A lot of people are obsessed with getting more money and they dream about finding the pot of gold, a real jewelry treasure. Not only in this time but also in the past a lot of adventurers started an uncertain way of life to find their ‘happiness’, to find their jewelry treasure. To buy them freedom, give them status, or maybe make them more unhappy than they already are. Is hunting down a jewelry treasure worth all the risks? Or do you have a jewelry treasure in your possession or close by, but you don’t see it?
In this blog post, I give you some examples of jewelry treasures that are found and jewelry treasures that still are hidden somewhere. And… how you can find your jewelry treasure!.
All fairy tales begin with these words and when my grandmother started with these words while reading a bedtime story, we knew that a big adventure was coming up.
I’ll bet that the most famous story about the jewelry treasure is the fairytale about the pot of gold. Remember?
Fairies owned a large pot of gold, but they were not strong enough to guard this jewelry treasure including a lot of gold coins. Their friends, the leprechauns or gnomes, offered to guard this jewelry treasure and in return, the fairies gave them the power to become invisible.
The leprechauns found a very good hiding place for the pot of gold or the jewelry treasure. They hid it at the end of the rainbow. Everyone knows that the end of the rainbow cannot be reached, because the rainbow is an optical phenomenon that moves with the observer.
The end of the rainbow is the symbol of an inaccessible place, an ideal spot to hide a jewelry treasure.
King John of England was a resentful and corrupt king. One of the other nasty things in his character was to show off his wealth, especially with his royal jewelry. They were important to him and they traveled with him in a large wagon.
In 1216 he traveled from Lincolnshire to Norfolk and had to pass the river East-Anglia, only possible with low tide. His horses were not fast enough and were swallowed up by the floods. King John died a week later and his royal jewelry or jewelry treasure was never seen again.
In Oktober 1307 in the middle of the night, all the treasures of the Order of the Templars were stacked on wagons and later shipped on a fleet that vanished in the Gulf of Biscay a few days later.
Even now people are searching for this enormous treasure, also called the Holy Grail. But there is no proof that this story is true. The facts are that the Order of the Templars was rich, very rich. And because the Pope labeled them as a charity organization, they got gifts from very wealthy people, trying to pay off their sins.
The Templars acted like a kind of bank for the European kings. The French King Phillip IV accused them of heresy and prosecuted them, trying to lose his loans and take the treasure. But when he opened their safe, nearly anything was there. All the treasures were shipped in time, and… vanished forever. And maybe this is a fairytale too.
In the second half of the 17th century, pirates roamed the seas looking for pots of gold and jewelry treasure now and then. In those days the VOC (Dutch Trade Company) was very powerful and wealthy, getting spices in the Far East and shipping them to Europe. Other companies transported the gold and gemstones stolen by the Spanish and Portuguese Kings to Europe.
You might say that these ships were ideal targets to hijack. A lot of adventurers wanting to make fast money hired or steeled themselves a ship and chased those vessels. When the royal vessels or the ships of the VOC were not protected by the marines, the pirates found them easy prey. And a lot of gold and jewelry treasure exchanged ownership.
But what to do with all these treasures? Especially when you wanted to continue your robbing journey. Well, the easiest way was to hide the jewelry treasure in a desolate place, preferably an island. And to find that spot again, treasure maps were made. Since this occupation is dangerous, some of the hidden jewelry treasures are never found. People having such a map have been looking for jewelry treasure or pots of gold ever since. (Read ‘Treasure Island’ by Robert Louis Stevenson or watch the movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’).
Between 1885 and 1917 the famous jeweler Fabergé made 52 ‘imperial eggs’ as a gift for the wife and mother of the Russian Tsar. The eggs were decorated with gemstones, precious metals, and watch technology.
In 1918, during the Russian Revolution, all the jewelry and also Fabergé eggs were robbed by the Bolsheviks. Some members of the royal family and court could run with some of the eggs, but most of them were brought to the Kremlin and sold.
Now and then a Fabergé egg comes out, but still 8 of them are gone. And each of them is worth millions and millions of dollars. A real jewelry treasury to be found!
The gold rush in the USA can be called a true rush after pots of gold. In the late 19th century mining gold, or trying to find gold to mine, was an important economic factor. When you finally find the spot where you could mine gold, you have to be careful not to show your treasure to others.
There goes a story that one of the gold diggers, a German immigrant, found a large gold vein. To protect his income he never told someone where to find his ‘Lost Dutchman Mine’ (Germans were called ‘Dutchman’ in those days). After his death in 1981 treasure hunters are desperately looking for this ‘pot of gold’.
There are so many more stories and historical facts naming a hidden jewelry treasure or a pot of gold. And in the Netherlands, we find on a rather regular basis treasure of golden coins on our ground. It is getting easier with a metal detector. When you find anything you can keep about 10% and you get eternal fame when your find is important enough.
In June 2020 a medical student was lucky enough to find a real gold and jewelry treasure in the Rocky Mountains, hidden by a very rich man, who turned people from their television into nature. Here is the story.
Forrest Fenn, an ex-pilot in the USA army, started an art gallery and got very very rich trading Indian art artifacts. In 1988 he got cancer and there was not a great perspective of surviving this illness. He wanted to leave the world a treasure, a jewelry treasure. He filled a large wooden box with gold, gemstones, and diamonds and hid his jewelry treasure in the Rocky Mountains near Santa Fe.
In his will, he wrote a poem with hints about the location of his jewelry treasure. Also in some novels about his life people could find clues. Since 2010 thousands and thousands of people have looked for this mysterious jewelry treasure.
As I have gone alone in there
And with my treasures bold,
I can keep my secret where,
And hint of riches new and old.
Begin it where warm waters halt
And take it in the canyon down,
Not far, but too far to walk.
Put in below the home of Brown.
From there it’s no place for the meek,
The end is ever drawing nigh;
There’ll be no paddle up your creek,
Just heavy loads and water high.
If you’ve been wise and found the blaze,
Look quickly down, your quest to cease,
But tarry scant with marvel gaze,
Just take the chest and go in peace.
So why is it that I must go
And leave my trove for all to seek?
The answers I already know,
I’ve done it tired, and now I’m weak.
So hear me all and listen well,
Your effort will be worth the cold.
If you are brave and in the wood
I give you the title to the gold.
Forrest Fenn survived his cancer and wrote books including clues on how to find this jewelry treasure. He kept people going to look for it. Even some people died and the authorities asked him to stop, but the search kept going.
Then, finally, at the beginning of June 2020, 10 years after hiding his jewelry treasure a medical student found his pot of gold. Not at the foot of the rainbow, but in the Rocky Mountains under the starry sky.
Of course, you might go after the Holy Grail or buy a treasure map and try to find a jewelry treasure or your golden pot on an inhabitable island in the middle of the Pacific. But there is another way, that is much easier and more secure than you find your jewelry treasure.
There are two ways to find your jewelry treasure (forget about the pot of gold):
If you recognize this ‘type’ of jewelry, you have a jewelry treasure in your hands. No kidding, you can do a lot with these treasures.
The three ideas above will either give you a small pot of gold (selling the precious metal) or you have a piece of jewelry that you wear and is worth much more than when it is lying in your jewelry box.
If you want to know more about gemstones and their colors so that you have a better idea about the new piece of jewelry you want someone to design and make for you? Florencejewelshop wrote a PDF full of information about the colors of the gemstones. It’s free, just let me know where I can send it to.
Florence from FlorenceJewelshop
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