The Most Interesting Old Things People Stumbled Upon
The idea of finding hidden treasure is one that appeals to pretty much everyone, but the definition of “treasure” might be different depending on who you ask. Treasure doesn’t necessarily mean finding a chest full of gold, but you could hit the jackpot by stumbling upon a box of letters your parents sent to each other years ago, or the Purple Heart your great grandfather earned that was nearly thrown away.
If you’re willing to look a little harder and see the value in the past, you never know what you might find.
Digging Up The Past
While digging in his garden at home, someone came across this little statue, and, while it didn’t look like much at the time, it turned out to be pretty significant.
After taking it to a museum, the man found out he was holding a piece of history dating back at least 3000 years.
A Staple Piece For Every Woman
This is a piece of jewelry that every woman needs to add to her collection.
Buy yourself a ring with a spot to keep your poison (or stumble across one at an antiques market in Greenwich Village) for all those times where someone has wronged you and you’re looking for justice.
A Piece Of History
You might have spent the last six months convincing your wife that it was time to buy yourselves a new TV.
Unless your TV is from 1962 and still has the original manual with it, you don’t have anything to complain about.
Returning To Its Rightful Owner
In an act of good service, a couple found a Purple Heart in a box labeled as garbage in a home that had recently been foreclosed, but they knew it couldn’t be thrown away and tracked down the family it belonged to.
The medal had belonged to their great-grandfather.
We’ll Pick Up Two Of These
For all the times where you’ve wanted to play cards with someone in the bathtub or wanted to play UNO while outside in a thunderstorm, this person found waterproof cards in their home!
We’re jealous.
A Priceless Piece Of Work
Older generations are often critiqued for being stuck in the past or not wanting to adjust to new technologies.
If you have the choice between buying a new cash register or keeping the original one from when your work opened in 1904, which would you choose?
Where Cellphones Go To Die
A lot of people keep their old cellphones after they upgrade because they don’t want to throw away something with all their information on it, or they don’t know how to dispose of it, but who can say they’ve kept this many?
I sure can’t!
She’ll Live On Forever In Print
Finding any newspaper from the 1950s would be interesting, but finding such an interesting headline tucked away in your family’s garage is pretty cool.
She’s certainly lived up to that headline.
What Does The Shadow Look Like?
Did you know that the inside of a lightbulb could be shaped into beautiful creations like this one?
We didn’t, but we want to know where we can buy flower lightbulbs.
Something Doesn’t Add Up
As if you didn’t already find math confusing enough, one person found a really old calculator in their house that looks like it would just confuse us even more than if we tried to do long division in our head.
That’s a no from us.
Home Sweet Home
Who wouldn’t be excited about finding old negatives from the 1960s while they were cleaning a shed at their new house?
Seeing other people’s happy memories at your new home has to be a good omen.
Don’t Break Your Ax
While splitting logs, you come across something a little harder than an average piece of wood only to discover you’ve come across an arrowhead from who knows how long ago.
That’s a nice find!
Someone Get A Magnifying Glass
As if reading Shakespeare’s plays wasn’t hard enough for most people, imagine trying to read a miniature set of all of his works.
More than 110 years old, these plays are really more for looking at than actually reading.
Should We Be Worried
If you found a box of razors tucked away in your house, would you be concerned?
Yes, they’re old, dull, straight razors, and there’s probably a perfectly good reason for why they’re there, but still.
This Isn’t Cute At All
If I came to find this on my car, I would be freaked out.
I would be even more freaked out when I found out it’s a caterpillar that has been taken over by a wasp nest.
Swimming With The Fishes In Luxury
Even without it being filled with colorful fish and plants, this antique aquarium is an impressive piece of furniture to have in your home.
If you want your fish to feel like royalty, this is the aquarium for them.
Keeping Parents Informed
Did you know that you could get medicine tablets that were square-shaped?
We didn’t either, but the fact that they look like Starbursts explains why this vintage tablet identifier was good for parents to teach their kids with.
Ok, That’s Not Freaky At All
This person noticed that they were coved in tiny white flecks that you could only see with the flash of a camera. Freaking, right?
But, it turns out that they’re little, tiny glass balls that are usually used on high visibility clothing, something he wears every day for work.
What’re You Hiding?
This is supposedly an intricately designed keyhole, but we’re less interested in the keys and more interested in what’s behind this door.
Anything behind a door worthy of this kind of keyhole must be something good.
Ready For Take-Off
We’re not sure how someone’s grandmother would manage to get her hands on the prints used for TIME magazine’s edition from the day people landed on the moon, but it’s pretty cool that she did.
How do we get one?
Breaking The Bank
Even if you’re terrible at Monopoly and always manage to lose to your siblings no matter how many times you play, finding an early edition of the game hidden away in your home would be worth more than anything you could earn from selling your properties in the game.
What’s hidden in your attic?
Accidentally On Purpose
Whoever was in charge of maintaining the water levels in a local reservoir didn’t do their job properly and accidentally let the level drop by 10 meters, but it wasn’t all for nothing.
When the water level dropped, it revealed a 600-year-old Buddha carving!
Don’t Fix What Isn’t Broken
You can hear this person’s grandfather arguing about why he doesn’t need to replace his computer because it works just fine.
You can still type, print, and save things to floppy disks. What more do you need?
Pour Some Sugar On Me
After buying a book in a used bookshop, you discovered you hit the jackpot with your new antique bookmark.
Imagine how panicked the family was of whoever lost these coupons at the time?
From Sea To Shining Sea
We don’t have the ability to produce a good doodle, yet this illustrated Captain’s log from 1777 proves that this person could not only draw well, but was also qualified to run a ship.
That’s impressive.
Prepping For The Apocalypse
Y2K was a scary time for everyone.
No one knew what was going to happen or if the world was going to end, so this person stocked up on the perfect food item: dehydrated broccoli.
Keeping It Clean
For all those times that you’ve been drinking coffee or tea and felt like you needed to protect your precious mustache, the mug this person found in their house is exactly what you need.
What a brilliant invention.
You Found The Stash
Not only is it heavy enough to use as a weapon if you needed to defend yourself against a home invader, but this bar of silver would also be worth about $1,500 if you needed some extra cash.
Go for the cash!
It’s Not What It Looks Like!
Before you panic, no this is not a giant spider looming over you.
We can see why you’d think that, but it’s actually whale bones perched overtop of what used to be a well.
Stumbling Upon A Piece Of History
If you came across a former Soviet bunker while you were on a walk through the woods, would you be tempted to go inside, or would you leave history alone?
I’d want to go inside.
He’s Been Waiting 2000 Years For Someone To Find Him
Imagine digging through the dirt only to suddenly have a green face staring back at you.
This serpentine mask was found at the base of the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacán so someone was looking for something spooky, but it would still give you a fright to see.
A Stable Place To Hitch Your Horse
There’s nothing worse than riding into town to run some errands on a Saturday only to discover that there’s nowhere for you to hitch your horse.
New Orleans recognizes that need and kept some of their old horse hitches around the city.
You Learn Something New Every Day
Not only did this person discover that lunar globes were a thing, but they also came across one in their house from a time when half of the moon was still uncharted territory.
It’s probably worth a lot of money!
Don’t Let The Sun Go Down
This ancient sun dial has multiple panels that tell the times of different locations around the world, but until you learn how to read a sun dial it’s not going to matter what part of the world you’re in.
Good luck.
Choose Your Fighter
When arriving to a storage lot in New York City that hadn’t seen any visitors in approximately 25 years, no one was expecting to found 36 Corvettes, one from every year of production between 1953 and 1989.
Modern day buried treasure.
It Looks Like A House For A Mouse
After a long day of hiking through the mud, you come home but you have nowhere to clean off your dirty boots…
Until you move into this place, which is equipped with its own shoe scraper by the front door.
That’s A Pretty Penny
And this coin is probably worth a pretty penny too.
Back in 1797 when this coin was used we wouldn’t have wanted to be stuck carrying around a pocket full of these, but they look pretty good now.
Let The Games Begin
Before there were the Nintendo consoles and games that you’re used to playing today, Nintendo released a game called Hanafuda.
These cards date back to 1889 so even if you don’t understand how the game works, it feels like an item worth keeping.
A Strange Design Choice
This person found a tiny Coca-Cola vending machine in their attic, except it doesn’t dispense tiny soft drinks.
It’s actually a radio that is just designed to resemble the soft drink dispensing machine.
Anything Weighing On Your Mind?
For all those times in your life where you’ve come home from the grocery store and thought to yourself, “Wow, I really wish I knew how much this egg weighed.”
This vintage egg scale is just the thing you need.
We’d Be Eating In The Dark
Imagine going over to someone’s house for a dinner party, minding your own business, when all of a sudden they flip off the lights, turn on the blacklight, and all their dishes start glowing.
I would just leave.
Time Hasn’t Aged George
Why would someone even be walking around with a nearly 100-year-old dollar bill in their pocket? While walking in the park, an innocent citizen stumbled upon this $1 bill that dates back to 1927.
It’s probably worth more than a dollar now.
Apparently, They Built Over Rome In A Day
Rome may not have been built in a day, but it didn’t take long for whoever built this modern road to build right over the old roads.
While repairing the asphalt in the neighborhood, construction workers came across the roads that used to be walked on.
Almost As Old As Canada
Is there an expiry date for soap?
While cleaning out their attic, someone came across this bar of soap that was apparently made in 1874. It looks a bit textured now, so it might be more of an exfoliant than you were planning on.
Seems A Little…Unhelpful
We’re not here to tell you how to enjoy a Playboy magazine, but doesn’t it seem a little counterintuitive to have a braille version?
Aren’t the pictures the whole point of it?
Isn’t This A Fire Hazard?
If you were walking through an older department store and were faced with the choice between taking the stairs or riding a wooden escalator, which would you choose?
We’d take the stairs.
