And heirs might end up with mixed feelings after learning they went for years without knowing they someday would inherit a tidy sum.

WSJ: Can You Trust Your Kid With $5.25 Million?

Many of the original holders of the bonds, weary of waiting for a deal, have sold them to others for as little as 12 cents on the dollar, so the purchasers of these bonds stand to make a tidy sum.

ECONOMIST: Argentina's debt negotiations

They came from high-flying, high-priced studios, each promising to reinvigorate Forbes.com for the tidy sum of a million bucks or two.

FORBES: 400: How Reinvention Sprang From a Diner In Omaha and Library Full of Billionaires - Forbes