Am I misremembering my experience with Thief Gold a few years ago or did you used to see loot icons of what came out of chests when you looted them? I only get the sound effect (generic money gain sound or the sound of an item gain IE a set of arrows or potion) but i don't see the image of the item looted which i may not remember right used to show the image blown up just a touch in the bottom middle of the screen and go away? E.G. you'd see a larger than Item menu sized coins for a short second when you looted a chest of coins?

Just wondering.

Sounds like auto-equip is off. Go to options->Game, switch that on, then you should see loot notifications again.