13 Extremely Rare Historical Artifacts Discovered In Pawn Shops

Carlos Saavedra Lamas of Argentina was the first ever Latin American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize when he was awarded the prestigious medal in 1936 for his role in brokering peace between Paraguay and Bolivia and ending the Chaco War. The medal no doubt held a place of honor in Lamas's home during his life, but it "fell into darkness" following his death.

The rare historical medal was considered lost forever until an American collector heard that it was up for sale in a South American pawn shop. The shop owner had purchased the medal for its value in gold bullion – a 23-karat medal weighs 222.4 grams and was worth more than $9,000 at the time – but knew that it was worth more for its historical value and saved it from being melted down.

Ute Wartenberg, executive director of the American Numismatic Society, called the find "an incredible rarity" and said, "I can't think of many public collections that have a Nobel Prize, never mind a Nobel Peace Prize medal."

Construction work is a difficult job with few perks. Long hours and body aches are about the most that can be expected, especially for workers in London in 1912. It's not too surprising then that when a crew with pickaxes demolishing a tenement house near St. Paul's Cathedral found a box filled with gold, silver, precious stones, and jewelry, they didn't think twice about stuffing their pockets with the loot. After work, the crew took their stash to a local pawn shop owner named George Fabian Lawrence to unload the booty.

As it turns out, Lawrence happened to also be the inspector of excavations for the London Museum, and he recognized the hoard of 400 items as rare and valuable artifacts dating to the late-16th and early-17th centuries. Among the gold, diamonds, and other jewels, was an emerald-studded salamander, a bejeweled perfume bottle, and a Swiss watch set in a giant piece of Columbian emerald. The items, now called the Cheapside Hoard, are still on display at the Museum of London and considered quite "unique in the world."

To honor John F. Kennedy on his inauguration day, Milton Berle had Alfred Dunhill of London create a unique walnut box for the future president, complete with a small plaque that reads: "To J.F.K. Good Health--Good Smoking. Milton Berle, 1/20/61." The box cost Berle between $800 and $1,000 at the time, which would be nearly $8,000 today.

The humidor was kept on Kennedy's desk in the Oval Office during his time as President and somehow ended up in the hands of a private collector after his death. The humidor was sold to a pawn shop in Las Vegas for $60,000, which was well below the seller's asking price. The seller got an even worse deal than he thought, however, because the humidor was auctioned off at Sotheby's for $575,000 in 1996 and is now in the collection of the publisher of Cigar Aficionado magazine. 

Though he apparently thought of himself as an "Indiana Jones type," the FBI did not have the same opinion of John Shaw, a former teacher and pawn shop owner who smuggled countless pieces of pre-Columbian pottery and gold out of Panama during the 1980s. At the time, Shaw was teaching at a US military base in Panama and used his off time to unearth extremely rare and culturally significant items from an unknown site with his Panamanian wife, Fatima.

Back in the States, Shaw and Fatima sold items at their pawn shop in Klamath Falls, OR, at flea markets, and on the Internet. Despite Shaw's tendency to boast, no one discovered the smuggled loot until years after Shaw's death, when Fatima gave most of the items to an ex-boyfriend as collateral for a loan. The ex-boyfriend contacted the FBI, and Fatima handed over the stash without incident.

In a 2009 ceremony at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, the US government formally handed over the artifacts to the Panamanian government. Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, manager of the FBI's art-theft program, commented on Shaw's boasts, saying, "[this] is not an Indiana Jones story. The theft strips Panamanians of their cultural heritage."

For nearly a century, curators of the Wyoming State Museum were searching for a World War I-era German gas mask originally owned by US Army Sgt. Robert O. Pennewell, who donated the item to the museum. The gas mask went missing almost immediately upon being added to the museum's collection, along with several other items that disappeared while they were either on display or in storage in the building in the 1920s.

Thanks to the Internet, officials were finally able to track down the stolen object when a pawn shop owner from Rapid City, South Dakota, listed it for sale on eBay. Chris Johnson, the owner of the shop, acquired the gas mask from a man who had apparently owned it for many years and valued it at $300.

Johnson said that he got a "sinking feeling" after finding out the item was stolen, but said that he was happy to donate the mask to the Cheyenne museum, adding that "you can't put a price tag" on doing the right thing like sending a historical object "back to the rightful owners."

Even the casual fan of reggae music knows the name Peter Tosh. For 11 years, from 1963-1974, Tosh was one of the core members of The Wailers, alongside Bunny Wailer and Bob Marley. Tosh eventually went solo, and his 1976 track, "Legalize It," became a marijuana legalization anthem that still resonates today. He was murdered in his home in 1987 and posthumously won the 1988 Grammy Award for Best Reggae Recording for his album No Nuclear War.

In 2016, Tosh's Grammy was found sitting in the storefront window of a Boston pawn shop. The priceless piece of music history had apparently been given as collateral on a loan by a Tosh family member. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences forbids the sale of Grammy Awards, so the pawn shop owner is hoping that the increased sale of items from curious fans taking selfies with the award will make up for any potential losses for receiving it.