Hoard Finders Go To Jail For Not Reporting Find

(Item in yesterday's newspaper)

Reprinted from The Sunday Mail 24/11/2019

 

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Some of the stuff they tried to get away with:

 

Yes, and serves them right. They have destroyed the historical context of the hoard. Sadly, my fellow Americans have been busy on the Yahoo comment board lambasting the British government for having the treasure law in place. They go on with things such as "finder's keepers" and feel no need to report such findings. The level of ignorance and arrogance on there about this loss is astounding.

Well, I will say it is quite a contrast to metal detecting in the states, wherein you're likely to just find an isolated coin here and there. The exception is with shipwreck coins, of which those deal more with the sea and even those are quite modern by comparison.

 

If they had declared it they would have become wealthy men.
British treasure laws are the fairest in the world, designed to encourage disclosure of finds so as to record history.
They would have a got a share of the market value or got to keep the stuff.

More disturbing is they got a heavier sentence than two immigrant rapists.

 

My understanding is that they did not have permission to search where they found the treasure. If they took the find to the proper British ministry, would they have been able to share in the find?

 

That's the saddest part.

 

you need permission from the land owner and report the find

 

The treasure laws are what we should be lobbying for everywhere, rather than opposing. It really is the best of both worlds. There’s no scenario, however, in which it is okay to trespass on someone else’s land, take these things, then sell them. Theft, plain and simple.

 

Being an American, my initial instinct is, “finders, keepers.” Trying to be a good American, I follow the Law. These clowns should have done the same.

 

I agree they should have obtained permission from the landowner and followed the law; however, I do believe the punishment should fit the crime. Thieves do not get any sympathy from me, but to receive prison sentences equal to or worse than a rapist seems illogical to me.

 

Perhaps the rapists should get harsher sentences.

 

Good to see everybody has their priorities straight.

 

I agree with you.

Anyone who thinks finders/keepers applies to historical and archeological artifacts in the US is mistaken unless they own the land of the find ... even on your own land there are exceptions.

Laws start with ARPA (Archeological Resources Protection Act of 1979) for Federal and Indian owned or controlled lands. Numerous state laws pertain to state-owned land and some to privately owned land. On privately owned land, artifacts belong to the owner except in some cases, they belong to the government or former owners of the artifacts or their descendants or their insurers.

Some websites on the topic:

www.arrowheads.com.

www.justice.gov/usao/file/834826/download

Cal

 

Thankfully it wasn't the blokes from the British TV show "the detectorists"! That show was funny!

 

So you think they deserved more time than 2 rapists?

 

No. I was being sarcastic.

 

Sorry I misunderstood you.

 

Easy to do on line.

 

You may see those on a Yahoo message board but who made those comments? Have you ever seen a negative comment about the British system's law on Coin Talk or other Numismatic chat room? I never have.

 

I'd say just your everyday run-of-the-mill yokels who are devoid of any critical thought about the matter made those comments on the Yahoo comment board. I don't believe I have, no. And that is because those on here or other collector-type venues tend to have a greater understanding of history and context about this kind of thing than your average uncultured hack who just sees or thinks of things on a denotative (surface) level.

Regarding the rapists and who gets how much time for what, large sentencing imbalances exist for many crimes just the same in the U.K. as they do in the states. For example, a woman in Texas was given a five-year sentence for unintentional voter fraud yet in the same state a guy kills four people from driving drunk and gets sentenced to less than two years.

Specific to the sentences of the rapists and the treasure thieves, I will say that the sentences for both crimes are too light. The treasure thieves' sentences are too light for destroying history for the rest of time for future generations and the rapists' sentences too light for the abhorrent violation of another.