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Message:: [QUOTE="Ed Snible, post: 2971490, member: 82322"]Roman soldiers would often bury their fortunes before battle with the intent to dig them up later.  What would a dying centurion have imagined as the fate of their treasure if it was one day found? We actually know a bit about Roman law regarding treasure.  In 1902 the Numismatic Chronicle published a translation of M. Adrien Blanchet’s paper “Treasure-Trove, its Ancient and Modern Laws”.  It is worth reading!  Here is an excerpt: The old Roman right leaves us to understand that a citizen who unearthed a treasure, even on ground which belonged to him, should hand it over to the [Imperial treasury]. [2] .... Nerva, with his accustomed liberal spirit, surrendered his rights to a treasure found by Atticus, the father of the Sophist Herod, on his own lands. [4] Hadrian evidently realized the necessity of establishing some legislation on the subject of treasure trove….  The private individual became the full proprietor of treasure discovered on his own land; if, however, the treasure was found on the land of another person, the half of it went to the proprietor of the land, the finder retaining the other half.  The same division held good, if the find was made on lands belonging to the state. [5] Severus Alexander was somewhat less generous … treasures of importance … become the property of the State. [6] Under Constantine the Great, the public treasury insisted on its rights; and a law of A.D. 315 granted to the finder one-half of the treasure, when duly announced to the fiscus. The same text provides that no enquiry shall follow, if such declaration be made in proper form. [8] The paper goes on to talk about medieval law: In a mandate of Philip IV, dated 27th August, 1306, it is ordered that treasures without any distinction found on lands or in dwellings belonging to Jews shall be surrendered to the King. [18] Without going into detail, we may mention that in Denmark, according to the law of Valdemar I, [29] it is enacted that if anyone should find gold or silver in a field or on a hill or under his plough, it belongs to the King; and if he denies that he has found it, let him defend himself on oath before his kinsmen. In Italy the State possesses also the right of pre-emption, the application of which has greatly fostered the concealment of treasure-trove, as the proprietors are ware of the small indemnity offered by the State. In mediaeval times the law appears to have been different, at least at Padua; for in 1274 we learn "that a treasure of pure gold of supposed value of more than 30,000 livres was found in the garden of the Hospice of the Domus Dei at Padua, which was unfairly divided byeween the finders, the Bishop, and the State and its officials; a fourth part being, however, reserved for the Hospital, but subject to the conditions that it should be devoted towards its repair." The end of the article talks about law in Victorian Britain.  I am not sure if this part of the article was written by Blanchet or by the translator Herbert Grueber.  The author praises John Evans (the editor of the Numismatic Chronicle where this paper appears). In 1886 the discovery of a hoard of gold coins of Henry VI-VIII at Park Street, St. Albans, was the means of bringing about a further improvement in the conditions of recompense to finders of treasure-trove, and in this improvement was mainly due to the strenuous efforts made by our President, Sir John Evans. On that occasion our President pointed out to the Treasury that the system ... of giving the finders merely the intrinsic value of coins retained, whilst the Treasury received from the Trustees of the British Museum and other public institutions the archaeological or numismatic value of the coins, was a very injurious and unfair one.... Already in the country districts the cultivator of the soil is inclined to resent the interference of the State with his personal affairs; and I do not fear contradiction when I state that numerous finds of coins, jewelry, or other small objects of antiquity have been dispersed and even melted down before being studied, and that because the finder imagines that the State has an absolute right over all finds. This feeling is probably the result of the influence of the various customs ... which have been enumerated above. For numismatics in particular it is of the highest importance that the treasures should be preserved in the entirety and also that their provenance should be known.[/QUOTE]

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