We’ve all dreamed of finding a lost treasure box when we were kids. As adults, finding a lost note is both a blessing and a curse, ‘cause you probably will have to lose something sometime soon to even out the karma, they say.
But this time we’re talking lost and found stuff, objects, and places with a much bigger “wowzer” factor. Imagine yourself coming across an alligator skull while hiking, or spotting a tiny perfect seashell in your salt. Some discoveries are cute and fun, while others are plain scary and mind-bending.
So fasten your seatbelts since we're off to a lost and found compilation from Bored Panda that will surely ignite your inner detective. More bizarre objects that have been lost, thrown away, washed ashore, or long forgotten in the woods can be found in our previous posts here, here, and here.
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Found Photos Of My Grandmother's Cousin Hanging With His Buddy While Cleaning Out A Storage Locker
Hummingbird Feather. I Had Never Found One Before, Thought It Was Neat
My Mom Found A Baby Owl On The Porch Behind The Firewood
Wife Found This At A Local Estate Sale; Suspect Emma Wasn't Happy
This Rock I Found At The Beach When I Was Seven Is Full Of Fossilized Shells
I Run Down An Old Dirt Road. Trash Is Dumped There. One Day I Stopped And Found A Box Of Money. All The Envelopes Are From Different Countries All Over The World
Mostly date from the 1700s-1900s. The oldest is a coin from 1621. I’ve got some from countries that no longer exist. I’m still researching.
According to Tate, Picasso was the originator of the found art movement. “From 1912, he began to incorporate newspapers and such things as matchboxes into his cubist collages, and to make his cubist constructions from various scavenged materials.”
Essentially, artists would modify the found objects as minimally as they could, or sometimes leave them as they were. The idea is based on repurposing an object which has not been designed for artistic purposes into a piece that’s deliberately placed in an artistic context.
Remember To Sign Your Work. I Used To Really Like This Table I Rescued From A Dump Pile Two Years Ago. Just Found The Inscription. Now I Love This Table
It’s maker, T. R. Boone, was a janitor at the University of Nebraska in 1914. Thanks for the good work, Mr. Boone. You were an artist.
Great European War - yes, that is how our ancestors used to call WWI before WWII.
Interesting fact, some people at the time referred to it as the First World War on the assumption many more would follow...guess they were more pessimistic than the War to End All Wars crowd...
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There was a famous case like this in France, a few years ago. The parquet of an old mansion had to be removed ; beneath the floor boards, the guy who had mounted them some 150 years ago had written hundreds of messages about his life, his thoughts and all kind of gossip about the village around. A very precious historical document he purposely hid there for future generations to find, knowing that it should remained untouched for decades since it was actually a good job.
Please remember to do this sort of thing for others to find, many years into the future.
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This is amazing. I attended that University - which was much smaller then - now it is enormous. The lack of respect for usable items - many with a fascinating history - are simply taken to the "dump". It is bad business for our environment and for the history of marvelous things that are simply destroyed - I guess because it is easier for lazy people. It makes me very sad.
It seems to me that the inscription was under the table, discreetly and not easy spotted if you don't go under the table to look
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It has survived thus far, and may its journey continue for many many more years to come. Thank goodness TR Boone had the sense to record it history for posterity.
I've never heard it called the "Great European War" before, only the Great War! But maybe the table and inscription were done before the Americans were involved in the war, can't remember off the top of my head when America joined the war, was it 1917?
Hi Claire, that was my thought too, the US didn’t join until 1917, so this table was made when it was still a European war.
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Heart-Shaped Amethyst Geodes. Discovered Yesterday In Artigas, By The Mining Company Uruguay Minerals
Mosaics Of A Roman Villa Were Found Under A Vineyard In Negrar, Italy
I Found This Carved Fox Inside A Tree Stump, In A Forest Close To My Home
Friend Of Mine Just Moved Into A New House. Took Off All The Heating Vents To Paint Them, And This Was Behind One Of Them
So I Found A Loop Of Paper Attached To My Cat's Collar This Morning. I'll Be Sure To Send Another Note Back
My neighbour's cat used to visit us a few times a day as well. Maxy passed away 8 years ago. I miss him lots. On a brighter note, I came home one summer day, and found four neighbourhood cats lounging on my lawn. They all had homes, but they just congregated here. A man passed by, looked at the cats, and then, looked at me. "They're not mine," I said. His reaction was "Sure, lady."
My Friend Just Found This Little Statue While Digging In His Own Garden
The archeologists from the museum told him that it is probably from a grave dating back to 3-4000 years ago.
Any chance this was oh I don't know January/February 2020, asking for a friend.
An Old Jacket Hanging In The Woods With A Bird's Nest Built In The Pocket
I Found A Tiny House Inside Of A Tree Stump
We Went To The Beach To Find Shark Teeth, So When My Daughter Yelled "I Found Teeth!" This Was The Last Thing I Was Expecting
I'm A Woodturner & Found A Lovely Bowl In A Vintage Store, Made By The Guy Who Inspired Me As A Kid
On closer inspection I felt the bowl was very familiar, so I flipped through the very book that inspired me, 31 years ago, & there it was!
My Wife Found This Tiny Skink In Our Garden, Some Much-Needed Brightness On A Grey, Smoky Day
I live in south USA and we have tons of those here. I love when them and the green anoles are hatchlings
Group Of Baby Easter Bunnies I Found While Walking My Dog On Easter Sunday (Can For Reference)
While Showing My 3-Year-Old My Game Boy, I Discovered A Picture Of My Best Friend From 1999
I Found A Book Called "The Ancient Thirst To Read". It's Actually A Flask
This Morning I Found By Far The Smallest Frog I Have Ever Seen In My Entire Life
This Incredible Carrot Hand Was Found While Digging Juice Carrots At Our Farm Today
Found 83 Gold Coins At The Bottom Of A Coal Container After Renovating The House
Found These Green Army Men Doing Yoga At A Place We're Renting
Real Talk I Think I Just Found A Shell With An Ancient Language On It
Found In The Pocket Of My Grandpa’s WW2 Bomber Jacket
I Went Diving With My Metal Detector In A Private Lake And Was Able To Return Multiple Valuables To Their Owners, Including A $5000 Wedding Ring That Was Lost For Almost 5 Years
Today While Sorting Through My Grandma’s Attic, I Happened To Discover My Great-Great-Grandfather’s Italian Passport And A Ticket To America Exactly 100 Years Later
This Origami Grasshopper My Friend Found On A Tram In Japan
Found A 100-Year-Old Time Capsule In My Backyard
the small coin looks a lot like the Swiss Franc 50cts coin... but it's probably not, given the rest of the items.
This Pink Grasshopper Found On Kelleys Island, Ohio
A Rock I Found On The Beach Has A Tiny Starfish Fossil In It
Found These Beautiful Colors Hiding Inside A Piece Of Wood
Found A Random Painting In The Middle Of The Woods
Elmo Toy That I Found While Hiking In Georgia
Found This In My Backyard In Ankara/Turkey. It's Red Fox Agate
I Found A Mussel With Natural Goggly Eyes
This "Bookmark" I Found In An Old Shakespeare Book Is A Voting Ticket From The Civil War
I Opened A Ventilation Cavity In A Wall And Found Old Love Letters Bound In String
Found This In The Crawl Space Above My Bedroom
Those are Eisenhower silver dollars, not quarters! Quarters have Washington on them.
This Guy Found 73 Frisbees In A Pond While He Was Looking For His Own
I Found A Door, And Nothing Else, On An Abandoned Beach
This Pearl I Found In An Oyster I Was Eating
Found This Note In My Hotel Bed Last Night... Ugh
This Shell I Found In My Sea Salt
Alligator Gar Skull I Found While Hiking Today
Found An Old Beer Bottle In The Mountains With A Mini Eco System Inside
I Found A Old Journal In The Woods Wrapped In Yarn With 3 Vials Of Blood In The Knot
This Very Old Bottle Of Cocaine We Found In My Pharmacy
My Brother Found My Old Dollhouse TV Displaying The Twin Towers
Found And Returned A Wedding Ring, As Well As A Phone, With Over 5 Years Of Lost Memories Still On It, While Diving For Trash And Treasure In Rollin's Lake
I Decided To Do A Little Exploring After Hurricane Dorian. This Is What I Found (Virginia)
This Archaeological Wall Of Ingravings I Found While Hiking
This Purple Roly Poly I Found Today
I Found This American Coin Far Away From Its Country, In A Quiet Field While Metal Detecting In Scotland
Rarest Of All Lobster Types, Albino One. Odds To Catch Him Are 1 In 100 Million
One Of My Students Found A Copy Of The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer With Mark Twain’s Real Name On It
I Broke A Yard Decoration That Had 2 Frogs And Found Inside 1 Pig Playing Guitar
Years ago my kids broke a garden statue I had on the porch. They did such a good job glueing that I didnt know what happened until I knocked it over and found their note inside apologizing for breaking it
I Found What Appears To Be A Glass Heart Digging In My Garden
And what it was doing digging in your garden we'll never know. To paraphrase Groucho Marx.
I Found A Cicada With The McDonald’s Logo On It
A Purple Grasshopper Found In My Garden
Today I Found A Bald Eagle’s Tail Feather And Primary Wing Feather (Didn’t Keep Them, It’s Illegal)
Found These 110 Year Old Crayolas In The Back Of A Family Secretary Desk. The Pack Still Has The Crayons
My Mom Found This Skull With A Chrysalis Inside The Eye Socket
Found A Shower During The Demo To Put In A Shower
What horrible thing happened in that shower that it had to be hidden? Why would someone do that???
Giant Puffball Mushroom My Sister Found In The Woods
We Found A Safe Behind A Fake Electrical Socket In Our New House
Renovating A 100-Year-Old House, Found What Looks Like A Samurai Sword Under A Section Of The House That Had A Dirt Floor
The sheath is metal on the outside and wood inside. Still sharp and heavy
Probably a souvenir of WWII brought back by a GI stationed in the Pacific Theatre.
Found A Moose Tooth In The Creek
Daughter Found The Largest Blackberry I’ve Ever Seen
Found This Awesome Swedish Krona From 1667 In My Backyard
This is a Swedish "1 Öre" coin from the time Sweden was a superpower.
I Found A Medieval Medal (Estimated 1226 - 1350) While Gardening
This White Fern I Found On My Hike Today
This Radio I Found In My Attic Is Built To Resemble A Coca-Cola Vending Machine
Beaver’s Chew Marks On A Tree That I Found
I Found A Mutated Daisy
This 5-Inch Moth We Found In Our House Yard Today
Dinosaur Bone Found In The Basement Of My Friend’s 15th Century House In North-Eastern France
I Found An Old Clothes Hanger Between The Floor Boards Of My Attic. It's So Old The Company's Phone Number Is 4 Digits
I Opened A Decade Old Play-Doh Container To Find It Had Grown Crystals
My Dad Found A Weather Balloon In His Field Today
Back in the sixties and early seventies, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, we used to find these all the time. NASA’s Wallops Island station is in the Virginia part of the Delmarva (Delaware-Maryland-Virginia) Peninsula, and used to set off weather balloons all the time back then. We also used to hear jets breaking the sound barrier all the time then too, because Dover Air Force Base is in the Delaware part of the peninsula, and we were still sending troops to Vietnam (including two of my brothers—-who came home safe, thank goodness, but sadly not quite still the same boys I grew up with).
Found My Great Grandpa’s WWII Air Force Goggles With WWII Dirt Still On Them
Bought A House That Had A Hidden Room, I Found It When I Parked A Bus On It
Odd as it is, I thought the background was a very high aluminum warehouse. Took me a moment to recognize phone or electric wires.
My Sister Found The Fossil Of What We Assume Is A Dinosaur Out In The Middle Of The Gobi Desert
Aussie Mom Finds World's Second Most Poisonous Snake Hiding In Her Kid's Lunch Box
Found Two Bottles Of Guinness In The Attic. 1874 I Think
Found This In Our Back Yard While Planting A Tree
I Found A Lizard With 2 Tails In My Driveway This Morning
Vintage Board Games Found In An Attic Of A New House
I remember playing Parcheesi as a child in the 60s. Not a typo; that's the way it was spelled on the box we had.
Stone Tools Found Walking With My Dog Along Dried Up Riverbed
This WWII Newspaper From 1945 Found In My Grandparent’s Attic
"Britain declares two-day holiday"...yes, we really went wild with excitement
Just Found A Lug Nut In My Fruit Bar
I Found A Wall With A Bottle Build Into It Which Has A Small Note Inside
This Golf Ball Inside A Log I Found
The coloring on the wood look like a hand about to screw in a lightbulb
This Viking Sword Was Found At High Altitude In The Mountains Of Oppland County. It May Have Belonged To A Viking Who Lost His Way And Died Here 1100 Years Ago
Finding A 65-Million-Year-Old Plesiosaurs Vertebrae Whilst Walking The Dogs. Buckinghamshire, UK
I Found A Set Of Circular Playing Cards
I Moved The Dryer In Our New House And Found $105 In The Vent
Silver Cuff Links I Found Today While Pit Digging. 1700’s. Found In Virginia
I Found A Ping Pong Ball Under My Basement Sofa That Is Elevated By Spider Cobwebs
Found A Key Inside My Wall
I Found A Luger While Digging Out My Basement
My Buddy Started Tearing Down His Unused Chimney Only To Find ~25 Generations Of Stacked Up Bird Nests
Chinese Opium Bottle Found Near Old Railroad
Found near Tombstone, Arizona. Could be from the days of the railroad construction.
Found My First Ring And Pistol While Diving For Trash & Treasure Under A Bridge. Gun Was Turned Into Park Rangers
Ring was later returned to the owner who then stood on the bridge and threw it in again.
Found Old Newspapers Used As Insulation In The Wall Of A 130-Year-Old House
1934. Even though FDR’s NRA program was working, damn republicans fought to get it repealed, tooth and nail. Because it didn’t line their pockets—-it just put the peasants back to work during the worst years of the Depression, saving them and their families from starving on the street. You know, unimportant stuff in comparison with profiting from their misery...
Found A Europe Cassette Tape In The Desert
ITS THE FINAL COUNTDOWN DO DO DO DO DO DO .DO DO DO DO DO Do do do of do
Whole Other World I Found In A Beer Bottle Laying In The Woods
I Found These Crystals At The Bottom Of A Bottle Of Maple Syrup That Sat In The Back Of My Refrigerator For A Few Years
This Frog Statue I Found Tied Up On The Roof Of The House We Just Bought
My Roommate Found An Original Star Wars VHS Today At A Thrift Store
There's An Old Dilapidated Barn On The Property. My Friend Found This In A Corner, Under Some Boards And Dust
The brother-in-law of a friend of mine is remodeling a house to sell. My husband and I went to look at it a few weeks back.
This Perfectly Square Rock I Found At The Beach
I Found This Bumpy Thick Pringle In The Can
Just Bought An Old House (1913) And Working On Putting In A Patio. Just About Done Digging And Found This Along With Some Scattered Bones
Local police notified and waiting to hear back if they’re human or animal.
Found Three 1969 Newspapers About The Moon Landing In An Old Chest In The Attic
And 50 years later idiots are wasting money, time and energy to prove that it was a hoax. Seems that for some people evolution CAN go in reverse.
Got Home From Vacation To Find A Yellow Pages Book At My Door Being Eaten My Snails
We Discovered A Locked Safe In The Floor During Remodel Of Our Old Home
35 Pounds Of Honey Found In My Cousin's Roof
While Renovating Our Studio We Found Old Walled-In Mailboxes
Found This Old Packaging That Advertises Plastic As A New Idea
While Remodeling Our Bathroom, We Found A Hidden Message In A Bottle From 1975
Note says: "We bought this house from John (censored) in November, 1966. We redecorated the bathroom in June of 1975. The upstairs of the house, the sidewalk and the city sewer system were put in by us."
Found This While Taking A Walk
Found A 255-Year-Old Document In The Wall Of A House I Am Renovating. Looks Like A Deed From 1765 For A House In Burlington, NJ
An Old 8-Ball Found Deep In A Forest
Found My Wallet From 1985 In An Old Jacket. Snapshot Of A Teenage Boys Life In The 80s
I Found My Time Capsule From 7th Grade That Has An Ominous Warning If I Opened It Early
Found A S-Agent 1960 Cap Gun While Digging A Hole For A Fence Post
My Parents Found A Mummified Rat Under The Floor Of Their New House
I Found A Twig I Stole From The White House 11 Years Ago As A Kid
Was Cutting Down A Tree At A Golf Course And Found A Golf Ball Wedged In It
Found A Bible From 1882 Today While Cleaning Out A Storage Unit At Work
I Found A Single Piece Of Bicycle Shaped Pasta In My Penne
This 1932 Glass Clorox Bottle I Found In The Woods Behind My House With The Cork Still In It
Contractors Working In Our Basement Found A Package Of Letters Hidden In The Floorboards From In The 1920s
Found An Old Prescription In My Family Home’s Bathroom Closet
This Polygon Heart Drawn On A Leaf I Found In My Campus
I Found A Book That Is Over 200 Years Old
Found This Old 7up Can Buried On My Property
My 11-Years-Old Kid And Her Friend Found This Message In A Bottle Today, At Waneka Lake, Colorado. It Reads “Stay Alive By Jose Gonzalez”. It’s A Song
I Was Going To Fix Some Leaks I Have On My Roof And Look What I Found. The House Was Built In 1941
It's from the time that you didn't throw things away because "they could always come in handy".
I Found Adult Film On VHS, Copyright 1985, Hidden In Basement Rafters While Repairing Plumbing
Nazi Plate That I Found Buried In My Great Grandmother’s Garden
I Found A Pre Y2K Zippo While Magnet Fishing Today
This Sprite Can I Found In The Ceiling Of An Old Mall
I Ripped Up My Old Phone Case To Discover It’s Made Of A Macau Beer Mat
Architect Friends Found This Beam In An Old House In Massachusetts, The Date Is The Battle Of Bunker Hill
The white dots are "post and k**b" insulators from VERY early days of home electricity.
A Mini-Pearl I Found In An Oyster I Was Eating
I Recently Bought A Historical Home Built In 1780. The Other Day I Discovered A Trap Door In The Barn. I Found Some Newspapers From 1926, And A Few Other Things
I’m going to keep searching for things in my free time.
Boston Post? “Bomb Hurled in Joke Kills 80”? Joke? W T Actual F? Boston. Bomb. 1920s. Large loss of life. I need more information about that!
I Find A Revolver While Digging In My Backyard
I live in Roeux, in France. A place with a lot of activity during WW. Its a webley MK5 short. Its seems to be a WWI revolver but used in WWII by resistants.
Found A Time Capsule Tearing Down A Shed This Summer. Included A Note, A Penny From That Year, And Our State Stone
I Was Splitting Firewood And I Found This Bullet Lodged In One Of The Logs. Notice How There’s No Path Of Entry, So This Tree Was Shot Long Ago And It Healed Itself Around The Bullet
I Found A Live 50 Cal Cartridge On A Cape Cod Beach From When The Military Was Stationed There During The Cold War
Found An Old Newspaper From When Kennedy Was Shot While Cleaning Out The Garage
My Roommate Bought A Pair Of Pants At The Thrift Store And Found This In One Of The Pockets
This Mcdonald’s Cup Found In A Wall During A Kitchen Renovation
Found In The Basement Of Our New House
I Work For The Railway And Found This Gatorade Carton In Near Mint Condition In A Tunnel. Date On The Top Says June 16, 1988
Was Doing Some Digging And Found An Old Nerf Dart Supporting Life
Found 4 Apple Watches, 4 Phones, & A Ton More While Diving For Trash & Treasure In The American River! 2 Watches Returned So Far
This Abandoned Shoe I Found Deep In The Forest
I Chopped Some Wood And Found A Bullet
Found A World War Bayonet Under The Asphalt While At Work On A Football (Soccer) Ground
I Found This Movie Prop $100 Bill On The Sidewalk Today
I was a bank teller for a while and had someone try to deposit a few motion picture use only bills. Hated to tell them that they weren't legal tender. Also had someone try to deposit some play money from somewhere in Asia based on the characters on the front of the bills. Those I had to send to the Secret Service. Always did love saying I was in touch with the Secret Service when meeting new people.
When I was a kid I found an old coin with a David’s star on it. I thought that it was not valuable but kept it anyway. Some years ago my partner saw it and convinced me to clean it with cola. It has a date. It’s a moorish coin from the 13th century.
For future reference, you want to do a very minimal amount of cleaning of coins. Collectors prefer the patina and grime. Soap and water is preferable if you want to get it clean enough to see what it actually is.
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Apart from a $5 found at the bottom of a lake I was swimming across, I've never found anything cool.
like a paper dollar? how did it not disintegrate in the water?
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Seeing the bright purple and pink grasshoppers (as well as the purple roly poly) makes me wonder how something like that is possible. My best guess would be a genetic mutation of some kind?
I bought my house in western Massachusetts in 1997. My daughter found an old railroad tie, some railroad track hardware, and a pile of bricks of a color native to this area. That's how we discovered that our property was a brickyard back in the day. After that, it was a campground...we found the old metal sign identifying it. Also, we have a large brook running through our front yard. She discovered that someone in the early part of the 20th Century built up the banks of the brook using layers of glass bottles interspersed with layers of soil. Odd, old bottles keep turning up from time to time, including a milk bottle for a 100yo local dairy.
Surprising number of valuable looking rings found by divers. Lost by swimmers or thrown by angry girlfriends/wives?
Lost during sunscreen or suntan oil application maybe?
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I used to hike a lot with my parents when I was a kid.We hiked through Yugoslav mountains where some big WWII battles occured.One of them was Zelengora where I found a German soldier helmet .It ended up in my hometown museum
I once found amazing sand sculptures on a beach in NC two years ago while on vacation. On the last day there, we looked at them for the final time, it looked like either the tide came it, it rained, or some kids came, but they all were wrecked, i know they don't last forever but I felt bad because it looked like they took forever.
In Köln Germany it's often found bombs from the war. I loved to see all the nice stuff people found.
When I was a kid I found an old coin with a David’s star on it. I thought that it was not valuable but kept it anyway. Some years ago my partner saw it and convinced me to clean it with cola. It has a date. It’s a moorish coin from the 13th century.
For future reference, you want to do a very minimal amount of cleaning of coins. Collectors prefer the patina and grime. Soap and water is preferable if you want to get it clean enough to see what it actually is.
Load More Replies... Apart from a $5 found at the bottom of a lake I was swimming across, I've never found anything cool.
like a paper dollar? how did it not disintegrate in the water?
Load More Replies... Seeing the bright purple and pink grasshoppers (as well as the purple roly poly) makes me wonder how something like that is possible. My best guess would be a genetic mutation of some kind?
I bought my house in western Massachusetts in 1997. My daughter found an old railroad tie, some railroad track hardware, and a pile of bricks of a color native to this area. That's how we discovered that our property was a brickyard back in the day. After that, it was a campground...we found the old metal sign identifying it. Also, we have a large brook running through our front yard. She discovered that someone in the early part of the 20th Century built up the banks of the brook using layers of glass bottles interspersed with layers of soil. Odd, old bottles keep turning up from time to time, including a milk bottle for a 100yo local dairy.
Surprising number of valuable looking rings found by divers. Lost by swimmers or thrown by angry girlfriends/wives?
Lost during sunscreen or suntan oil application maybe?
Load More Replies... I used to hike a lot with my parents when I was a kid.We hiked through Yugoslav mountains where some big WWII battles occured.One of them was Zelengora where I found a German soldier helmet .It ended up in my hometown museum
I once found amazing sand sculptures on a beach in NC two years ago while on vacation. On the last day there, we looked at them for the final time, it looked like either the tide came it, it rained, or some kids came, but they all were wrecked, i know they don't last forever but I felt bad because it looked like they took forever.
In Köln Germany it's often found bombs from the war. I loved to see all the nice stuff people found.
