Sounds like he should have kept his mouth shut
Yup. Big brother will be there in a flash to claim the cash.
If I’m not mistaken, the United Kingdom has a law against keeping “his mouth shut”, and all archeological / historical finds must be turned over to the authorities for inspection and valuation.
However, the treasure hunter and land-owners are each given 50% of the items value after the artifact is inspected and valued.
Yeah, it would be nice if he were able to keep it, but unlike the US gubmint, the UK gives fair compensation to the person that finds the treasure. In the USA, the gubmint would just keep it and then send you tax bill for finging it.
This guy is not going home empty handed.
“Sounds like he should have kept his mouth shut”
In the US that is sound advice as our antiquity law says anything that is not on the top of the ground or just a few inches deep is treasure and belongs to the US govt. They will take it from you and you don’t get even a penny. Thats why you hardly ever hear about anything getting dug up.