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[ And it would not have mattered if it was their own land... They would still have had to report it, and then the British government gets to decide what it’s worth, pay them that amount, and take the coins away. ]

I wonder how many gold coins were melted down because the government policy scared the people who found them to just melt them down and sell the gold instead of reporting them.

Stuipid liberal unintended consequences...

The actual law should be “Finder keepers” and the government just takes pictures and mold for a museum, pays the finder a historical finder fee .ie the molding of them. and also offers to buy them and if the finder says no, the finder keeps them.

Instead unintentionally private citizens are incentivized to destroy history to prevent shit like this article happening to them.

In the UK, proceeds from sale to a museum are split with the landowner and his tenants and the finder. Which usually results in way more return than melting down a coin.

“Technically, all hidden treasure found in the UK belongs to the Crown. The rights and legal obligations of the finders and landowners are covered by the Treasure Act of 1996. The law is different in Scotland, which still uses the older treasure trove common law rules...In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, finds must be reported to the Coroner within 14 days...The finder of treasure has no legal right to any payment at all....”