Stash of Coins Found at UK Site

Don't confuse finder with owner. The coins will belong to whoever owns the land. It will be the property developer or house owner. The finder merely gets the prestige of having their name on the treasure report, nothing more. It's a bit like me paying you to mow my lawn and whilst you are doing it you find a piece of jewellery in the flower bed. It's not your jewellery, it's mine. We never had an agreement which we both signed srating that anything you find whilst mowing my lawn is yours or ours to split. That's why, when I found my hoard of roman coins I had it in hand by having a signed agreement in place between the landowner and myself. As it transpired the landowner didn't want half and wanted me to keep the lot..... oh ok I said, thanks. !!

 

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Worse than speculation in my mind is that museums will buy the hoards to make a display like this one of the Warwickshire hoard of a thousand denarii 190 BC to AD 64.

Museum goers will enjoy seeing these coins piled up like this and many of you would not have coins of this grade in your collection because they are less than perfect. Others are not interested in late Republicans and early 12 Caesars material so the best thing that can happen to a find like this is for it to be piled up like this. Right?

YOC: Your last post contradicts the articles that says the hoard value would be split between the landowner and finder equally. You say the finder gets nothing. I know nothing of UK law but would wonder if the equipment operator who found the hoard while on the job moving earth might have had a contract giving rights to any find to his employer as a whole or in part. Things like this is why we have lawyers who will also get a share while figuring out who else gets a share. I suspect that running a piece of earth moving equipment in the UK is about as likely to make you rich as buying lottery tickets and guaranteed to bring out a passel of people with hopes for their share if you win. The first article posted on this thread relates how other workers on the site tried to muscle in on the find before the dust settled. If only the landowner got paid, I doubt they would have stopped to look. For that matter, the finder would likely have just kept on pushing dirt until the plot was smoothed and the coins were buried again.

 

I imagine that like most of the people in the UK they were not aware of the law and immediately thought 'finders keepers' which of course counts for nothing when on private land . The landowner may have decided to give the finder half, but would certainly not be bound to do so. Ownership of the hoard is the landowners alone, what he decides to do with it is his/her choice. They are not bound by a verbal promise either. I hadn't read the article so was unaware of the split reported to be happening and to be honest with the accuracy with which news is reported in the UK I would not be confident the papers had their facts right in any case..... especially the western daily press or any of its sister publications!

 

If any of us would know the laws it would be YOC since he actively deals with them with his metal detecting. From my limited knowledge he is correct. My girlfriend just went over this in law school last term and since her professor is an old British dude he talked about British cases. From my understanding, and hopefully YOC will correct me if I am wrong, if the item is 'embedded' on the property the ownership goes to the person who owns the land regardless if they are aware of the items existence. It is when the item is simple sitting on the surface that it gets a little bit more murky.

 

If I found 3000 denarii in any condition I would probably have a heart attack and keel over...