Record Hoard Of Ancient Gold Found In Field

Originally posted by ironorchid
An unemployed man has unearthed the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found with the help of his metal detector.

DAMN IT THAT FRUSTRATES ME! I have been saying for years to my girlfriend, we should invest in a metal detector, for fun and profit! NOW LOOK WHAT HAPPENED. If I had bought that metal detector, then somehow gone to England... THOSE WOULD BE MY DUBLOONS

Originally posted by PsykoOps
Let's hope that the guys receive a rewards worth it. I assume the ownership goes to the government automatically but they deserve a huge reward.

Awwwwww, that is even MORE FRUSTRATING. I'd rather that JERK got to keep his stupid GOLD instead of the Government just jacking it from him. Not cool. But I suppose they would, it's an ancient artifact. But there should be a policy, if you find gold, that you can sell the OLD ancient gold for an equal sum of newly minted gold! Because gold has been a world currency for a long time, and what is the point of treasure hunting if the government steals it from you?

I seen some of the pieces. The artwork is nice. I hope the guy that found it get's paid for it at least.

Originally posted by Mr Mask
Well the cash money is hardly the "only reward" to be had by this man.

Howard Carter went down in history and shall always be known by history and mankind for what he found.
............

.....Not really, within months most Brittish will forget this, and slowly, but surely this will be forgotten, not to mention that with the economic crisis which is getting worse soon enough people won't give a hoot about this, and will be preoccupied instead on finding money to buy food and pay the rent.

I am proud to be, or used to be, a metal detectorist/treasure hunter in my spare time, and I can tell you that usually people finding stuff like this MIGHT get a finder's fee, which is not really much, more so in the U.S., but they won't get the value of what they find if it is turned in to the government.

I have found coins, rings, and even some gold dust in the past, and if I could do it I would be out there trying to find more treasure, which despite the laughs of the ignorant fools who like to belittle anyone who is a treasure hunter, there is plenty of gold, and silver, as well as other relics to be found.

I used to look mainly in places that are not deemed "historical sites" or in "National Parks" because it is illegal. However, you do have to ask the wisdom of such measures when the government is not looking for these relics, and they will remain buried until the laws are stripped away, or will simply remain buried forever.

However, I also do understand why such laws exist to protect historical sites. I have visited many ghost towns, many which are historical sites, and I know that if there were no laws restricting this there are many people who don't care and just want money and will destroy historical sites.

Real treasure hunters do our best to leave the areas where we explore as if we had never been there.

One of the things the government could do to help Americans in this time of need is to have some restriction on treasure hunting, and gold/silver prospecting but not in a way that the person who finds such treasure just gets a pat on the back which is how things are right now with the laws on treasure hunting and gold/silver prospecting.

There should be some kind of licensing system, as it is done for hunters, and people who want to do MD, and or prospecting should know how to leave the area where they searched as if they were never there.

Oh, and with the "redistribution of wealth" that Democrats/Liberals in power want to implement I am certain there will be further restrictions for treasure hunting, and or gold/silver prospecting....

Democrats/Liberals in power want everyone else to be poor, and them to be the rich elite telling people how they should live, and what they can, and can't do, it is the beauty of "Socialism"....



[edit on 24-9-2009 by ElectricUniverse]

reply to post by novacs4me


Definetly a find of greater value than this!

This is very cool though.

Originally posted by maybereal11
reply to post by novacs4me

 

Definetly a find of greater value than this!

This is very cool though.

I put the sunrise picture in my photo album, which I guess everyone can see. It was such a spectacular sunrise, that even a lousy photographer like me could have gotten a good picture that morning.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/53b67affb2d5.jpg[/atsimg]



[edit on 24-9-2009 by novacs4me]

reply to post by Mr Mask


a legacy will not fill his belly, or pay his rent. While you are correct in the regards that he will go down in history as finding something special (an amateur archeologists dream), without money to buy food the legacy means squat. "Legacy" is just a feeble attempt by man to be what he cannot be: immortal.

Further, you believe that man has become something horrible because he would steal a priceless set of artifacts. Man hasn't "become" anything. Man is the same man he has always been, only with complications that are self imposed.

Consider the current global warming debate. People will go to war over this. People will die over it. Not today, but eventually. We can already see it, and we already have world leaders talking about it as a possibility. And, at the end of the day, it becomes a blame game. The weather changes, crops fail, and we (as humans) blame someone and then kill people. The Aztecs did it, the Easter Islanders did it...and we are reliving the drama.

Mankind has not become anything other than smug and forgetful. We have always had thieves among us (look at ancient Egypt). THe "good old days" never existed.

reply to post by ElectricUniverse


The man who found this and the farmer on whose land it was found will split the proceeds of the find after it has been valued. The experts at The British Museum (who are behaving like hysterical school girls on News interviews) estimate the final valuation could be anything between £1 and £5 million.

We won't forget this find. Preparations are already being made for a permanent display in Birmingham.

Originally posted by Raist
Belongs to the “crown”? Really so they planted it there and know it was there and were just waiting for someone to find it?

Without the people the “crown” has no power.

You're kind of missing the point entirely. It belongs to the "Crown" (not actually the Queen, but the Government) so that it cannot be taken out of the country and is retained. The finder and the landowner equally split the market value of the find, in this case several pounds of gold would be worth a 7 figure sum.

This has been explained to your on several occasions, yet you seem to be willfully ignorant in order to stamp your feet about hating "the State" and how the "crown" has no right. Actually, the "crown" has every right as it is the country.

Oh, by the way, the saying is "I couldn't care less", not "I could care less. Doh....

Wow phenomenal ignorance being displayed about the rights over Treasure Trove. What is this pathological "need" to believe that everything the government does is to screw "the people".........time to grow up folks.

Oh by the way: Treasure Trove has nothing to do with the government in the UK. It's the crown (the Queen). That said the government will stump up the money (OUR TAXES) to reward the finders, on behalf of the Crown, so that it ends up in a museum.

So all you paranoid anti government complainers: We the tax payers will be making that unemployed man and the owner of the land very very rich.

Treasure Trove: Gold, silver, jewels etc purposely hidden but whose original owner cannot be determined and thus belongs to the Crown (not the government!).

Sutton Hoo "treasure": NOT Treasure Trove since it was on a ship and thus it belonged to the finder and/or landowner.

Bottom line: If anyone finds a hoard in the UK they will be very wealthy!!!!!!!

I would keep at least a couple pieces of treasure and not tell anyone about it.

reply to post by malcr


For all purposes, their is no distinction between the Crown and Government. They are one and the same. The Government is Her Majesties Government and rules on her behalf.

You are quite right about Treasure Trove rules though.

Well, time to put some money in metal detector stocks.

This is very cool though, lets you realize there is so much out there, that is undiscovered.

I read about this on another site and looked at the pictures.

I think that this is a wonderful cultural find. I hope that it gets put in a museum so that all the people can enjoy this.

The craftsmanship is great. To me, when I see things like this, it brings history to life.

Originally posted by PsykoOps
Let's hope that the guys receive a rewards worth it. I assume the ownership goes to the government automatically but they deserve a huge reward.

Actually the govt. has called his hoard treasure, and under british law he is able to get at least half it's value and the govt. gets half.

reply to post by hoghead cheese


No, they don't. Do people not read threads anymore?

The finder gets 50% and the landowner gets 50%, paid by the Government. The Government keeps the relics for the benefit of the Nation.

[edit on 24/9/09 by stumason]

I hope a large museum e.g. the British Museum makes the new owners of thes priceless artifacts a good offer so that it might one day go on 'tour' - we here in the US are sadly misinformed about AngloSaxon England, and it would open up the imaginations of schoolchildren as well as adults to be able to see these wonderful art-craft pieces up close and personal.

Now to everyone in Staffordshire reading this: GO OUT AND GET A GOOD WORKING METAL DETECTOR and QUICK TOO---any field will do, but there has GOT TO BE MORE buried in the earth (just make sure you keep you batteries fresh !)

thats pretty cool, finding all that stuff.


I think the british way of doing it is pretty fair considering the historical legacy of the country.


Anything found here in the states belongs to the land owner, unless it is native american, maybe, its a grey area sometimes.



I think I might know where a "stash" is, from the local bandit Joaquin Murieta, who preyed on stages and others during the 1850's.

Joaquin Murieta

There is a hill that over looks both of the stage routes through the area, one to the east and one to the west.
Its a perfect ambush spot, the land is flat for miles and miles, aqnd any one on the hill could see the stages coming many miles away\, and thats just waht murieta did he waited on the hill for the butterfield stage on the east and the wells fargo on the west side.
There has long been a local legend that he hid what ever he took in this area on the hill so he wouldnt run the risk of getting caught with it as he transited the central valley.
There is a place on this hill where a huge piece of cliff overhanging a small cave area was blasted and sealed off the caves.

its probably not there but its a good hiding spot, maybe too good, i dont see anything other than a large modern operation removing the building sized piece of lava rock.

A side note to the murriets story, it is said that he wasnt captured and killed but escaped and lived out his life anonomously as a ferrier in the small fresno county town of huron, where he died in the early 20th cent.

I live in a farmhouse that was built in the 1830's. It has been added onto over the years and is surrounded by a subdivision...but everytime my wife leaves town I bust out the metal detector. There is so much burried in my yard it is frustrating. Old nails to fun stuff like old harmonica, saddle tack, wagon wheels, gun barrell even a police badge from the turn of the century...

But my wife just gives me that look when she see the dead grass where I delicately put the sod back into place hoping she doesn't notice.

The thing is I keep thinking that folks rarely used banks back then. They often would bury their money near the house....and if they passed without retrieving it or notifying anyone...well I know I am dreaming, but I still bust out the metal detector and dig up our yard whenever the wife is out of town

reply to post by stumason


They'll probably lose them on the train.

What usually happens when finds like this are uncovered is, I think if more than 3 metal objects are found together, any metal, it has to be reported, a local Archaeologist will examine the find, also the local coroner, who then decides if they should hold an inquest, and then inform the State, if it is deemed of historical value it becomes treasure trove, if it looks like it was hidden to be recovered and if deemed so by the Crown, which means it is taken by the state on behalf of the Crown, then there is a committee of experts who value the find, and then a price is decided and split between the owner of the land, and the finder, 50/50, the price is determined on it's true value.

If however the find is part of a burial site, then the treasure trove should not apply, because there is evidence that it was not meant to be recovered, and in those cases if I remember right, the artefacts are returned to the finder

Not reporting it can lead to time in prison, and taken seriously, not revealing the find has been the downfall of many people who have found artefacts, plus where can you sell so much gold without raising an eyebrow? the guy who found it himself today said he was glad to see the back of it, he said the burden was too much, he had 7 boxes full, the Archaeologist who came to examine it was speechless looking through the first box, and didn't realise there where 7 boxes in all.

From what I found out today, the finder and the owner of the land will split between £1 million and £9 million, with early estimates leaning more towards the higher end.

The find site is secret and guarded, and finds are still coming out of the ground, all be it not in huge amounts any more, there are places like this all over Britain that have yet to be found, they seem to pop up every year or two since more and more people got into metal detectors.

It took the finder 5 days to gather what he could, could you imagine keeping that quiet for that long? I would have gone NUTZ.