[mysterio]

So the British government gets to steal the coin from the finder, right?

[BGHater]

Yeah, only if it’s ‘Treasure’. They don’t steal worthless stuff.

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

It’s not ‘stolen’ a reward is provided both to the landowner and the discoverer. I doubt it will be declared treasure trove though, because it isn’t unique. I detect the fact that you disapprove, but frankly, most people in this country, including collectors like me, agree with treasure trove laws because it gives a certain measure of protection from people who would otherwise destroy valuable archeological evidence of our heritage for a quick buck....

[Polybius]

So the British government gets to steal the coin from the finder, right?

No, not "steal".

The legal concept of "treasure trove" has been a part of English common law since the time of Edward the Confessor.

A treasure trove may broadly be defined as an amount of gold, silver, gemstones, money, jewellery, or any valuable collection found hidden underground or in places such as cellars or attics, where the treasure seems old enough for it to be presumed that the true owner is dead and the heirs undiscoverable. However, both the legal definition of what constitutes a treasure trove and its treatment under law varies considerably from country to country, and from era to era. ... It has been said that the concept of treasure trove in English law dates back to the time of Edward the Confessor .. Treasure trove had to be hidden with animus revocandi, that is, an intention to recover it later. If an object was simply lost or abandoned (for instance, scattered on the surface of the earth or in the sea), it either belonged to the first person who found it[12][15] or the landowner according to the law of finders, that is, legal principles concerning the finding of objects. For this reason, the objects found in 1939 at Sutton Hoo were determined not to be treasure trove – as the objects were part of a ship burial, there had been no intention to recover the buried objects subsequently.[16] The Crown had a prerogative right to treasure trove, and if the circumstances under which an object was found raised a prima facie presumption that it had been hidden, it belonged to the Crown unless someone else could show a better title to it.

Today, a finder fares much better. For almost a century, British law has provided for paying "the full antiquarian value of objects which had been retained for national or other institutions such as museums".

The finder gets his money.

The British people get to view their patrimony in a museum.

If a national museum does not want the object, the finder gets to keep it and can try to sell it on his own.