Posted on 11/24/2019 10:44:51 AM PST by lowbridge
Two amateur treasure hunters were sentenced Friday to lengthy prison terms for stealing millions of dollars worth of 1,100-year-old coins. The coins date back to the period when the Anglo-Saxons were battling Vikings for control of England.
British metal detectorists George Powell, 38, and Layton Davies, 51, dug up the 300 coins along with gold and silver jewelry in 2015 on farmland in central England but never reported it. That reporting is a legal requirement.
Prosecutor Kevin Hegarty said the coins were estimated to be worth $3.9 million to $15.4 million.
The archaeological wonders are believed to have been buried by a member of the Viking army that was being pushed across England by Saxon forces.
It “represents a nationally important assemblage created at the very point England was forming and becoming a nation with a single identity under the vision of (King) Alfred the Grea,” Hegarty said.
In a Worcester Crown Court, Powell was sentenced to 10 years for the theft and Davis was given more than eight years.
Judge Nicholas Cartwright said had the pair reported the find, they would have received a third to half of its value.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
As far as the crown is concerned, finders no keepers.
[ British metal detectorists George Powell, 38, and Layton Davies, 51, dug up the 300 coins along with gold and silver jewelry in 2015 on farmland in central England but never reported it. That reporting is a legal requirement. ]
This makes me glad that we left the stupid UK.
Sadly we also have the same sort of dipshit laws like this that prohibit full dominion over our own privately owned lands.
Unfortunately there are a significant number of government employees within the Department of the Interior that agree with what Britain does with metal detector enthusiasts.
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.
A rapist wouldn’t have received that sentence.
“Both men instead tried selling the coins through antique dealers. Some of the jewelry and some 30 coins have been recovered.”
Idiots. They deserve to be caught.
heh heh heh heh...
[ 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.
[ “Both men instead tried selling the coins through antique dealers. Some of the jewelry and some 30 coins have been recovered.”
Idiots. They deserve to be caught. ]
If I were on that jury I would use jury nullification to destroy that asinine law that incentivizes secrecy over finds and punishment of people finding stuff by letting the government take it away without negotiated rights.
Finding buried coins, who no living person could possibly claim, is theft.
Monarchies suck.
Pretty sure jury nullification doesn’t work in the UK.
At least in Europe they share. In the US the Feds will swoop in and take it all. You get zip. Thats why you almost never hear of gold/silver caches being dug up here.
The first rule of treasure hunting club is don’t talk about treasure hunting club.
There is no such thing. What we have is a huge security deposit followed by yearly rent to the government owner in the hidden form of property taxes. We own nothing.
The stiff sentences for people who are not a threat to the public safety, are to deter others. But that’s more like tyranny, than justice.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.