Recognise this classic car? That's because it's the same model that was driven by James Bond in the films On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Diamonds Are Forever. The 1972 Aston Martin DBS was discovered in a barn in Surrey, England, in February 2015 and went on to fetch $56,000 (£45k) at a Coys auction in London.

After overhearing a conversation among his colleagues, who were discussing some rare early-1900s Ty Cobb tobacco cards which had been discovered in the deep South, a Wisconsin police officer mentioned that he had a 1915 Cracker Jack poster kicking around at home. After a tip-off from a baseball card-collecting friend, the cop got in touch with the president of the Mile High Card Company, and ended up selling the poster to the auction company. In 2016, the poster was sold at auction for $61,000 (£49k).

In 2007, antiques dealer Jeff Bidelman of Rare Collectibles was asked to look through an abandoned house by the late daughter's owner, who heard rumours in her childhood that treasure was buried in a hole in the wall. It turned out the rumours were spot on. Bidelman discovered a haul of old coins worth a very respectable $200,000, the equivalent of $247,000 (£198.3k) in today's money.

Not only do these two rare Pontiac Firebirds date back to 1967, they were the first two of the classic cars ever to be made, used as a prototype so that the manufacturers could decide if they wanted to produce it. Found in a Connecticut barn in 2014 by Richard Rawlings, the host of Discovery Channel's Fast N'Loud, they were restored and sold for $650,000 (£521.8k).

Workers renovating a winery building in the Champagne region of France got the shock of their life in 2012 when they chanced upon 497 gold coins minted between 1851 and 1928 which were worth a total of $980,000 (£786.7k). In a surreal moment of discovery, the coins literally rained down through a hole in the rafters, drenching the astonished workers in gold. 

Ordinary people who stumbled upon extraordinary amounts of gold

Michael Rorrer was clearing out his late great aunt's home in Virginia when he stumbled upon a collection of 345 comics in the basement. The collection belonged to his late uncle Billy Wright, who had never told anyone about his hobby before his death in 1994. The carefully-arranged collection included rare comics such as Detective Comics No 27, the first comic to star Batman (pictured). Unsurprisingly, the rare magazines fetched a whopping $3.5 million (£2.8m) at auction in New York in 2012.

Do you own any of these valuable modern comics?

An unsuspecting French heir got a bigger inheritance than he'd bargained for in 2016, when the rickety house he'd inherited turned out to contain a huge stash of gold. The hoard, which had been there for around 70 years, was worth $3.8 million (£2.9m), and was distributed throughout various hiding places in the Normandy home. It consisted of 5,000 pieces, two bars and 37 ingots of gold.

The largest gold nuggets ever found

Between 1985 and 1988, workers in the Polish town of Środa Śląska uncovered a hoard of gold and silver coins and precious jewels during a renovation project on an abandoned telephone exchange. The treasure, which includes this medieval gold crown, was confiscated by the authorities. It was valued at a massive $100+ million in 2005, the equivalent of $131+ million (£105m) today.

These 'treasures' turned out to be worthless

This rusty sword, which dates back to between 600 and 800 BC, was found by farmer Ambrose Owens in 1965 on the banks of the Arney River in Northern Ireland. Not realizing its significance, Owens dumped it in his barn, where it remained for more than 50 years. Owens' brother Maurice rediscovered the artifact in July 2016, and had it appraised by experts – only to discover it was a priceless 2,600-year old artifact!

Now discover some amazingly valuable treasures that were bought for peanuts