143 Times People Found The Most Unexpected Things (New Pics)

Life’s full of hidden treasure! Oh, sure, that phrase works metaphorically, too, but we’re being quite literal here. If you’re curious about the world and live for the unexpected, then Bored Panda’s got a treat for you. We’ve collected some of the best photos of interesting finds that people were astonished to discover. So go on, check them out! And though far from everything glitters like gold, you’re likely to admit that most of these finds are valuable in their own right.

Remember to upvote the photos that you loved the most, dear Pandas! Got any interesting finds to share with us? Drop us a comment or a photo in the comment section at the very bottom of this list. And if you’re in the mood for some more unexpectedly awesome finds, check out our most recent earlier posts here, here, as well as here.

While we can find many unexpected things by accident, it’s also important to stay curious as we continue growing older. And that goes for all things in life, not just amateur archeology. After all, keeping that energetic spark alive makes our lives have far more quality. One thing that we value is people keeping their childlike curiosity burning bright no matter how old they might get.

#1 While Tearing Up Their Carpet, My In-Laws Found A Giant Monopoly Board

Image credits: Yamaha234

#2 Found A Stargate In The Middle Of Nowhere Near Linz, Austria

Image credits: zodd1981

#3 We Tore Up Some Carpeting In Our House Expecting Concrete But Instead Found This 70’s Masterpiece

Image credits: CallistoChemical

When we stare at everything with wonder and can’t wait (!) to find or learn something new, even the biggest problems lose their sting. Instead, they’re but challenges. Challenges that you’re already thinking about how to overcome. But our modern schooling system might not be the best way to keep this sense of curiosity because it tends to take independence away from kids instead of driving them to be self-sufficient learners and daring explorers.

In a previous interview with Bored Panda, the president of the nonprofit organization Let Grow, Lenore Skenazy, shared with us that modern schooling goes against the grain when it comes to how learning and teaching happened through much of human history.

#4 387-Year-Old Shopping List Found Under The Floorboards Of A London Home

 The full text reads:

"Mr Bilby, I pray p[ro]vide to be sent too morrow in ye Cart some Greenfish, The Lights from my Lady Cranfeild[es] Cham[ber] 2 dozen of Pewter spoon[es]: one greate fireshovell for ye nursery; and ye o[t]hers which were sent to be exchanged for some of a better fashion, a new frying pan together with a note of ye prises of such Commoditie for ye rest.

Your loving friend

Robert Draper

Octobre 1633

Copthall"

Image credits: National Trust

#5 This Silver Pendant I Found Metal Detecting Is Dated 227 Years Ago Today

Image credits: Silver_Winged

#6 I Found A Baby Albino Oak In My Garden Some Years Ago And Realized That Plants Can Be Albinos Too, But They Do Not Live Long Since They Cannot Photosynthesize

Image credits: Lunabora

“In the United States, for instance, school only became compulsory a little over 100 years ago. Previously—for hundreds of thousands of years of human history—kids learned simply by watching, copying, helping, and playing. In other words, they’d hang around the adults, see how they made things like baskets and arrowheads, they’d ask questions, noodle around, and try to copy what their elders were doing,” Lenore explained.

According to Lenore, kids would pitch in and help their families and communities as soon as they were able to. “They’d help out as soon as they could—fetching things, tracking animals, whatever—and in between they’d be playing with a group of mixed-age kids. All these activities were fueled by curiosity.”

#7 Splitting Firewood And Found A Piece Resembling The Sky In "The Starry Night"

Image credits: virgilturtle

#8 My Husband Passed Away 2 Weeks Ago And In The Garage Behind A Piece Of Paper Hanging On The Wall I Found This

In the months before his passing he was unable to talk due to his brain cancer, so finding this note from him meant the world to me and is something I will cherish forever. We were married for 24 years.

Image credits: Lacy Summers

#9 It's A Little Unnerving When You Wake Up In The Morning And Find These Right Outside Your Tent

Gates of the Arctic National Park, Alaska.

Image credits: mattymeis

“You were motivated to learn what the bigger kids in your group knew, too, because they were so cool. Your entire day consisted of observing and practicing the stuff you needed to know— skills and games. If you weren’t curious, you weren’t going to enjoy life, or succeed at it,” Lenore said that curiosity really was (and, in truth, still is) more important than we give it credit for.

“One reason kids might seem less curious today is because most of their education, inside and outside of school, doesn’t require self-motivation, it requires compliance. The drive is extrinsic, not intrinsic. Kids fill out worksheets because they have to, not because these seem interesting, or have any immediate connection to the ‘real’ world,” the expert noted that obedience alone won’t raise people who are full of the joys of discovery.

#10 Found A Steam Room And Hot Tub In My Basement, Behind A Wall During Demo

Image credits: FeedtheFat

#11 Found Original Homeowner In The Walls Of A Teardown

Image credits: widewhiskers

#12 This Old Color Pencil Box After Termites Ate All The Wood

Image credits: Drship

Meanwhile, extracurricular activities also appear to have fallen prey to the demands for compliance instead of encouraging kids to be curious. “Learning soccer means doing the drills the coach assigns, as opposed to tagging along with the older kids and working hard to get good enough so that they’d start letting you play. The key to curiosity, then, is giving kids enough free, unstructured time for them to find something they love to do for its own sake—not for a grade, or coach.”

In other words, we need to uncover in ourselves an inner drive to go out into the world and learn and find new and fascinating things. Some of which we’ll be more than happy to share with all the Pandas on the internet.

#13 Picasso Pebble

Image credits: jonofthesouth

#14 This Tree I Found Grows Into Itself

Image credits: FishayyMtg

#15 Frozen Flower I Found In Austin During The Texas Winter Storm

Image credits: Syllabub-Temporary

#16 This Swirly Dandelion I Found

Image credits: Golden_Snail_DK

#17 10-Carat Australian Sapphire I Found In A Creek

Image credits: Numerous_Sport_2774

#18 My Mom And Uncle Found An USAF Target Drone On The Beach

Image credits: coolmanjack

#19 This Morning I Found A Young Frog That Still Had Its Tail

Image credits: MinisterOfVulgarity

#20 Found A Perfect Salt Crystal In My Sea Salt Packet

Image credits: c3r3n1ty

#21 My Uncle Found A Bag Of Volcano Ash From Mount St. Helens With A Note Tucked In The Back Of One Of His Cupboards

Image credits: blachat

#22 This Piece Of Wall That Got Rounded By The Sea

Image credits: TheCorpseOfMarx

#23 Telegram Abbreviations Found In My Great Grandpa’s Notebook

Image credits: Jakz2402

#24 I Found A Cyclops Moth And It Was Huge. Bigger Than Half My Hand

Image credits: JustAMemeBeingADude

#25 Bought A Vintage Stove And Found A Newspaper From 1954 In It

Image credits: wcs2

#26 Found A Starfish In One Of My Mussels

Image credits: DalhousieU23

#27 Found A Grenade In The Garden, Had A Visit From The Army Bomb Disposal Unit

Image credits: WouldISmellHer

#28 100 Years Ago Someone Lost Their Coin Purse

Image credits: silverwinged

#29 I Found A Misprinted Penny (Front And Back)

Image credits: jar0fstars

#30 Perfectly Round Rock I Found At The Beach

Image credits: Fudgemnky

#31 My Dad Found This Old Pamphlet Advertising Tourism To The World Trade Centre

Image credits: Demiil

#32 Found This Fish Was Frozen In Piece Of Ice, Texas 2021

Image credits: Daddywithguns

#33 Found An Edge Piece In My Bag Of Goldfish

Image credits: dj_mumbles

#34 This Weird Lemon That Grew On Our Lemon Tree

Image credits: phantomplayerone

#35 I Found This Print From Where A Gray Wolf Slept In The Snow. You Can Even See Her Ribs

Image credits: savannahrosewildlife

#36 Found A Little Piece Of History During A Hike In France: A Roman Shoe Nail

Image credits: Felyana

#37 I Found This Rock With A Perfect Hole In It

Image credits: zuzuofthewolves

#38 This Snake Sword In A Cane I Found On My Walk Today

Image credits: Marenyalia

#39 35 Rings Found On The Beach

Image credits: Meprado

#40 Look How Large This Tree Frog I Found Is

Image credits: hardcoredad

#41 I Found A 5 Leaf Clover

Image credits: AkaMiso

#42 A Humpback Whale Jaw I Found This Weekend In New England

Image credits: scrambl3d33gs

#43 Found My Old Cell Phone With Optional Clip-On Chatboard For "Easy" Texting

Image credits: ontbijtkoek

#44 Look At This Crazy Icicle I Found This Morning (There Is A Small Hole In The Metal Handrail)

Image credits: merz-person

#45 I'm Redoing My Kitchen And The Old Owners Put A Wall Over An Exterior Door

Image credits: Mercarcher

#46 Found This Very Old Holy Bible In My Parents' Garage. Dated 1881. Thought Maybe You Guys Might Find It Interesting As Well

Image credits: strange_days12

#47 This Nike That We Found While Hiking

Image credits: jurgo4509

#48 Man Finds An Enormous Moth. About The Size Of A Rat At A School Construction Site In Australia

Image credits: Mount Cotton State School

#49 I Found A Metal Bat Symbol In My Yard

Image credits: vistopher

#50 Found This Arrowhead While Digging A Hole In My Backyard

Image credits: Jonahw8

#51 Mom Cleaned Out Her Pantry Cabinet And Found Four Generations Of Wyler’s Beef Cubes. Oldest One Expired 2/14/1989

Image credits: NettleFire

#52 While Renovating An Office In DC, I Found A Stack Of Uncashed Checks Dated July-August 1910

Image credits: M4nsqu7ch

#53 Ordered Fried Oysters From A Takeout Restaurant And Found A Pearl In One

Image credits: ehhhidowhatican

#54 This Bone I Found On A Walk

Image credits: Pbund

#55 My Grandmother Lived Through WWII In Her Teenage Years, And She Found One Of Her Issues Of Life Magazine From 1941

Image credits: IamAidenCarter

#56 I Found The Fibonacci Sequence Under Carpet Tiles At Work

Image credits: yahlover

#57 Some Old Russian Pepsi That I Found

Image credits: aHistoryofSmilence

#58 While Hiking An Isolated Jungle Trail In The Amazon, We Came Across This Post Marking The Equator

Image credits: Intagvalley

#59 I Found These Stacked In A Secret Drawer Left In My 1885 House

Image credits: Djourou4You

#60 I Just Found A Marriage Certificate From 1841 In My House In The Attic

Image credits: PousseMoussue

#61 Digging Through Old Boxes At 4am And Found A 200+ Page Novel That I Hand Wrote In 2009 When I Was 12 Years Old

Image credits: blueskyn01se

#62 Jack Miner Was A Hero Of Conservation Who Passed Away In 1944. I Found One Of His Bird Bands Today On The Shore Of Lake Erie In Ohio

Minutes before I picked up what I thought was a shell but turned out to be a piece of plastic. Years of picking up crap on the ground has finally paid off

Image credits: MkMikki

#63 This Rock I Found Looks Like A Speech Bubble

Image credits: James12252006

#64 A Wall Was Removed In A Victorian House We Are Working At Which Revealed An Old Cast Iron Fireplace

Image credits: blu_skydive

#65 We Were Digging Up Virgin Ground For A Garden And As I Was Tilling, We Found A Class Ring From 1954-1955

It only had initials and the school was closed, took me 3 months to find the owner's daughter and was happy to reunite it with her family.

Image credits: maxxim565

#66 This Brooch I Found While Metal Detecting

Image credits: NormIslandRandom

#67 I Found This Gravestone For Someone's Beloved Dog In A Wooded Area Just Outside An Old Cemetary

Image credits: James_Fennell

#68 Found This Tiny Mushroom Growing Out Of A Sweet Gum Ball

Image credits: stormtroopercore

#69 I Found My Great Great Grandfather's WW1 Medals The Other Day

Image credits: -liam_davis-

#70 This Old Skeleton Key I Found With My Metal Detector

Image credits: NormIslandRandom

#71 I Found A Miniature Telephone Box On The Street

Image credits: iMack7

#72 Got A Roof Inspection, They Found A Bullet In My Shingles. My House Is In A Highly Populated Suburban Area. It’s Right Above Our Master Bedroom

Image credits: ljrunk

#73 Found A Wheelchair In A Cave While Visiting Tennessee

Image credits: backyardgarbage

#74 We Found A Little Bat In The House

Image credits: Aurliea89

#75 Found A Skull In The Forest

Image credits: _barack_

#76 I Found An Old Newspaper From 1934 Under The Floorboards Of My London House

Image credits: AuricGodshawk

#77 I Found A Book Autographed By Bill Nye At The Thrift Store

Image credits: nothingeatsyou

#78 Found This McDonald's Cup In The Ice I Was Skating On

Image credits: neovapor

#79 An 18 Karat Gold Ring I Found At My Late Grandmother's House - No Idea Anything About It. But A Beautiful Ring So I Thought I Would Share

Image credits: salty-potato1

#80 1977 McDonald's Christmas Trash Found In The Wall Of Our House

Image credits: nyratevoli

#81 Sea Urchin Skeleton I Found At The Beach

Image credits: RevMeCar

#82 This 129 Year Old Penny Came Out Of A Roll Today

Image credits: furryfrog02

#83 Old Bottle From Ruehl Bros. Brewery In Chicago I Found Behind A Wall During Our Demo In Our Master Bedroom. According To Google, Brewery Existed From 1915-1926

Image credits: beautyinstrength84

#84 Found A Penny From 1864 When Cleaning Out My Wood Stove

Image credits: micro_cosm

#85 Renovating My 101-Year-Old House And Found This Behind The Drywall

Image credits: buttertoast313

#86 This Rock I Found Has A Shell Inside It And It’s Been Worn Away To A Flat Spiral In Appearance

Image credits: reddron

#87 Removed A Wall Fixture That Came With The House To Repaint The Wall And Realized This Room Used To Be This Exact Color. Old Color In The Middle, New Paint On Left Edge

Image credits: aground96

#88 This Deteriorating Combination Lock I Found At The Beach

Image credits: SweetTaterette

#89 Old Submarine I Stumbled Upon Outside Stockholm, Sweden

Image credits: Vaskyhasky

#90 I Found A Paystub From 1948 Being Used As A Bookmark In A Cookbook

Image credits: wafflesmoothie

#91 WW2 Badge Found In Ocean

Image credits: zxcnhkdfsda21

#92 Moved A Pot And Found A Slug Laying Eggs

Image credits: jace92553

#93 Our Dog Found A Pacifier

Image credits: martianruby

#94 In The Process Of Demolishing The Bathroom Of Our Newly-Bought House And This Message Was Behind The Mirror

Image credits: DJSTR3AM

#95 Found An Ancient Ruin On A Hike

Image credits: Achillea616

#96 Found A Rock That Looks Like An Alligator

Image credits: LightningMcCree8

#97 I Found A Burger King Kids Club Cup From 1996

Image credits: doomedroadtrips

#98 I Found A Teeny Tiny Conch Shell In My Pack Of Decorative Rocks

Image credits: NannuhBannan

#99 This Beautiful Salt Crystal That Formed Inside My Instant Ramen's Sauce Packet

Image credits: goat_water

#100 I Found A 6-Headed Daffodil Growing In My Garden

Image credits: dairich85

#101 A Shard Of Porcelain I Found Diving On A Wreck

Image credits: tender_f1sh_st1ck

#102 Found A Mutated Daisy

Image credits: beardobandit

#103 This Praying Mantis Exoskeleton I Found Stuck To The Side Of My Car

Image credits: Molkiloch84

#104 I Found A Toilet Seat Guitar At A Pawn Shop

Image credits: Joe_Rogan_Bot

#105 Original Dr Pepper That Was Buried In The Garden, The Soda Turned Clear

Image credits: Purple_Kolache

#106 This Big Old Padlock I Found At Work

Image credits: ibenry101088

#107 I Found My Dad’s 7th Grade Report Card From 1948

Image credits: Ageless21676

#108 I Found This Heart-Shaped River Rock Today

Image credits: critterbitter

#109 I Found A "Treasure" From The 90s In A Garage

Image credits: Mcflyder

#110 Found A Pearl In My Oyster

Image credits: glerbelderbel

#111 Found A Bible In An Antique Store. When Opened, It Flipped To Antique Pressed 4 Leaf Clovers

Image credits: slappy-go-lucky

#112 Found These Mcdonalds Gift Certificates From 2001 (Top) And 1998 (Bottom) While Cleaning My Room

Image credits: captain_vee

#113 This Friggin Huge Strawberry I Found Today

Image credits: m0untaingoat

#114 Small Starfish With Four Arms Instead Of Five

Image credits: gggggary1

#115 I Found An Original 1985 Back To The Future Skateboard At The Back Of My Parents' Shed Today. Shame About The Condition But Still Great

Image credits: fofizzleshizzle

#116 I Found This Rock On A Beach, With A Hole In It, With A Star Inside The Hole

Image credits: singingsparkle-eyes

#117 Found The Can On The Left Today Where I Live On The Beach. Found Online That This Design Is From 1959

Image credits: Existing-Butterfly-6

#118 Found A Stingray Barb While At Work

Image credits: crystal_dinosaur

#119 Came Upon A Christmas Tree While Walking In The Forest

Image credits: NoNotInTheFace

#120 This Boot I Found In The Woods Is Covered In Moss

Image credits: SlipperySlope31

#121 Found Sea Shell In My Sea Salt

Image credits: fukincoconut

#122 My Father Found These Old USSR Military Hats That His Grandfather Gave Him When He Went To Russia Right At The Time Of The USSR's Collapse

Image credits: jzstarburzt

#123 This Fossilized Imprint Of A Fern I Found In North Dakota

Image credits: SissyHypno24

#124 These Vintage Items I Found In A Mouse Nest In My Wall

Image credits: ShakeYouLikeHaiti

#125 Found A Pay Phone Today. Haven't Seen One Since I Was A Kid

Image credits: GODisDEAD-EATtheRICH

#126 Found An Old Key While Renovating My 100-Year-Old House

Image credits: R3db0ne

#127 Today I Found A Tiny Shell In My Sea Salt

Image credits: JustPonsie

#128 Found A Baby Snapping Turtle Walking Across My Driveway

Image credits: 0neMemeyBoy

#129 Found A Cheez-It Family Today

Image credits: Siiiiichak

#130 I Present Today's Seaglass Findings From A Stormy Day In The Cove. Cape Breton Island, NS, Canada

Image credits: empyr69er

#131 I Found An Old Whiskey Jar With A Fern Growing In It On A Walk Out In The Woods Today

Image credits: BappleBlayer333

#132 This Perfectly Cylinder Shaped Rock I Found At A Local Beach

Image credits: BertiusMaximus

#133 This Fully Intact Pepsi Bottle From The 1930s I Found While Bottle Digging Today

Image credits: bitchcoco

#134 This Really Tiny Arrowhead My Dad Found A While Back

Image credits: goohugger555555

#135 While Cleaning Out The Storage Room At My New Job Today, I Found A Newspaper From 1893

Image credits: Becca_Chavis

#136 Found 25 $2 Bills While Cleaning My Closet

Image credits: IceCooker

#137 My Dog Found A Badger Skull In The Garden

Image credits: profishkeeping

#138 The Underpayment Used Last Time My Floor Was Replaced

Image credits: Ehaag0419

#139 Osperlioceras Bicarinatum Golden Pyrite. Found In France

Image credits: Browndog888

#140 Found A Nice Honeycomb Amber Brooch Today. Amber Is Quite Hard To Find, Such An Interesting Material

Image credits: SAPSANA

#141 Found This Battery At The Beach That Collected Minerals And Debris At The Ends

Image credits: -Kerosun-

#142 I Found This Bee With My Metal Detector

Image credits: NormIslandRandom

#143 I Found A Nickel That Is 116 Years Old

Image credits: tjcowell96