You know? I was just thinking and you make a good point! What about the stuff found and collected by plowing, by Great Grandfathers And passed down! Some of that stuff has been sitting in peoples closets for over a 100 years! How would anyone prove when It was found? Heck My great grandfather was part Indian and had stuff passed down to him. How would anyone prove that? And the way some of these laws work they just take your stuff and ask for proof later! Which in most cases can't be done! (I know someone this happened to on a different subject)
I think they would set up a sting operation or search eBay to see if you are selling these items. Or they could just monitor treasure sites and wait for someone to brag about what they found. Almost like a written confession.
FS 267.115
Once upon a time there was an isolated finds related law, but it's not around anymore.
They changed it to talk about anything of archeological value a while ago. (they got tired of me mailing in my 1958-59 pennies while declaring the public beach as an historical site)
You won't find a '50' year old rule/law in the statutes. Not there anymore.
So, hunt away, enjoy, and keep your modern non historical stuff...
In Part:
267.115 Objects of historical or archaeological value.—The division shall acquire, maintain, preserve, interpret, exhibit, and make available for study objects which have intrinsic historical or archaeological value relating to the history, government, or culture of the state. Such objects may include tangible personal property of historical or archaeological value. Objects acquired under this section belong to the state, and title to such objects is vested in the division.
ah big cy -- any and all all rail road items belong to the rail road companies ...forever ... any item that once "belonged" to them still belongs to them -- exsample the "rail road spike' you use for a "paper weight" still by law belongs to the RR company that original bought it ...this was done by law long ago to prevent scrap metal folks from stripping the rails and rail road spikes off of what they thought were "old abandoned tracks) tracks (which if the rail road companies thinking the track was still totally intact sent a train down a seldom used track that someone had "stripped" spikes or rails from...) the rail roads actually have their own "police" force that investigates theft of RR "property" like rail road spikes for "public safety" reasons and the fact that RR companies do not like folks messing around with "their stuff"...