--- title: Pirate Treasure: Family Finds Box in Attic description: They now wonder whether their ancestor was a pirate canonical: https://time.com/3840815/pirate-treasure-attic/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-29T20:18:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:19:17.248Z og:title: Box Unearthed in Family’s Attic May Contain Pirate Treasure og:description: They now wonder whether their ancestor was a pirate og:url: https://time.com/3840815/pirate-treasure-attic/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Box Unearthed in Family’s Attic May Contain Pirate Treasure twitter:description: They now wonder whether their ancestor was a pirate twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Box Unearthed in Family’s Attic May Contain Pirate Treasure by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Apr 29, 2015 8:18 PM UTC by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Apr 29, 2015 8:18 PM UTC A Florida family was [shocked](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/04/29/tampa-family-pirate-treasure-attick/26562501/) to find a box of treasure in their attic during what seems to be a very profitable spring cleaning session. “Maybe my great-grandparents were pirates,” one member of the Lopez family said, according to _USA Today_. The collection included 18th-century coins, a map, a family photo, and…a human hand wearing a ring. Experts have described the findings as “authentic.” \[[_USA Today_](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/04/29/tampa-family-pirate-treasure-attick/26562501/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3840815/pirate-treasure-attic/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3840815/pirate-treasure-attic/"},"headline":"Box Unearthed in Family’s Attic May Contain Pirate Treasure","datePublished":"2015-04-29T20:18:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:19:17.248Z","description":"They now wonder whether their ancestor was a pirate","url":"https://time.com/3840815/pirate-treasure-attic/","keywords":["Newsfeed","pirates","Bizarre","Florida"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3840815/pirate-treasure-attic/","name":"Box Unearthed in Family’s Attic May Contain Pirate Treasure"}}]}] ```