Humanity has a strange talent for misplacing things. Keys. Wallets. Entire ships loaded with gold. Over the centuries we have managed to lose treasure hoards so vast that even today experts argue about how much they may be worth.
These are not small finds or forgotten trinkets. These are the kinds of luxury treasures that could make kingdoms rich, shift economies and instantly rewrite the meaning of expensive. Below is a ranked list of some of the most valuable lost fortunes still missing, measured by the mountain of wealth and money they might command if anyone ever finds them.
10. Yamashita’s Gold
Estimated value: £100 million
According to eyewitnesses and later testimonies, Japanese forces looted vast amounts of gold and gemstones in Asia during the Second World War. Much of it was reportedly hidden in the Philippines. The story is part history, part legend, and entirely unsolved.
9. The San Miguel Galleon
Estimated value: £150 million
A Spanish treasure ship lost in a hurricane in 1715. It carried tons of gold and silver ingots. The wreck has never been identified, although storms still wash up coins from the same fleet.
8. The Treasure of Lima
Estimated value: £200 million
During an uprising in 1820, priests attempted to move the wealth of Lima to Mexico for safekeeping. The captain in charge of the transport vanished with all of it. Rumours place the treasure on Cocos Island, but nothing has ever been confirmed.
7. The Flor de la Mar Treasure
Estimated value: £300 million
A Portuguese carrack carrying the spoils of the Malay conquest sank in 1511 near Sumatra. The amount of treasure on board was reportedly enormous, including gold, jewels and tribute. Nothing has been officially recovered.
6. The Amber Room
Estimated value: £400 million
A full room made of amber panels, gold leaf and precious stones, originally built in Prussia. The Nazis looted it during the Second World War. It disappeared during transport, never recovered, and remains one of the world’s most famous missing artifacts.
5. The Lost Inca Gold of Atahualpa
Estimated value: £1 billion
When the Inca Empire tried to ransom their captured emperor by offering rooms filled with gold and silver, the Spanish took the treasure and the emperor’s life. The hoard vanished into the Andes and has never been found.
4. The Merchant Royal
Estimated value: £1.2 billion
Nicknamed the El Dorado of the Seas, the Merchant Royal sank in 1641 near the Isles of Scilly while carrying an enormous shipment of treasure. Records list 100,000 pounds of gold, 400 silver bars and bags of gemstones. Its loss caused financial panic across Europe, and centuries later it remains one of the richest unrecovered wrecks in history. Countless expeditions have searched for it, but no confirmed discovery has ever been made.
3. The Treasure of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha
Estimated value: £1.4 billion
A Spanish galleon packed with gold, silver and emeralds, sunk off the Florida Keys in 1622. Some of it has been found, but the bulk of the treasure, believed to be worth more than a billion, is still waiting somewhere on the seabed.
2. El Dorado, the Lost City of Gold
Estimated value: £4 billion
The legend of a golden city in South America inspired centuries of doomed expeditions. Some stories describe walls made of gold, others tell of lakes filled with offerings of precious metals and jewels. While historians now believe El Dorado was more ceremony than city, the idea of unimaginable wealth hidden in the Amazon pushes this treasure into the top tier of lost riches. If even a fraction of the legend were true, its value would be staggering.
1. San José Galleon
Estimated value: £12 billion
The Spanish galleon San José sank off the coast of Colombia in 1708 during a naval battle. Loaded with gold, silver and emeralds from the colonies, it is widely regarded as the most valuable shipwreck ever recorded. The wreck has been located, but ownership battles and the depth of the site mean its treasure has never been recovered. If even a fraction of the cargo survives, it would dwarf every other known lost treasure.
