Uploaded August 2019 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
From small treasures to massive fortunes, be sure to join us as we explore some of the biggest sunken treasures ever discovered.
8. Gold Coins And Chains
The use of a metal detector to find treasure has quickly become one of the most popular stories out there, and you'll find some of them on this list believe it or not. If you're in the right area, land or sea, you might just find something cool. Like the person who found a gold chain that they were able to sell for a couple hundred dollars.
But in Florida one time, a scuba diver was doing some searching underwater when their detector found them a gold mine of treasure. .
7. The Curedale Hoard
Not all treasures are sunk in the oceans depths, there are other watery places to find treasures like this you know. For example, in 1840, some men were working near the Cuerdale River near Preston, England. As they dug into an enbankment, they came across something that they didn't expect, a giant lead box. Don't worry, there weren't bodies inside the box, it was actually Viking treasure! 8600 pieces to be exact. Of the lot were silver coins, ingots, jewelry, and many other items from that period of Viking history.
Some of the pieces of the Hoard can be found in the Britain Museum. So go take a look if you want.
6. The Ophel Treasure
Remember when I said that not all treasures are sunk in the ocean? Well, you can also be sunk within the Earth itself. And many great treasures have been found this way.
Such as In Jerusalem in the country of Israel, when aarchaeologist Eilat Mazar was doing excavation work around Temple Mount. After doing some digging, they found a 36-piece treasure collection that no one had even considered would be there. A treasure that was around 1400 years old.
Regardless of the reason, many are happy it's been found, and who knows what other treasures are hidden in the holy city of Jerusalem.
5. Greek Shipwreck
When it comes to "sunken treasures", one of the most beloved kinds of finds is that of shipwrecks. Because when there's a ship involved, that means there's a true history of what happened there, and almost assuredly there is a treasure of some kind being found there.
Sure enough, a find by divers once led them to a Greek ship said to have been sunk over 2000 years ago. And there were indeed many treasures within it. Not the least of which was a bronze statue, as well as many pieces of gold and Greek jewelry
4. Belitung Shipwreck
Let's keep going with the shipwrecks, shall we? Specifically, the Belitung Shipwreck, which is a vessel that went down in 830 AD. It was an Arabian ship, one that headed from Africa to China, and it did make it to China. But as it was trying to get back hom, the ship went wildly off course for a reason that no one understands. Due to this, the ship went down off the coast of Belitung Island, Indonesia.
The word "plethora of treasures" would not be inaccurate to use in this case. They even found 60,000 of "Dusun" storage jars. How they got all of that on a ship is beyond me.
3. Drug Lords Millions
Should we really be surprised that the Discovery Channel found a massive amount of treasure one time? Because I'm not. But what makes this treasure is that it's not technically historical, but it is from an infamous man of history, Pablo Escobar.
Pablo Escobar was a man who made billions of dollars smuggling illegal drugs into the United States and beyond. Business was booming for him, and for a long time he was viewed as untouchable, and even able to get out of the most dire of situations. Eventually, he died in 1993, and the search for all the secret deposits of cash that he left behind began. Because he no fool, he knew that he couldn't leave it all in one place.
2. S.S Central America
You know you've found something special when the shipwreck you've discovered is eventually labeled as the "Ship of Gold". This would be the S.S Central America. This ship was actually a steamboat, and it sank in 1857.
So why was it called the "Ship of Gold'? Simple, it was carrying gold, a LOT of it. In fact, it was carrying over 10,000 pounds of gold. Which today is worth over half of a billion dollars. So imagine how made certain people were when it went down into the ocean.
1. Saddle Ridge Hoard
Ok, this is a story that is too good to be true, and yet, it's entirely true. A couple in California was walking their dog on their private property in Gold Country, which is Sierra Nevada, California, in 2014. Nothing out of the ordinary, right? Well, on this day, they went down a slightly different path than usual, and when they did, they saw a metal can sticking up out of the ground. Odd, but hardly life changing. until they looked inside and saw gold coins within. Yep, this happend.
The couple had found 1427 gold coins with this rather large can. Now, if you were to take the literal value of the coins, they would be worth almost $30,000.
From small treasures to massive fortunes, be sure to join us as we explore some of the biggest sunken treasures ever discovered.
8. Gold Coins And Chains
The use of a metal detector to find treasure has quickly become one of the most popular stories out there, and you'll find some of them on this list believe it or not. If you're in the right area, land or sea, you might just find something cool. Like the person who found a gold chain that they were able to sell for a couple hundred dollars.
But in Florida one time, a scuba diver was doing some searching underwater when their detector found them a gold mine of treasure. .
7. The Curedale Hoard
Not all treasures are sunk in the oceans depths, there are other watery places to find treasures like this you know. For example, in 1840, some men were working near the Cuerdale River near Preston, England. As they dug into an enbankment, they came across something that they didn't expect, a giant lead box. Don't worry, there weren't bodies inside the box, it was actually Viking treasure! 8600 pieces to be exact. Of the lot were silver coins, ingots, jewelry, and many other items from that period of Viking history.
Some of the pieces of the Hoard can be found in the Britain Museum. So go take a look if you want.
6. The Ophel Treasure
Remember when I said that not all treasures are sunk in the ocean? Well, you can also be sunk within the Earth itself. And many great treasures have been found this way.
Such as In Jerusalem in the country of Israel, when aarchaeologist Eilat Mazar was doing excavation work around Temple Mount. After doing some digging, they found a 36-piece treasure collection that no one had even considered would be there. A treasure that was around 1400 years old.
Regardless of the reason, many are happy it's been found, and who knows what other treasures are hidden in the holy city of Jerusalem.
5. Greek Shipwreck
When it comes to "sunken treasures", one of the most beloved kinds of finds is that of shipwrecks. Because when there's a ship involved, that means there's a true history of what happened there, and almost assuredly there is a treasure of some kind being found there.
Sure enough, a find by divers once led them to a Greek ship said to have been sunk over 2000 years ago. And there were indeed many treasures within it. Not the least of which was a bronze statue, as well as many pieces of gold and Greek jewelry
4. Belitung Shipwreck
Let's keep going with the shipwrecks, shall we? Specifically, the Belitung Shipwreck, which is a vessel that went down in 830 AD. It was an Arabian ship, one that headed from Africa to China, and it did make it to China. But as it was trying to get back hom, the ship went wildly off course for a reason that no one understands. Due to this, the ship went down off the coast of Belitung Island, Indonesia.
The word "plethora of treasures" would not be inaccurate to use in this case. They even found 60,000 of "Dusun" storage jars. How they got all of that on a ship is beyond me.
3. Drug Lords Millions
Should we really be surprised that the Discovery Channel found a massive amount of treasure one time? Because I'm not. But what makes this treasure is that it's not technically historical, but it is from an infamous man of history, Pablo Escobar.
Pablo Escobar was a man who made billions of dollars smuggling illegal drugs into the United States and beyond. Business was booming for him, and for a long time he was viewed as untouchable, and even able to get out of the most dire of situations. Eventually, he died in 1993, and the search for all the secret deposits of cash that he left behind began. Because he no fool, he knew that he couldn't leave it all in one place.
2. S.S Central America
You know you've found something special when the shipwreck you've discovered is eventually labeled as the "Ship of Gold". This would be the S.S Central America. This ship was actually a steamboat, and it sank in 1857.
So why was it called the "Ship of Gold'? Simple, it was carrying gold, a LOT of it. In fact, it was carrying over 10,000 pounds of gold. Which today is worth over half of a billion dollars. So imagine how made certain people were when it went down into the ocean.
1. Saddle Ridge Hoard
Ok, this is a story that is too good to be true, and yet, it's entirely true. A couple in California was walking their dog on their private property in Gold Country, which is Sierra Nevada, California, in 2014. Nothing out of the ordinary, right? Well, on this day, they went down a slightly different path than usual, and when they did, they saw a metal can sticking up out of the ground. Odd, but hardly life changing. until they looked inside and saw gold coins within. Yep, this happend.
The couple had found 1427 gold coins with this rather large can. Now, if you were to take the literal value of the coins, they would be worth almost $30,000.
