Shilo;7062 wrote:Britain has a great law for "treasure hunters". Over there when you find something of historic importance you have to register it and allow the museums the opportunity of buying it from you for its market value. If no museums bid on it then it is yours to keep or sell privately. The landowner where the find was dug up gets a 50% (negotiable) of the proceeds.
Compared to our laws where anything over 90 years old belongs to the crown - even if it was dug up on private land. All this does is to put a stop on any finds being made known and sold on the quiet ("It really did belong to my great great grandfather!"). The historic society, museums, archaeologists etc all miss out on any opportunity for researching the find.
I did have a smile at your second paragraph as you are so correct - you did get it from your grandfather - as long as grandfather got it before the law came in to affect - I am unsure of when the law relating to 'historic' places, artifacts etc came into effect but it may have been about 1976 so that find you made last week was 'actually found' back in 1940 or thereabouts or even before - at least thats your story and stick to it.
Ironically enough as Simon, Eagle and others have said it is far better in Europe where you will generally get to retain what you found and what you found could be of real historical interest, Roman coins, Celtic coins or medieval coins, bronze age axe heads and crusader era swords - its all there, you can look for it with your detector and if a museum wants it then they have to pay its auction house value I understand so that you may not get to keep your find BUT you get its value and you dont get prosecuted either! You will only lose your find and risk prosecution if you beak the laws relating to Treasure Trove. Treasure Trove laws relate to England and Wales only and not to Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Treasure Trove dates back is common law from the reign of Henry II but can be traced back to 'Finders Keepers' - Anglo Saxon England. It affects Gold, Silver or Bullion which has been concealed - whether buried or hidden in an ancient building, cave etc - present law administered under the Coroners Act 1984. If the owner or his/her descendants cannot be traced - and it has to be decided if the Treasure was hidden with view to recovery or abandoned, then it is declared 'treasure Trove' and the finder is rewarded with its full value but if no institution or museum, National or Local does not want it then the find is returned to finder.
At this point it is noted that the finder gets it NOT the land owner - for this reason prior to allowing entry onto his/her land a land owner or occupier should come to an agreement with the detectorist over the division of spoils, finds etc in the event that any finds are made. often in England a detectorist and the land owner will make an agreement prior to the detectorist having access to hunt for coins etc
Some of the Treasure Trove finds in England over the last few years are real eye openers - most are coin hoards - eg In 1978 there was a hoard of 54,951 Roman bronze coins found, 1995 there were 256 Celtic Gold Staters found and these actually rewrote history, 1994 there were 5,099 English Civil War coins found, 1992 a Roman hoard of 565 Gold coins, 14,789 Sillver coins and 24 Bronze coins plus much more was found and every year it is estimated that 400,000 coins are found in England, most in hoards.
My reference is Seaby Coins of England and the UK.
The interesting irony in this country is the fact that if you have money then the worlds your oyster - in other words people like the owners of Macraes can tear up hundreds of acres of land including historic sites which can never be reinstated, the only benefit is a little employment for New Zealanders, some contracts and a 1% or 2% royalty on the gold and then the gold goes off shore...,and if you go and take a trailer load of gravel form the top of a tailings heap that is weather down in any case then you get into trouble.
