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Tommy G. Thompson was once one of the greatest treasure hunters of his time: A dark-bearded diver who hauled a trove of gold from the Atlantic Ocean in 1988 - dubbed the richest find in U.S. history. Years later, accused of cheating his investors out of the fortune, Thompson led federal agents on a great manhunt - pursued from a Florida mansion to a mid-rent hotel room booked under a fake name. Now Thompson's beard has grayed, and he lives in an Ohio jail cell, held there until he gives up the location of the gold. But for nearly two...

The heir to a property in Normandy moved in only to find his forebear had hidden 100kg of gold coins, bars and ingots around the house, which he has just sold for €3.5m. The unnamed individual made the incredible discovery after inheriting the plush home in Evreux, a town south of Rouen. He started looking around the house to work out what his relation had left behind, and was stunned at what he found, according to the auction house of Evreux, which sold the entire collection. “There were 5,000 gold pieces, two 12-kilo gold bars and 37 ingots each weighing...

There is perhaps no lost-treasure mystery more seductive than that of the priceless Amber Room of Peter the Great, which disappeared in the chaotic closing hours of World War II. Now Bartlomiej Plebanczyk, an unassuming historian and museum director in northeastern Poland, believes he has found it. Elderly villagers told Mr. Plebanczyk that they had seen a German convoy unloading big crates into a secret chamber in a stark, moss-covered Nazi bunker near the Russian border in early 1945. So the Mamerki Museum, whichhe leads, recently completed a ground-penetrating radar scan of the derelict bunker that he said confirmed the...

Diamond miners recently discovered a ship that went down 500 years ago after draining a man-made lagoon on Namibia’s coast. While shipwrecks are often found along Africa’s Skeleton Coast, this one just so happened to be loaded with $13,000,000 worth of gold coins. It also answers a centuries–old mystery and is what some archaeologists are calling one of the most significant shipwrecks ever found. The wreck was first discovered along the coast near Oranjemund by geologists from the mining company De Beers in April 2008. One reason it took centuries to find is because it was underneath the ocean floor....

Construction workers unearth over half a tonne of Roman coins in Spain Workers laying pipes in a park in Seville have unearthed a 600-kilogram trove of Roman coins in what culture officials say is a unique historic discovery.

A portion of the Spanish treasure Fort Pierce salvor Daniel Porter recovered in 2012 from a galleon sunk in 1631 in a hurricane off Panama is back in his hands. Porter, 53, the managing partner of Fort Pierce-based Maritime Research and Recovery LLC, attempted in September to bring home about 100 silver coins and other artifacts with an estimated value of $500,000 when they were seized by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol at the behest of Panama’s government. The items were part of Porter’ share of more than 10,000 such items minted in Peru that were recovered during a...

Spanish galleon San Jose sank more than 300 years ago in battle with British, while carrying vast cargo of gold and precious stones Colombia’s discovery of the 300-year-old, shipwrecked galleon San Jose, thought to be loaded with some $10 billion in gold and precious stones, could shed light on an important period in Spanish colonial history but also spawn legal battles over the valuable cargo. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said his country spent two years studying historical maps, meteorology and used the latest sea-searching technology to locate the Spanish vessel, which sank during a battle in 1708 in the...

The Spanish galleon San José was overloaded with 200 passengers and 700 tons of cargo on a summer night in 1631 when it smashed into a rock off the Pacific coast of Panama, spilling silver coins and bars into the Gulf of Panama. More than 400,000 coins and at least 1,417 bars were lost over a 40-mile trail. Four hundred years later, that shipwreck has become one of the latest to land in a legal quagmire over who should have the rights to historic artifacts trapped under the sea. This one involves the United Nations, the United States Department of...

The mystery surrounding a legendary Nazi gold train buried in Poland took a new twist after the suspected location of the armoured train and its cargo went up in flames. The embankment by the Wroclaw-Walbrzych main line considered to be the favourite for the train’s location in the town of Walbrzych, southern Poland, was burnt along with 219 square yards of forest and bush on it.

'Significant find' confirmed in Poland as speculation builds it could be lost Nazi train carrying gold - follow latest updates. SNIP--- 23.02 At a press conference Zygmunt Nowaczyk, deputy mayor of Walbrzych, said “the discovery was in the town’s district”. The Polish state treasure and culture ministry have been informed in case the find contained anything of value, Matthew Day reports. SNIP-- All we know for sure so far from today's developments is a press officer in the Polish town confirming a military train has been found and the Walbrzych's deputy mayor saying there was "formal information".

Treasure hunters have searched for it since the end of World War II, but it may have never existed in the first placeTw wo treasure hunters are claiming they have discovered a train full of Nazi gold and jewels hidden under a mountain in Poland. As much as it sounds like a movie plot, the lost train is a bit of a local legend around the city of Wroclaw. The story goes that towards the end of World War II, as the Soviet army marched on eastern Germany, a Nazi train loaded with gold, valuable art and jewels disappeared into...

A culture official in Poland said radar imagery appears to confirm a story by two men who said they know the location of a mysterious Nazi train that may contain gold or other treasures. Deputy Culture Minister Piotr Zuchowski said Friday he's "more than 99 percent sure that the train is there," but couldn't confirm what was inside the train. ...... ........ The mystery train is believed to be in an abandoned tunnel near Ksiaz Castle, in southwestern Poland. Local legend says the train contains gold, precious stones, art and weapons. The two men who brought the train to the...

Two people in Poland say they have found a Nazi German train cloaked in mystery since it was rumoured to have gone missing near the end of World War Two while carrying away gems and guns ahead of advancing Soviet Red Army forces. Local authorities in Poland’s southwestern district of Walbrzych said they had been contacted by a law firm representing a Pole and a German who said they had located the train and were seeking 10 percent of the value of the findings. “Lawyers, the army, the police and the fire brigade are dealing with this,” Marika Tokarska, an...

A Florida man has uncovered gold artifacts worth over $1 million from the wreckage of a Spanish fleet that sank in a storm off the Florida coast three centuries ago. The find by Eric Schmitt was announced late Monday by a salvage company that owns the rights to the site where the coins and jewels were found. "The treasure was actually found a month ago,” Brent Brisben of 1715 Fleet — Queens Jewels LLC told Florida Today. Keeping word of the haul from getting out was "particularly hard for the family that found it," Brisben added. "They’ve been beside themselves."...

When Eric Schmitt's metal detector got a hit about 15 feet below the ocean's surface, he didn't think much of it. Most of the time, the metal detectors uncover beer cans and lead fishing weights. But this time was different. This time, the treasure-hunter from Sanford struck gold, and a lot of it. Treasure-hunting Sanford family strikes gold-again Holidays are a lucky time for a treasure-hunting family from Sanford, Florida. Last year on Labor Day, the Schmitts made national news when they pulled several pieces of a solid gold chain - more than 60 feet in all - from the...

Divers in Madagascar have found a silver bar weighing about 50 kilograms (110 pounds) that they believe was part of the treasure of pirate Captain Kidd. The bar was presented to Madagascar's president, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, in a ceremony Thursday on the island of Sainte Marie, near the country's northeast coast. The bar was found in a bay off the island, the diving team said. The team was led by Barry Clifford, an American undersea explorer who has been searching for pirate treasure for many decades. Clifford believes there could be more treasure on the bay floor where he found the...

A group of divers in Israel has stumbled upon the largest hoard of gold coins ever discovered in the country. The divers reported the find to the Israel Antiquities Authority, and nearly 2,000 coins dating back to the Fatimid period, or the eleventh century, were salvaged by the authority’s Marine Archaeology Unit. The find was unearthed from the seabed of the ancient harbor in Caesarea National Park, according to a press release from the Israel Antiquities Authority. “The discovery of such a large hoard of coins that had such tremendous economic power in antiquity raises several possibilities regarding its presence...

Archaeologists conducting a survey in Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada have stumbled upon a 132-year-old Winchester rifle propped against a tree, possibly having been left there more than a century ago. The rifle, which records show was manufactured and shipped by the gun maker in 1882, had been leaning against the Juniper tree for so long that the wood of its stock was cracked and deteriorated from the desert sun, its barrel rusted. "It really is a mystery," said Nichole Andler, a public information officer for Great Basin National Park. "We know it has been out there awhile...

The story of how it got there may never be known, but a rusting 132-year-old Winchester rifle -- known in U.S. lore as "the gun that won the West" -- was recently found resting against a juniper tree in a Nevada national park. The gun, its stock split, gray and faded like driftwood, and its steel barrel rusted brown, blended in perfectly against the tree in a remote part of the Great Basin National Park until a National Parks Service employee spotted it. “The rifle, exposed for all those years to sun, wind, snow and rain, was found leaning against...

GREAT BASIN NATIONAL PARK, Nev., -- Officials at Nevada's Great Basin National Park said they are trying to determine the origins of a 132-year-old rifle found leaning against a tree. Park officials said the rifle, identified by an engraving on its side as a Model 1873 Winchester manufactured in 1882, was found blending in with the colors of a juniper tree in the park and seems to have been there for "many years." The officials wrote on the park's Facebook page the rifle was "exposed to sun, wind, snow, and rain" and features "a cracked wood stock, weathered to grey"...