There are many treasures in this world, some are very old, some are lost and may never have really existed and some were created by rogue governments. There are many stories of lost treasures and probably hundreds of people searching for them. It seems that humans have a propensity for gathering treasures. Look at the old kingdoms. It seemed that all of the ancient kings had to have a treasure trove. I guess this was not only for riches, but also for status. King Solomon supposedly had a huge treasure that is thought to be buried somewhere in the holy land. People have been looking for it for thousands of years, without success.

Treasure is sometimes hard to define. When you talk of treasure, some people say the biggest treasure resides in the Vatican. I guess in a way this makes sense, they have been accumulating religious artifacts for thousands of years and many of these things are valuable works of art. Some of the objects in the Vatican have no intrinsic value and are only valuable to the church. There is no doubt however, that if one was to only consider the value of the Vatican's objects, you would have to conclude that the Vatican has the biggest treasure in the world, especially if you consider the valuable artifacts that are in individual Catholic churches all over the world. Sometimes just the fact that something is very old may make it a valuable item.

Left: Treasure Chest - Right: Pirate Flag
Photo Source: Clipart.com

Some people think of pirates when they hear the word treasure, I know I do. In that vein, Clarke's Island, which lies in the Connecticut River in Northfield, Massachusetts, might have a treasure on it , which was buried by captain Kidd. I am sure that you know who captain Kidd was, he was one of the most famous pirates of all time. Supposedly Kidd was looking for somewhere to bury his treasure and thought it would be easy to find again if it was put here. The story goes on to state that the men drew lots to see who would be killed and buried on top of the treasure to scare away peoples. Somehow this doesn't seem like a lottery that you would want to win. Why put a body in the hole with the treasure in the first place? Were people, in those days, so scared of dead bodies that if they found one, they would stop digging?

Another people that the word treasure was synonymous with was the ancient Egyptian pharos. We all know of the fabulous treasures that they were buried with. Just looking at the treasure that was found with king Tut, blows one's mind. It was the kind of treasure that was so valuable that one couldn't readily estimate it's value. Those huge Egyptian treasures can't help but excite your imagination. Now here is the thing, we know that the gold and silver objects in the tomb were very valuable, but even simple things like wooden chairs and such became very valuable over time. Almost anything that was in one of these tombs became a thing of value, the only question being what was it worth.

Sailing Ship
Graphic Source: NARA

There is another category of treasure that excites people and that is sunken treasure. One example of this is the wreck of the Whydah. In 1984 a diver came up with 3 cannons and a coin dated 1688. The ship went down near Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA. This certainly isn't the only wreck that contains treasure. Many ships have sunk over several millennia that have contained valuables. Not all sunken ships that contain treasure are that old. Ships are still sinking today and some are passenger ships that have valuables in their safes.

The last type of treasure that I would like to talk about is treasure that individuals amass. In ancient times people would accumulate gold, silver and precious gems. As time went by, art became valuable, desired and also accumulated. Today there are a lot of different ways to gain riches. You have the traditional valuables and all sorts of other financial instruments. You can accumulate enormous riches even in a poor country. Just look at Russia for example, it doesn't have one of the world's biggest economies, yet it has produced something like 17 billionaires since 2000.

In the future treasures that are found might be a little different. I can see it now, two thousand years has passed and archeologists are excavating a building in old New York. They discover that the building was once a bank. They find a sign inside the building that is still legible and it says "Chase Manhattan Bank". Wow they have found what looks like a vault. After several days of careful manipulation they get it open with their sophisticated instruments. Inside the vault are piles of greenish ash that once had been paper money that has deteriorated, but wait, they find a box that seems to be airtight and carefully open it. Inside are documents that state that they are something called bearer bonds and each one is in the amount of $100,000. This type of thing might be what some of the treasure of the future will look like.

So there you have it. If you want to see a treasure, it might be as close as your local museum. I know that the Museum of Natural History in New York City has a gem collection that is so valuable it can't be calculated.