Unexpected Discoveries That Are Worth Millions of Dollars

Discovery: penicillin
Year: 1928
Estimated Value: Incalculable

Some oversights can cost you your job, but once in a while, one of those can save the world. Alexander Fleming, a British physician, and scientist, had been studying bacterial cultures for months. But one day, he went on vacation, and he forgot his bacterial cultures on the lab table.

El descuido que salvó al mundo ©Angela Cini/Shutterstock.com

Upon his return, the scientist found that a fungus of the Penicillium notatum strain had destroyed his cultures. That is how he discovered that this fungus prevented bacteria from spreading. Then and there, the antibiotic that has saved millions of lives was born. Thanks to that oversight, Fleming was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine.

Discovery: An asteroid made of precious materials
Year: 1852
Estimated value: $10 trillion*

The Psyche 16, discovered in 1852, is an asteroid located in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. After studying it for years, scientists found that it is composed of iron and nickel. And that brings us to the most surprising aspect of this asteroid: its incredible Value.

©D-VISIONS/Shutterstock.com

The metals that make up this asteroid are worth 10 trillion US dollars! If that amount were divided among each person on earth, each of us would become a millionaire. Sadly, the technology to obtain these metals does not yet exist.

Discovery: Rubik’s cube
Year: 1974
Estimated Value: $5 billion* in sales

The Rubik’s cube is the best-selling puzzle globally, but the truth is that it was not even conceived as a toy. Its inventor, Erno Rubik, was a professor of architecture, and he built this puzzle to teach his students spatial concepts in a very visual way.

El cubo más popular del mundo ©lisyl/Shutterstock.com

Rubik discovered that, at the end of each class, the students tried to return the cube to its original position. That’s when he had the idea: he perfected his invention, patented it, and three years later, he was already selling it as a toy.

Discovery: ancient coins
Year: 2019
Estimated Value: $6.8 million*

Adam Staples and Lisa Grace are a couple who, as a hobby, spend their time walking around with a metal detector. One day, while on a stroll in Somerset, England, this activity resulted in a surprise they would have never even dreamed of: they found a medieval treasure.

@Adam Staples y Lisa Grace/Facebook

The loot consisted of 2,751 coins over 1,000 years old, which once belonged to King Harold II. The British Museum valued their finding at 6 million euros. Adam and Lisa had to give the coins to the Museum, but not without taking 50% from the resulting transaction.

Discovery: Teflon
Year: 1838
Estimated Value: $4.33 billion* in sales

You will find Teflon in the vast majority of kitchens you enter. This material, however, was not intended to be a coating substance to prevent food from sticking to the pan. The origin of this material dates back to when chemist Roy Plunkett was hired to develop a non-toxic refrigerant chemical.

Polvo súper resistente @iquimicas/@maha_home/Pinterest

One day Plunkett left a substance to settle to create a gas; the next day, he found it had become a very slippery substance. French engineer Marc Gregoire became interested in this newly-created material, and he decided to combine it with aluminum to create kitchen utensils.

Discovery: fast-drying glue
Year: 1942
Estimated Value: unknown

Like all the items on this list, glue was initially invented to serve a very different purpose. In this case, it all started when engineer Harry Coover, who was working for Kodak, tried to create a plastic material that was as transparent as possible.

Pega bien, pero su finalidad era otra ©nanantachoke/Shutterstock.com

Coover discovered that one of the “plastics” resulting from his experiments was very sticky and solidified quickly when in contact with air. Surprisingly, this substance was first used to glue broken bones together. Authorities eventually banned its use on the human body, and that’s how it started being used to fix broken objects in homes.

Discovery: the microwave oven
Year: 1945
Estimated value: $8,887 million* in sales

The creation of the microwave oven was also completely accidental. It all started far away from any kitchen when a scientist named Percy Spencer was trying to improve the functionality of a radar. To do this, he was working with magnetons, which are instruments for measuring distances, directions, and speeds.

El accidente más rentable @bboleslaw2/Pinterest

Spencer had a chocolate bar in his pocket that he had planned to eat for lunch. Unfortunately for him, his snack completely melted when he got too close to the magneton. Spencer tried to find out if the same thing would happen to other foods, and the result of this experiment was the microwave oven like the one you use every day.

Discovery: a 75-pound pearl 
Year: 2006
Estimated value: $96 million*

In 2006, the life of a Filipino fisherman was turned upside down when, instead of a fish, he caught an unexpected object. It was a giant clam with a pearl inside… that weighed 75 pounds! Needless to say, this is the largest pearl ever discovered.

@businessinsiderespana/Pinterest

The lucky fisherman went to specialists who valued the find at no less than 96 million dollars. Surprisingly, the man refused to accept the sum at first. However, years later, he changed his mind when a fire destroyed his house.

Discovery: Palmer Union Oil shares
Year: 2008
Estimated value: $130 million*

Many people walk through yard sales simply out of curiosity and not really expecting to find anything of value there. Tony Marohn’s experience, however, was very different. This man bought a box of old papers for only $5. But what the box contained was worth much, much more than papers.

Las acciones más baratas @LiveTrendingro/Pinterest

Among the document, there was an invoice for 1,625 shares of Palmer Union Oil, which is the equivalent of 1.8 million shares of Coca-Cola. The Value of those shares is around $130 million. All of that for only 5 dollars!

Discovery: the Slinky
Year: 1943
Estimated Value:$100 million* in sales

This spring, also known as “Slinky,” was not originally meant to be a toy. It all started in 1943 when a naval engineer named Richard T. James was trying to develop springs capable of stabilizing navigation tools in rough seas.

El juguete que nunca pasa de moda @spengel/Pinterest.com

Suddenly, one of the springs the engineer was experimenting with fell off a shelf, flipped over on itself, then onto a book, and then fell gracefully to the floor. James showed the discovery to the children in his neighborhood, who were delighted, and thus the toy was born.

Discovery: Coca-Cola
Year: 1893
Estimated value: $213,000 millions* 

Yes, that’s right: the most popular soft drink in existence, and the company that has become one of the most profitable organizations in the world, was created by accident. It all started when pharmacist John S. Pemberton tried to develop a syrup to increase energy and ease digestion.

@massimoratti8 / Pinterest.com

Once Pemberton had the perfect formula, he started distributing it; however, people began to mix it with carbonated water to improve its flavor… giving birth to Coca-Cola. Over the years, the ingredients have been modified to achieve the perfect taste, and this “accident” has generated billions of dollars.

Discovery: hundreds of ancient coins
Year: 2007
Estimated Value: $200,000*

This discovery was made by a group of mischievous little children. The kids were playing in their neighborhood in Pennsylvania, and they decided to sneak into an abandoned house. Shortly after entering, they discovered some coins lying on the floor, and when they returned home, they told their parents.

©nikolay_artjuhoff/Shutterstock.com

The parents were curious as well, so they went to the abandoned house, knocked down one of the walls, and found hundreds of coins. Since some of the coins were very old, the value of this discovery rose to $200,000. We hope the kids got their share!

Discovery: a 12-pound piece of gold
Year: 2013
Estimated Value: $315,000*

This story involves a farmer who lived in the city of Ballarat in Australia. One day the man decided to go out for a walk, and like many other people, he took his metal detector with him without really expecting to find anything of Value. But, oh boy, he did, something bigger than he could have ever dreamed of.

"Cómprate un detector de metales" dijeron, "será divertido" dijeron @ebaumsworld/Pinterest

At first, the farmer found small pieces of pure gold on the ground. Excited, he started digging and was pleasantly surprised to find a 12-pound piece of gold. The metal was valued at $315,000, and it completely changed this lucky man’s life.

Discovery: The United States Declaration of Independence
Year: 1991
Estimated Value:$2.4 million*

The star of this discovery is a man who was fascinated by a painting at a garage sale, and he decided to buy it for his house. The artwork was only 4 dollars, so it was quite a bargain. However, the recent purchase was much more than a living room painting.

Lo antiguo vale doble @ella777111/Pinterest

When changing the frame, the man discovered that, behind the painting, there was one of the 25 official copies of the United States Declaration of Independence. The man ended up auctioning the document for $2.4 million… which was probably more than enough for him to buy another painting.