More than $2 million in hidden treasure is up for grabs after an entrepreneur hid five chests full of loot and valuables across the United States — and left a book full of clues to help hunters find them.
Jon Collins-Black — who made a fortune in Bitcoin investing — spent the last few years assembling a cache of valuable items ranging from shipwreck-salvaged gold doubloons to rare Pokémon cards, all for the purpose of stashing them in secret locations for treasure hunters to unearth.
Collins-Black has paired the journey with a book of clues, “There’s Treasure Inside,” which is filled with puzzles and maps, and all the clues needed to discover the location of the treasure chests.
A selection of some of the gilded treasure stashed across the country in five chests, according to Collins-Black.treasureinside.com
The treasure includes gold and historical artifacts.Instagram / @joncollinsblack
“You don’t have to be a genius to solve the clues. There’s no grand cypher. If you have curiosity, imagination, and the willingness to try something new, you can find the treasures that I’ve hidden,” Collins-Black said.
Items secreted away in the chests were designed to appeal to a wide range of audiences, with the likes of sports-trading cards — like Michael Jordan’s 1986 rookie card — hidden in some, while gold and historical artifacts are inside others.
Some items include a diamond and sapphire brooch owned by Jacqueline Onassis, a fourth century BCE gold Greek laurel, a coin designed and minted by Pablo Picasso, and a rare specimen of lunar rock.
Among the treasure is also a single Bitcoin — which is currently worth nearly $100,000, and could well increase in price by the time its chest is found.
Jon Collins-Black made a fortune investing in Bitcoin, and devised his treasure hunt during the pandemic lockdown.Instagram / @joncollinsblack
The hunt includes a book of clues called “There’s Treasure Inside.”Instagram / @joncollinsblack
None of the chests are located in a dangerous location, Collins-Black has advised, and all are somewhere in the open — not buried.
Each is also within 3 miles of a public road, he’s said, while none are located on private property.
“I created this treasure hunt because I live for adventure,” Collins-Black said of the project, which he devised during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
“I hope to ignite that same sense of wonder and curiosity in everyone who joins this journey,” he added, according to WKRC.
None of the chests are located in a dangerous location, Collins-Black has advised, and all are somewhere in the open — not buried.Instagram / @joncollinsblack
Collins-Black is not the first eccentric millionaire to stash away a chest full of treasure and leave behind a riddle of clues.
Around 2010, New Mexico art dealer Forrest Fenn hid a chest of gold and jewels said to be worth about $2 million somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, and released a poem filled with clues that led to its location.
For a decade it remained undisturbed — and at least five people died searching for it — until Fenn suddenly announced it had been found in June 2020.
But Fenn never revealed the name of the finder, and his own death months later left many wondering whether the treasure had ever really been found after all.
