. 6 million at the time number two the mocking of Christ okay this one is crazy imagine having millions of dollars in your home for decades but never even knowing it in 2019 a 90-year-old woman living in northern France decided to put her house up for sale and move to another area she'd lived in that house for decades and had accumulated a lot of stuff throughout the years so she called a local Auctioneer to come over to her home to determine if anything she had was worth selling the auctioneer when entering the woman's home immediately noticed an old painting hanging above a hot plate stove in her kitchen the auctioner asked the woman where she got the painting as it looked very old and she replied that she had it so long that she didn't remember how she ended up with it the woman said she thought it was some old Russian religious thing but the auctioneer disagreed and sent the painting to an art historian in Paris for further inspection almost everything else the woman owned was sent to a landfill when the woman's painting reached Paris the art historian could not believe believe what he was holding this was not a Russian religious artifact but was actually an extremely rare painting done by the Italian artist Chima buou the painting now called the mocking of Christ was part of a four-part series that chimu painted depicting the moments leading up to the crucifixion chimu was a revolutionary painter from the 13th century who had only done a dozen or so works at this size the woman's painting was put to auction and the bidding rocketed up to1 19.
