Road to becoming the wealthiest: Starting From Treasure Hunting in the Cabinets
Chapter 1475 - 705

Chapter 1475: 705

After everything was moved over, it was only when the fishing boat pulled up alongside the yacht that Douglas Cooper reluctantly handed over one thousand dollars to Big Head, who was eagerly waiting.

Big Head wet his fingers with saliva and counted the money, grinning as he pocketed it, then pointed at the bronze Buddha statue and copper coins and asked,

"These two items, worth money?"

Sean Knight ignored him and boarded the yacht.

Inside, Big Head felt resentful but didn’t show it on his face, and continued to collect stuff with his crew on the fishing boat.

"Boss, what’s the story with these two items?" Douglas asked, watching Big Head leave.

"This bronze Buddha statue, the stuff on its surface isn’t all rust, there’s also grime. Once it’s cleaned up, someone will likely take it off our hands, no problem fetching several tens of thousands of dollars for it."

Douglas glanced at it and nodded, then his gaze fell on the copper coins.

"Most of these are ordinary coins," explained Sean, "but if we find a rare one, we’ll be in luck."

He casually broke apart the coins that had rusted together, then started sorting through them one by one.

Douglas immediately went to fetch a screwdriver for Sean.

Sean took it and continued to clean on the deck.

In a short while, he had extracted a Yongle Era Coin.

Indeed, aside from some green rust, the condition was quite perfect. On the back were just the words "Three Coins."

He weighed it in his hand, about ten grams or so, pretty much matching the records.

This one it is!

"Boss, this coin... is it a rare piece?"

"Mhm. It’s a rare piece," Sean handed the copper coin to Douglas, "Look, currently, there are only two in the whole world!"

"Only two!" Douglas’s eyes bulged, "That scarce? Then this one... isn’t it a priceless treasure?"

"Not exactly, after all, it’s just a copper coin." Sean chuckled, "This coin, if someone likes to collect, the price might range from tens of thousands to several million. In the hands of an ordinary person, it’s probably worth at most a few thousand."

After all, those who know about these things are professionals, and even some of them might not be entirely clear.

There was once someone who found a gold coin coated in bronze patina at a coin stall, took it home for appraisal, and indeed, it was a golden coin. Then, they melted it to make earrings for their daughter-in-law.

Later they found out that the coin was a rare piece, and its market price was much higher than the same amount of gold!

They had found a bargain but not the full extent of it, as it was said that if it hadn’t been melted, it could have been exchanged for a house.

So, even some vendors might not know the real value of these items.

After Douglas examined it, he immediately returned it to Sean, "Boss, you better keep it. It’s too hot for me to handle!"

Sean laughed and put away the copper coin.

He didn’t have much of an interest in collections, it would depend on whether he could find someone fated to have it later.

"Then boss, is there anything else good in here?"

"I don’t know." Sean, fully in character, pried off the remaining tens of copper coins.

Then, he really did find some valuable ones, such as other Yongle Era Coins worth several hundred dollars, some Jiajing Era Coins worth even more, and some lesser-valued Wanli Era Coins.

These were worth much more than the currently popular Five Emperor’s Money, especially since early in the Qing dynasty, many coins from the Ming dynasty were destroyed, which resulted in many of the copper coins being found more commonly in Southeast Asia.

The circulation had been higher in this region, and even in Japan, there were tales of the so-called demon lord Oda Nobunaga placing Yongle Era Coins on his flag.

After prying off these coins, Sean cleaned them briefly and collected them up.

As he was prying and explaining, the team members listened by his side, then began to search through their own purchased lumps of copper coins, hoping to find a rare piece.

As nightfall approached, Blind Guess pulled over some more items, Sean, seeing Blind Guess’s hard work, offered a high price of three thousand dollars for them, though he estimated their value at around 100,000 dollars.

Of course, that’s if you find someone who knows their stuff. If he didn’t collect them himself, Blind Guess would have a hard time selling them at the port for more than 2,000 dollars.

Blind Guess was delighted and thanked him repeatedly. Sean guessed that these days, Blind Guess had probably made about 30,000 dollars from flipping items.

He noticed that Big Head’s boat seemed to have left the sea territory under cover of darkness.

Sean didn’t mind; one more or one less didn’t make much difference to him.

Another day passed, and the team members had already familiarly salvaged two-thirds of the worthwhile items from the nearby market district. The boat was also filled by more than half, which pleased Sean greatly.

Feeling inspired, he dived again, toured the Port District, and found a cargo ship half-filled with porcelain and half with raw silk—naturally, the silk had already completely rotted, but the porcelain was salvageable and thousands of pieces were recovered in fairly intact condition.

On his return, he swung by the Wealthy District, found two well-to-do homes, and from their money vaults buried under ruins, extracted several boxes of golden coins—a decent haul indeed.

Back on the yacht, as night was falling, Big Head captain came over with his fishing boat again.

"Boss, look, I’ve brought over some great stuff this time!"

Big Head was visibly excited and eager, and Sean detected a hint of cunning.

On the deck, there were prominently seven lumps of copper coins and various other items.

"Selling as a lot, all of these for 2,000 dollars, how about that?" Big Head seemed determined.

Clearly, he believed Sean would definitely take them.

Sean jumped onto the fishing boat and at a glance understood.

This Big Head, he’s truly a profiteer!

Of these seven lumps of copper coins, only two were salvaged from this sea; the remaining five were fakes!

Considering how earlier he had left the sea territory at night, Sean could guess that he had gone to fetch fake goods.

Not just the copper coins, but a few Buddha statues that looked rather new were fakes too!

This guy, he’s audacious as hell!

Sean was just about to react but then chuckled as his eyes swept over the two lumps of real copper coins.

This guy... he’s alright!

Such good items being offered, it would be a bit embarrassing not to accept them!

"One thousand dollars, I’ll take them!" Sean gestured, "Otherwise, just beat it!"

Big Head hesitated.

Actually, Sean was afraid he really might walk away!