Dear Lee,

You don’t have to search out-of-the-way places to find treasures. Sometimes they are in your own backyard. It pays to clean attics, basements, storage warehouses and even museum storerooms. Last year the bones of a previously unknown type of dinosaur were found on a museum shelf, where they had been misplaced for close to 90 years. A box of 18th-century coins was discovered in a library storage area near a stuffed crocodile. An unrecognized Bruegel painting was so dirty the signature couldn’t be seen until the owner took it to the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, to be cleaned. The museum bought the painting for $9.4 million. A leather jug made from the skin of Lord Cromwell’s horse passed from owner to owner to a bank. It was taken to the Antiques Roadshow and appraised for $45,000.

Colonel Sanders’ cookbook was discovered in the files at KFC and the company has decided to publish it (but not the renowned chicken flavoring). Many rare and valuable Chinese porcelains have been put into auctions for a few thousand dollars and sold for hundreds of thousands. One rare bowl was part of a group valued at $300 to $500. The group sold for over $370,000. Bottles from pre-Prohibition days were found when a woman remodeled her home. She gave them to the local historical society to be sold at its benefit auction. A Lalique hood ornament for a car was ignored by a New York auction house that wanted only the best things in an estate. A local firm sold the rest of the contents of the house. The ornament, shaped like a fox, sold for over $200,000. A 600-year-old German book printed soon after Gutenberg invented the printing press was damaged, pages were missing and it had been stored in a plastic bag in a hot attic for years. The owner was surprised at an appraisal day in Utah to learn it was worth $50,000. And sometimes a fortune is in your own backyard. A man in Vienna was digging a pond when he found hundreds of pieces of gold and silver jewelry that were 650 years old. The owner isn’t selling just yet.

All of these valuables were found in unexpected places with no special protection. If you are involved in an estate sale or are remodeling an old house, look everywhere for hidden treasures. We have seen money not only in the familiar “under the mattress” spot, but also tucked in the pages of books and hidden inside a lamp base. We’ve even come upon jewelry stitched into the hems of drapes and pillow cases. And don’t forget to look under rugs and in the freezer. But hardest to find is money hidden behind walls, often left until a new owner tears down drywall to remodel.

Enjoy the hunt while collecting,