Treasure Comes in Many Forms If you want to get people interested in a subject, just add the word treasure to the description of what you are talking about. Take the television show The Curse of Oak Island for example. It seems when they have a relatively disappointing day, they keep bringing up the subject of the supposed lost treasure. It certainly must work; the show has been on more than 11 seasons. If they weren’t looking for a treasure and were digging just to find artifacts, would they still get the same large audience they have? Does this remind you of anything else? It does me. It reminds me of those ads on the internet where you click on a headline you might find interesting about some miracle cure or something like that where it takes you to a site with an hour of pages to read before you find out about that cure or even never find out about it. They just string you along and subject you to ad after ad. Having said that, I do find the Curse of Oak Island fascinating, and I do look at it but at times I feel stupid for doing it. Sometimes treasure hunt shows are combined with mysterious things that happen. One took place in the Uintah Basin, in Utah. The show is called Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch. Supposedly the owner purchased the ranch because he was convinced there was Aztec treasure buried under it. The fact the ranch is located in one of the weirdest places in the country, the same Uintah Basin in Utah, Skinwalker Ranch is located in, where all sorts of paranormal events take place. While some annoying events seem to hamper the efforts to dig for the treasure, they don’t seem to be as weird as the ones at Skinwalker, even though the producers of the show want you to think so. Sometimes when ancient tombs are searched for, people presume there is also treasure buried with them. If the story is told enough, it gets many more people interested in looking for the tombs. You not only get the archaeologists, but also get the treasure hunters. When the search for Troy was taking place and it was discovered by Heinrich Schliemann, some current archaeologists claim he was really an amateur and destroyed some of the objects and such when he was uncovering the city. Imagine how they feel about treasure hunters. It seems one of the places which has the most treasure hunters is Egypt. Sometimes holes are discovered when people have been digging for treasure to sell on the black market. At times you can find many holes all around the same area, which means these people got an idea from somewhere that precious artifacts were in the area. There is a saying which states 90 percent of structures in Egypt are still under the sand. I don’t know where this figure comes from but it could be true. Not everyone considers the same things as treasure. Everyone would agree if they found gold, silver or precious jewels, they found treasure. If some ancient objects were found some might be considered treasure and some not, depending on how common they were. An example of this are oil lamps. So many were found, only certain ones might have a value. The common ones might still be considered treasure by the people who found them. An object which has sentimental value might be a treasure to someone, and just junk to someone else. Some objects might not look like much, but a treasure hunter can’t be fooled by that. For example, someone could be looking for treasure and come across something like a vase. A genuine Ming vase could be worth quite a pretty penny. Vases which come from China have proven to be the most valuable overall. A Qing Dynasty vase is valued over one million dollars and that is only the 29th most valuable. The number 1 most valuable Chinese vase is a Jiqingyouyu Reticulated Vase worth about 44 and one half million dollars. Beside tombs and graves, one of the most popular places to look for treasure is in the ocean. I can understand this because there are an estimated 3 million ship wrecks spanning the centuries. Some of these missing ships were used to carry riches from the New World back to Europe and never made it. It is also possible some of them deposited their treasure before sinking, so this implicates some famous islands as maybe containing treasure. These same islands and others may have also been places where pirates, like Captain Kidd, buried treasure. Sometimes, treasure comes in other forms which cannot be useful to the individuals so they can’t search for it. I am talking about oil and natural gas deposits. I am sure many of you have heard the term Black Gold when referring to oil. It takes the concerted effort of a well-equipped company or government to tap into these finds, but they can be more lucrative than any chest of treasure. In 2021 the United States was said to have 44.4 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. Venezuela is said to have around 300 billion barrels. Treasure can also be found in the form of mineral deposits. There are many minerals which are worth a lot of money. Take lithium for example. The market price has risen to over $80,000 per ton but if fluctuates. It has also fallen to less than 13,000 per ton. It has been suggested there is now an over supply of lithium. If we are talking about rare earth minerals, 1 kg, which is 2 pounds 3 ounces, of Hafnium is $4452. Some of the others range in price from almost $100 to $4452. Treasure comes in many forms and as we all know there can be treasure in art. There is a disagreement about the most valuable painting. Some say it is the Mona Lisa by da Vinci and carries a price of about 970 million dollars. Others say it is the Savior of the World by da Vinci, but the price which has been estimated for this painting is 450.3 million dollars. That certainly is still a nice piece of change and can be considered a treasure. Lastly there are collectable treasures. How would you like to find an original Honus Wagner baseball card? It is said at the last sale it went for $2,105,770.50. Now you have to admit that certainly is a treasure which would make anyone euphoric to find. The collectors of many different things have certain objects they would be willing to pay large sums for.
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