RE: The Archaeology Thread
June 16, 2022 at 11:06 am
(This post was last modified: June 16, 2022 at 11:12 am by Anomalocaris.)
(June 16, 2022 at 6:50 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote:(June 4, 2022 at 7:09 am)Fake Messiah Wrote: Because it's easier and legal to sell them like gold. I mean, I am talking about a scenario if a regular Joe finds it in his garden.
Actually, it’s easier and just as legal to hand them over to your department of antiquities (or local equivalent) and claim the reward. Probably more profitable as well.
Say you find a pound of first century Roman gold coins in excellent condition. The bullion value of the coins would be in the neighborhood of $US30 000. It’s not inconceivable that the collector’s value would be about a million. Even with a paltry 10% finder’s fee, you’d triple your money not have to go through all that tedious melting. Not to mention the risk of getting caught and jailed.
Boru
It depends on the country. In many countries you are required to turn over archeological finds pro bono and can be legally punished if you don’t. In others corruption in different levels of government means the typical finder has little chance of seeing much of the nominal reward. So the incentive exists to liquidate precious metal archeological finds into unrecognizable bullion if possible. I would not be surprised if most of the world’s precious metal archeological finds each year that was not uncovered by professional archeologists ended up as bullions.