The Archaeology Thread

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

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 it over pro bono and may be jailed if you don’t.   So the incentive exists to liquidate it into unrecognizable bullion.

Of course it depends on the country. But under Italian law (where the trove in question was found), turning it in entitles you to a finder’s fee of 25% of the value of the find.

But turning into bullion has risks. In ‘Roughing It’, Twain relates the instance of people salting a mine. They were melting silver half dollars and mixing the molten metal into crushed rubble. Just before the sale of the worthless mine was about to take place, the assayer found the letters ‘TED STATES’ on one of the samples.

Boru