Trust Not the Government of Florida

[MiddenMonster]

I'll bet you that if you were to get an investigative TV reporter on who's pockets are getting padded concerning who get's permits and who doesn't, that will bring some attention to it. Kinda like the bribes going on at the colleges right now. Treasure recovery land or sea are sooo pirated....and for good reasons IMO. There's a a guy somewhere across the pond that found like the worlds largest Anglo Saxon hoard, I believe his name is Terry Herlbert. Anyway, VERY COOL how this local government handled the find. The metal detectorist knocked on the farmers door, asked if he could MD his pasture...homeowner says great and if he found anything of importance, they would split the profits. Treasure hunter starts to find gold pieces everywhere and informed the local universities for help...local authorities were involved...huge hoard. Museum bought the hoard and homeowner and treasure hunter split the profits from the sale.

I think you are being kind to the "local" government here. The find to which you are referring is the Staffordshire Hoard, found by Terry Herbert in 2009. It was "valued" at 3.285 million English pounds, split between Herbert and the landowner. Unfortunately, that valuation was performed by the Treasure Valuation Committee, which is a group handpicked by the government to represent the interests of the government. How much more could Herbert and the landowner have made if they were allowed to control the sale of the hoard? The sad fact is that Herbert was compelled by the Treasure Act, 1996 to report the find within two weeks. The government appointed committee set the value for the hoard, and a couple of government museums bought the hoard for the government established value. At least in the U.S., a find like this on private property ostensibly belongs to the finder and the landowner. But if this type of hoard was found at the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Florida, who would value it and how much would the finder get to keep?

My point is, I believe that if people were allowed to benefit from their finds, either monetarily or recognition, and asked by the state to report any historical finds for documentation, the people and the State would have far far more information of our past.

All things considered, I'd gladly take the money and would prefer to not have any recognition. Archaeologists also get hot under the collar when people dig anything up. They say that unless they get to deal with it in situ, removing it destroys the contextual value of the find. In other words, don't try this at home, people.

 

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[Johnnybravo300]

Dont steal. Governments dont like competition.

 

[JvilleHunter]

Someone is putting their hands in the cookie jar and no one's looking......or cares.

 

[Tom_Restorer]

Something like this makes many people think the different way, like:

Locate a ship
Dive to it and pick everything up
THAN ask for permission
If denied or they cheat people, someone else or this cheating state can have fun with the remaining ballast stones

short story about this state behavior
In our county they installed some years ago a law from medieval times (!!) which says that all buried treasure is owned by the state.
Before detectorists worked together very well with archeologist and shown all the pieces they found. Now after this ancient law was also installed in out area less and less detectorists work any longer with the archeology and many important finds end up in a box and will never seen again by archeologists or where they was find. A shot in their own knee in my opinion...

Hunting, treasure hunting, collecting is anchored in peoples genes since thousands of years what this archeologists will never understand or accept.

 

[ivan salis]

simply put the state of florida archies in charge of the permitting WILL only issue "exploratory permits" which basically allows you to do "free research" for them and requires you to fork over all the data you obtain … once you do all the dirty work and spend the money to prove your claim and apply for the all i9mportant "salvage permit" ...then it becomes a NO GO -- because theres ALWAYS some sort non fixable "problem / issue" whixch stps you dead in the water ---leaving them with all your data and info and you broke ...this is a tired old hustle the state been pulling off for a long long time ….I can not recall when a "NEW" FRESH SHIPWRECK SALVAGE PERMIT WAS ISSUED -- only stuff related to old pre existing shipwreck claims --I was once at a state archie confab at the St Augustine light6 house where the florida state archies bragged about "another year without issuing any "new" salvage permits" I wish i had been able to record it

 

[PhipsFolly]

Why are we the people allowing the state Archie’s to continue to do this? I can’t help but think about that and how it is OUR responsibility to stand up against this kind of corruption... why don’t we come together and see what we can do to get these individuals removed from these tax paid positions of authority that they are abusing?

 

[Salvor6]

Why are we the people allowing the state Archie’s to continue to do this? I can’t help but think about that and how it is OUR responsibility to stand up against this kind of corruption... why don’t we come together and see what we can do to get these individuals removed from these tax paid positions of authority that they are abusing?

Eleven years ago Aquanut and I were having a few beers and asking the same questions. We came up with an idea. Let's have a cookout and invite all the Florida treasure hunters. Maybe we can put our heads together and figure out a way to fight the state. That's how the Annual Treasure Hunters Cookout started. Well we started partying and after a few rum & cokes forgot all about the original intent of the cookout. Maybe this year we can get together, have a meeting and figure out some way to combat the state archies. Phipps you can help to make an attempt to make this happen this year.

Others have tried in the past. Twenty years ago P.T. Ramsey started the Conc Coalition to fight the state. Nothing came of this. Next Jim Sinclair started Sea Rex to lobby the state with some success to change the R1-A1 regulations on collection of cultural heritage. Next there was a group called Pro Sea trying to lobby the state legislature to take some kind of action. Even Taffy Fisher had a meeting with Govenor Scott to change the restrictive laws. And here we are. The state continues to screw the treasure salvors. Look at what happened to Bobby Pritchard. Look what happened to Ivan Salis.

 

[FISHEYE]

Might be time for a class action lawsuit to sue the state BAR.

 

[PhipsFolly]

Law suits can be effective in some cases, but when the party being sued is the government or an entity thereof, they like to use your tax dollars against and backdoor deals...

 

[FISHEYE]

Seafarer threatened to sue and they got a salvage contract from the state.

 

[A2coins]

I dont trust any Government sad but true

 

[Rum Tide]