Basics of Treasure Trove ??? (barrel of gold)

[milkbandit]

Hi all,

Can someone give me a brief overview of treasure trove 'today' and how it would affect a hypothetical of, say, two boys find a huge barrel of gold coins from 200 years ago. I assume the location would affect who keeps the bounty, right? In Georgia, what circumstances would have to be in place for them to be allowed to keep the full amount?

Can someone give me the broad strokes here? Thanks in advance!

 

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[wvwildman]

i would keep my mouth shut if i found something like that and just sell a few at a time

 

[Tom_in_CA]

To simply say "in Georgia" isn't enough info. Because "in Georgia" exists a variety of entity's of ownership, rules, laws, etc... For example: Federal land in Georgia? State land in Georgia? County land in Georgia? City land in Georgia? Private land in Georgia? Each entity would have it's own say-so and rules, lost & found laws, etc....

Actually, I don't know about the particulars of "treasure trove", verses standard lost & found laws, but ...... just restricting the question to lost & found laws: Most states have lost & found laws, that do subrograte down to lower levels (county and city lands too), which regulate lost & found items. These were born out of wandering cattle laws of the 1800s (so that the next passerby couldn't simply take it, and say "I found it"). Or for things like if the back door of a Brinks armored car swings open, the next lucky person can't simply say "finders keepers". There is a duty, under the law, to turn in valuables. The value threshold criteria is usually silly low, like "$100 or more", etc... (and doesn't say how to value it, and age is NOT part of the question). However a quick look at the Tnet finds forum, and you'll see no shortage of rings posted in the daily finds boasting section, of rings and so forth. I don't think each of those guys is running down to the police dept, do you?

In any case, if your question is restricted to just those type "lost & found" laws, you'd turn it in to the police dept. If no one claimed it in 30 days, it would be yours. But I'm not sure how that pertains to "trove" laws. Maybe someone will chime in.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

However, if two boys did find a barrel full of gold coins, were they planning on broadcasting that info?

There's a humorous story of 2 boys in .... I believe it was New York, who ....... many decades ago (1950s? 1960s?) did in fact find a sack of gold coins, while playing hide-&-seek, hidden in the basement of the tenement row house they were renting in. Like, it was in a crawl space, or stashed way under an old crevice, or some such nook or cranny. The two young boys took it to their mom. The mom, in turn, took it to the police (thinking it might be something to do with a crime or something). Somehow news got leaked to the media, and boys, and mom, soon became a media sensation for their "honesty" and "bravery", etc.. But then the trouble began! :

When the property manager got wind of the boys windfall, they went to try to claim the money, saying that: Since we are responsible for the upkeep, maintenance, and all issues affecting the units. Thus they had a duty to be cleaning out after each vacancy, and were tasked with anything involving all such items.

However, then soon thereafter, the guy (or coorporation or entity or whomever) who actually owned the building itself (and who merely hired that day-to-day property manager), got wind of the story. They claimed THEY were the actual owner of the gold, since they were the ones who owned the "pink slip" to the real estate.

However, soon thereafter, a previous tennant who saw this on the news, who happened to have rented THAT VERY UNIT, prior to the time when the boys family lived there, stepped up and claimed they'd left it there, when they used to live there, so therefore it belonged to them.

Then a previous owner of the building itself, prior to selling to the current owners, caught wind of the news, and claimed that it must've been left there from the days when THEY owned the building (arguing that the money, since it was old, was OBVIOUSLY not put there by any present person(s), and must therefore have been on the watch of whomever had owned it in the 1920s or 30's).

Thus within a few weeks of the news breaking, there were multiple people and entities all trying to lay legal claim. And all this time, the boys and their mom are trying to claim "finders keepers".

I don't recall the legal outcome of that particular case. Does anyone recall the story and the legal outcome?

 

[Citiboy289]

I believe you have 2 troves mixed up

There was a trove found in the Cumming, Dawsonville area in the 1800's I believe it was a large cooking pot, He found when plowing a field, I think if you look up on one of Jeff PA Georgia entries you can find the story here or just do a Google search Georgia Treasure

The 2 boys story was in Maryland during the depression when the dug up a coin hoard in a rented homes dirt basement

I have been following many threads on this board and the one I recall the best was a guy out west who over a 3 - 4 year period posted serveral posts about an outlaw hoard he might have located----- very funny but his last post was he was going back to get it , Never posted again

Since I never find anything of major value I will never have such an problem

I would say Keep you mouth shut

 

[Tom_in_CA]

.... the one I recall the best was a guy out west who over a 3 - 4 year period posted serveral posts about an outlaw hoard he might have located----- very funny but his last post was he was going back to get it , Never posted again ....

citiboy, I can just about gaurantee you that anyone who posts a story like this, is running an investor scam. They're invariably going to get people to invest in their scheme of the "sure-fired treasure they found". All they need is a "little more money" to go back with the right tools, equipment, etc... So suckers give them $$, and the scammers run off. Those schemers will sometimes have a single gold nugget or gold coin, which they claim to have removed from the cave or box or something. But left the others there for safekeeping or because the others were deeper, or some such nonsense.

So all those stories are usually bunk, sorry to say.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

........ The 2 boys story was in Maryland during the depression when the dug up a coin hoard in a rented homes dirt basement ...

Yes, that might be the story I was thinking of. I knew it was on the eastern seaboard somewhere. But I thought it was more recent than the "depression". But that might be the right story. What was the conclusion of that? How many people tried to lay claim to it when the news broke? And what was the final legal decision?

Seems to me that the current property owner would get it. But, oddly, if that happened during the depression, as you say, then it would not be inconceivable for someone who'd owned the building 20 or 30 yrs. earlier (turn-of-the-century), to try to say "I left them there". Heck, EVEN TODAY, a person could try to say "I'm a coin collector (not inconceivable, eh?), and I buried my coin collection there, thus that's why they're old coins. Doh! So you've got to wonder if the previous building's owner, or the previous renter of that unit said that, could they discount that?

Example: Your wife has an expensive diamond ring that went missing. A few years later, you move to another house across town. Then a few years after that, you bump into the couple who bought your old house. You look down at gal's hand, and she's wearing your wife's ring!! You say "hey, that's my wife's ring! where'd you get that?" He says "we found it in our house one day when we were cleaning the way back edges of the cabinets". Thus, you tell me: does that lucky guy get to keep your wife's ring, simply because he's the new owner of your old house? Or would you feel like that still legally your wife's to have returned to her ?? See?

 

[bigfoot1]

since the trial lawyers assn is the second largest contributors to the democratic party,and the dems have two of three power bases....you would have to be crazy to let anyone know where you found any coins.All remotely involved parties will get involved....with lawyers.

Quietly have them looked at and appraised.go from there

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I just remembered another aspect of the boys/basement gold coins-found story: As I recall (and maybe this was how the story broke to the media to begin with), the boy's parents themselves started quibbling over the split. Ie.: who it belonged to. Because the one kid was just a guest at the house by invitation (where he and his friend were playing). And perhaps it was only 1 of the two boys who actually "found" it, yet they were playing "together". Thus would it be a 50/50 split between the boys? Would it go *only* to the finder? Or does it go to the boy of whoms' house it was, regardless of who found it (since it was his house afterall), with no split at all? Once the parents got wind of the shere amount of money, greed got going, and .... that brought about attention to some sort of claims between them, which is what got it into the media. Maybe that's how the story leaked, verses a mom going to the police from the git-go?

Anyone recall the particulars of this story?

 

[Citiboy289]

Tron I am really sure it was in MARYLAND , YOU MIGHT WANT TO Google Coin Hoard maryland I read the newspaper article there but darn if I can recall the link

regarding the Gold pot in Georgia, that too is somewhere on the web with the newspaper article ---- if I recall that went to some sort of legal action since the man had just purchased the land or just leased it

Either way gives good meaning to KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT

 

[Citiboy289]

I found it about the Boys ----- There appears to have been a book written so here is the link , Treasure in the Cellar: A Tale of Gold in Depression-Era Baltimore: Leonard Augsburger: 9780938420972: Amazon.com: Books It was in Maryland and I guess from the link you can get facts to research more on the web

 

[bigfoot1]

awsome research city...