“The fountain had stood in the town square for centuries, but only the pigeons knew its secret.”
— Flavor text from Magic: The Gathering's Fountain of Youth card
Back in the day - when London was pocked with workhouses and smothered in a green smog which could choke you dead on a bad night, or before that, even, when open sewers ran down the middle of the streets - the toshers were the outcasts and opportunists who picked over the ghastly mix and retrieved the coins and jewels lost by chance. Even today, it's amazing what people throw away: grandma's diamonds, fallen down inside their box and Auntie Brenda taken for a thief; rings of all descriptions, cast off in a passion or slipped from icy fingers on a cold day; money, of course; gold teeth; and on one occasion, Queen Tosh told the infant Joe at one of Matthew's parties, a bundle of bearer bonds with a combined value of nearly ten million pounds.
(looking through a 5-cent item box, finds a copy of the Declaration of Independence) Junk.
(finds a good-condition Action Comics No.1) Junk.
(finds a sheet of Inverted Jenny stamps) The airplane's upside down.
(finds an original Stradivarius violin) Stradi-WHO-vius?
— Homer Simpson, The Simpsons
Loki: What? Infinity Stones? How… How do you have these?
Casey: Oh, We actually get a lot of those. Yeah. Some of the guys use them as paperweights.
Casey: Oh, We actually get a lot of those. Yeah. Some of the guys use them as paperweights.
— Loki, "Glorious Purpose"
