History Channel joins search for lost Confederate treasure ( Danville Va) Part 2

[Skelly607]

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Who would own the lost Confederate treasure?

The legend is well known, but what would happen if it were actually found?

As a History Channel crew wraps-up its three-day search for a lost Confederate treasure rumored to be Danville, it brings up a timeless question, who does it belong to? The finder? The landowner? The federal government? All have a valid claim.

History was in Danville exploring the local rumor that the retreating Confederates left a sizeable chunk of their national treasury in the Green Hill cemetery.

Legend has it that as Jefferson Davis and the bulk of the Confederate government fled Richmond in 1865 for Danville, they took most of the nation’s treasury with them, a sum of about $500,000. When the government was forced to move again, the treasury was taken with them, but when it was inventoried again in Greensboro, it only totaled about $330,000.

Since then the missing items have been the subject of speculation and research, much of it centered in Danville where the treasury was last seen in its entirety. To this day, no significant finds have been made

According to City Attorney Clarke Whitfield, any loot found would belong to the federal government, even if it were on private or municipal land.

“My understanding is that Confederate treasure belonged to an enemy of the United States, therefore all the money would go to the federal government,” he said.

If the material found were not identifiable as belonging to the Confederacy, then it would most likely go to whoever found it, according to a paper by coin expert and attorney John Kleeberg in “The Law and Practice Regarding Coin Finds: Treasure Trove Law in the United States.”

According to Kleeberg, most courts in the U.S. recognize any treasure trove finds as the property of the finder, as long as the finder was not trespassing.

A treasure trove is defined as gold or silver, either in coin or bullion form, plus paper money. The stash must also be several decades old. Both are qualifications fitting the prospective treasure in Danville

For now, the debate will have to wait, because the History crew is tight-lipped and bound by a confidentiality agreement about their findings.

Doane is a staff writer for the Danville Register & Bee.

[Rebel - KGC]

HIGH-TEST Coffee! MY guess is that it would be BRIT or FRENCH "Silver/Gold" coins being returned, since they were "loans" to the CSA. OR... stolen MEXICAN Gold coins from the MEXICAN TREASURY from the war with Mexico (@ 1848 or so...). The FEDS would probably take it all; IF... taken from a cemetery, FEDS, STATE, and LOCAL (Danville, Va.) would take it all... AND! Yer MD equipment, etc, We have a BIG CSA cemetery, up here in Lynchburg, Va.; the BEALE TREASURE is rumored to be buried in this OLD cemetery (OLD CITY CEMETERY). and I think they are "connected".
Old "Jube" (Early) returned here after the CW, to "practice" LAW; retired here & died... buried in ANOTHER "local" cemetery. I think he met KGC up in PA, during the CW, and I think there is a CSA/Beale Treasure/KGC "connection", here in Lynchburg, Va.