Contacting local historical groups and revealing finds?

[brianc053]

Hi all. This is a question primarily related to metal detecting finds.
Have any of you contacted local historical groups (historical societies, committees, etc.) when you find an item that you think they might be interested in or might know something about?
If you have contacted them "cold" / out of the blue (with no prior connection), what has been the reaction?
Are people in local historical groups typically receptive and interested in metal detecting finds? Or is there ever a negative reaction? What's the risk?

I'm just looking for others' input because the thought occurred to me today to reach out (I live in a historical area of New Jersey), but as I thought about it more I became concerned that people may question why I'm digging in local parks (even though it's 100% permitted).

Please share any experiences you've had.

thanks!

Brian

 

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[MidMoTreasure]

There is a pair of old guys in my area who do presentations at historical societies a lot, especially about Civil War sites. They use it as an opportunity to get leads to new sites and permissions. They have ran the circuit of counties within a 60-mile radius doing talks and appearing in newspapers. They always seem to be hunting new spots, so I guess it works.

 

[gunsil]

I hunted our local historical society museum grounds which was in a 1700s house. With a couple friends we found a few toasted KG III coins, a rev war small cannonball, a cast iron motorcycle toy, and the usual old tombac buttons. They thought what we were doing was cute and they did not want anything we found. A few years later they moved the museum to another 1700s house and we got permission to hunt that one also. A couple more toasty KGIII coins, buttons, and early 20th century toys, again they didn't care about any of it. Now I am talking over forty years ago, but I think unless you found something remarkable they would not have any interest, especially where you are located. I would not give much of anything of value to any museum, most museums sell donated items over time to finance their operations or to buy artifacts they find more interesting. I used to buy Native American artifacts from the Museum of Natural History in NYC, they had so many donated they sold them in their gift shop. If I found some fantastic historical piece a museum was interested in I might consider selling it to them but not donating it. By the way, I got permission partly because when I visited the historical society museum I saw a CW pistol that had been donated several years earlier by a friend's family on display that had rust on it that was not there when the pistol was donated and I offered to oil it for them. They had several pistols and swords all gathering rust and verdigris and when I asked why they said they had nobody who knew about caring for such items. For several years I would go there and oil the guns and swords. Most small museums don't have people who know about preservation of things donated to them. The GW site and Museum in Morristown has some great stuff, you would be hard pressed to find anything they might need or want. I also had permission to hunt the GW headquarters in Tappan, NY and we found colonial coins and a rare continental uniform button along with a lot of other cool stuff. They already had such things in their museum from digging on the property and did not want any of our finds either. By the way, that site is owned and operated by the Masons and is not a state or federal site like Morristown. We were the first in there with detectors and hunting was fantastic. We asked the caretaker for permission and he said we had to get it from the Masons and a friend's father was a Mason and got us in touch with the right person who gave us permission.

 

[Trezurehunter]

I have found items in two different cities/towns that both have museums, and have donated those items to the museums for display. I did not know anyone that worked at one museum, and just asked to see the person in charge. At the other small town museum, I do know the curator and he is always happy when I bring him an item (mostly tokens) that has the towns name on it. All I ask, is that they put a "donated by" or "found by" ticket / name card by the item. They are always happy to receive local memorabilia.

 

[brianc053]

Thanks everybody for the input.
Gunsil it sounds like you know my area well. I can't detect any of the more "famous" sites, so I'm focusing on my town's local parks/open space lands. One park (which I've posted about separately) has kept me busy these past weeks and I'm finding a few coins each time I go (including four silver dimes and two silver quarters).
I know I'm not finding anything of major significance, and most of what I find will not be of interest to anyone. But I was still wondering what to expect if I did mention my searches and finds to anyone, and all of your inputs have helped. Thanks.

 

[relicmeister]

Ain’t worth it

 

[Upnorth42]

This article shows why no one reports their finds where I live.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/hfx-diver-may-have-to-give-up-keiths-bottle-1.3340154

 

[FinderKeeper]

This article shows why no one reports their finds where I live.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/hfx-diver-may-have-to-give-up-keiths-bottle-1.3340154

I have found things in Nova Scotia and Sean tried to screw me on everything. They want it all . I have a mining permit to hunt for gold nuggets and they said if I find a treasure they own it. I was OK with that but when I had Sean on site to look at things we found, I said if we find treasure and there is gold nuggets or uncut gem stones with it we get the nuggets and gem stones RIGHT. He said when it enters a treasure room ( man made ) it now becomes treasure and they own it all. WE GET NOTHING. Then I said what if we find gold nuggets at a Templar camp site

buried. He said when it touches human hands it becomes treasure and they get it. Then I said OK so all the gold nuggets that are in the man made bank vaults in Halifax belong to you to. Ya he was pissed at me . To much GREED in most governments

 

[Upnorth42]

I have found things in Nova Scotia and Sean tried to screw me on everything. They want it all . I have a mining permit to hunt for gold nuggets and they said if I find a treasure they own it. I was OK with that but when I had Sean on site to look at things we found, I said if we find treasure and there is gold nuggets or uncut gem stones with it we get the nuggets and gem stones RIGHT. He said when it enters a treasure room ( man made ) it now becomes treasure and they own it all. WE GET NOTHING. Then I said what if we find gold nuggets at a Templar camp site

buried. He said when it touches human hands it becomes treasure and they get it. Then I said OK so all the gold nuggets that are in the man made bank vaults in Halifax belong to you to. Ya he was pissed at me . To much GREED in most governments

I don't know who Sean is but yes if you find anything here the government gets it all 100% of it. Technically in Nova Scotia you can't search for anything man made or even natural things out there by someone. You need a permit for everything. The permit is just to search you don't actually get to keep what you find. Everything is considered "heritage property" and you know who gets to keep it if found. Until about 10 years ago we had something called the treasure trove act. You could apply for a permit to search and you got to keep most of whatever you find. The government got a percentage and first pick of the good stuff. I think this was a good law as I believe the good finds should go to a museum. This law was repealed.

Now I really have no idea what happens if good finds are made but I think its safe to assume no one will admit they found anything.

 

[brianc053]

Thanks for sharing your Nova Scotia points of view, Finder and Upnorth. On one hand I can understand a region (your province or my state) trying to protect historic sites because we're still discovering the true history of North America. (I'm a believer that the Vikings visited your lands long before Columbus visited the Caribbean). But declaring the whole province protected seems very extreme.
I live in New Jersey, where George Washington spent a lot of time during our Revolutionary War. I live not too far from his winter encampment site at Jockey Hollow. Yet I can dig anywhere I can get permission outside of the boundaries of the Historical Monument, and keep whatever I find.
But some of our states do have some tighter controls. The state of New York apparently owns all minerals (or at least all gold) in the state, so you can't even pan flour gold and keep it - you're supposed to turn it over to the state (I would love to see that: a recreational prospector carrying a small vial of gold dust into a state building and trying to hand it to someone. There isn't anyone in NY State who would know what to do with it [officially anyway]).

An interesting topic that I didn't expect to have come up when I asked the question. Thanks for the discussion.
Ultimately I will probably keep what I find to myself.

 

[The Aluminum Monster]

I did just that with a spoon I just found, brianc053. It was a silver spoon representing the Bethesda Pavilion in Waukesha, WI.

They got back to me with more information on the spoon and the history of the area. They asked if I would donate it and I said I would with the same terms as Trezurehunter- that I would get a little note saying I donated it and that it was found randomly on a riverbank in Massachusetts.

You can see the spoon and their response here:

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/t...ing-gold-ended-up-eyeballing-some-silver.html

I typically don't find things that would be worth donating but I completely love the idea of the people of Wisconsin seeing a piece of their history.