Detecting In India? The gold must fall like leaves in Autumn

[Tador]

Has anyone ever been to India for metal detecting or know someone who has? Is it legal to detect in India? I always knew that Indians love gold and that their gold is often 22k+ but I had no idea about the lengths they go to to acquire the yellow. Check out this article:
India's Love of Gold

There must be boatloads of gold in India's beaches and rivers. Funny thing is I haven't seen any talk of India in the forums and a google search on metal detecting and India doesn't bring up much.

Picture of bathing in the Ganga River...who's going?

[Ads]

TreasureNet.com is the premier Treasure Hunting Forum on the internet. Registered Users do not see these ads. Please Register - It's Free!

[everex5]

Metal detecting Hobby in India

Read that thread.

[search and recovery]

Ok. Sign me up!...Hey, you're not another one of those metal detector salesmen in India are you?

[dewcon4414]

I highly encourage a take an India couple to the beach day Mr. President. Better yet lets encourage more weddings on the beach..... bbbbbling.

Dew

[lorraine]

Thank you for the information regarding detecting ( not) on beaches in India.

In the area where I live, there is a large Indian population, and I have found some Indian gold ( one child's ring; one adult ring) at the beaches . and some brass religious items.


I have attached two pics of jewelry which was given to me by Indian friends.

None of these pieces are gold or silver, but I can only imagine what they would look like if made of silver and gold.

I wear these pieces of jewelry only for special Holiday parties like New Year's Eve, or to Indian Cultural events such as Diwili ( Oct-Nov festival), or to my Indian friends' home gatherings.


Here's a couple of pics of the Indian jewelry gifts given to me. Wouldn't they be great beach finds if they were made of gold and silver!


Lorraine

[Smoogle]

and the amazing thing is... even people who live in poverty wear a gold wedding band, also have you seen how they bash gold so thin into gold leaf sheets - most of the world's second rate diamonds / gemstones go there / or Thailand to be cut, yep I'm on that plane with you - we could all have a curry - but "DON'T DRINK THE WATER" - just detect in it.

[hamiddetecting]

The first people in the world for the consumption of gold.

[leprechaun]

Great looking jewlery lorraine,you have very nice friends that think very highly of you.

[lorraine]

Thank you, Leprechaun for the kind words.

Yes, my Indian friends are warm, friendly , kind people.


L

[bingbong]

do you think they would let you go there and let themselves be upstaged whilst you help yourself ? no chance

[Tador]

do you think they would let you go there and let themselves be upstaged whilst you help yourself ? no chance

I don't think so at all..nor do I have any plans to actually travel to India. Everex5's reply was very informative. Apparently anything dug up in India automatically belongs to the state. metal detecting is not big there because people can't legally keep what they find.

[Tador]

Wow Lorraine. Thanks for sharing!

[Tom_in_CA]

I read all the replies on this thread so far, including the link that everex5 gives. Basically it seems that someone's gone into the minutia of fed. level laws there, and determined that any resource in the ground, belongs to the govt. But ..... isn't anyone hear realizing that the same can be said of Mexico? And the same can be said of England? Yet as we all know, detecting goes on in these places. Detectors are a common site on Mexican tourist beaches. But sure enough, if you ask enough questions, of enough border lawyer consulates there, sure, you might come up with something about how Mexico owns the resources under the ground (hence, for example, if you ever discovered oil on your own land, it belongs to the govt, not you. Or in England, same thing: items under the soil belong to the "crown", not you). Yet in England you can hunt private land (farmers fields, since those are not public lands) till you're blue in the face, and only need to give caches or unique things for the archie's to assess, as they don't care about individual coins. Same for Mexico: the laws are *realistically* only applied to the Mel Fisher type salvor things, or trying to export gold bars out of the country that you "found" in the pyramaids, etc.... Ie.: casual beach-combing has never been looped into the same "govt. owns the resources" type verbage (unless you kept asking long enough and hard enough, I suppose).

And also, the same conclusions as this India thread have been reached about many European countries, when people read "dire sounding" verbage. For example, here's a link someone developed, years ago, about various European countries laws:


Law

Notice how nearly every single one of these, as dire sounding as it/they may be, continues to float words like "archaeological", "historical" and "antiquities". And with origination dates that pre-date detectors (at least for their origin). And thus in actual practice, modern coins, modern fumble fingers jewelry, etc.... may simply not be in the intended and practiced intent of those laws.

Yet even in some of those "dire sounding" countries, there are hobbyists. Even clubs and dealers, etc....

The reason is, I think it would be a little like if someone from Europe were getting ready to vacation in the USA, if he were to ask enough questions, of enough federal archaeological lawyers here. He also might come away with the same impression that you "can't detect in the United States". Why? Because perhaps he reads ARPA. Perhaps he reads scary stories of certain state's parks. Perhaps he reads of Mel Fisher's legal woes, etc... I mean, if you couch answers in terms of Shiloh, Ghettysburg, etc.... (and some people even believe federal and state level laws subrograte down to county and city level afterall!), you could also come away with the impression that doom and gloom await you in the USA too. Such as been the experience of some folks getting ready to vacation to Mexico. They inquire ahead, and get a "no". Because perhaps whomever they asked is couching the answer in terms of export laws, raiding the pyramaids, shipwreck salvor stuff, "resources in the ground" laws, and so forth. So the md'r leaves the detector at home. Imagine the md'rs surprise, when they arrive at their Mexican beach resort, only to see other md'rs plying the beach. Hmmmm.

About 7 or 8 years ago, I had a detector for sale on ebay. The winning bidder was from one of those countries on the European list, with "dire sounding" wording. He was willing to pay the extra cost for cross-country shipping, so I went ahead and did the deal with this winning bidder. But my curiosity got the better of me, so I emailed him, sent him that link to Europe, and said "I thought metal detecting there was illegal?" He emailed back that verbage such as that, only applies to the federal level lands. So they hunt private farmer's fields, to their heart's contents (something that the link to the laws doesn't go into details about). Or .... he said ........ quite frankly ..... they're hunting so far out in the forests that there's no one around to "care" anyhow.