Because there is no law restricting "seeking the alleged valuables that are not on private lands" I will "seek" for what ever I choose on public lands in an effort to unravel the true history of this land. I have documented more native American sites in my day than most can shake a stick at. And if I catch you digging in one of them, well, lets leave that lie. They are my ancestors.
I understand there can be many problems concerning property owners, but I have never had a problem with a land owner. I do not sneak around their backs.
And did you miss that some are in Mexico? And yes, private land again.
Can you tell everyone here what specifically makes a Spanish Silver Bar or Gold, an Antiquity?
Hey don't shoot the messenger! I'm trying to help you by stopping you from fines that you can't afford & keeping you out of prison. You seem to have enough problems. You can search and of the quotes below to find my source of the quotes. These are mainly Federal laws but there are numerous State laws that apply. Notice the private property issues below!
A more recent Federal law, the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979
(ARPA), provides civil and criminal penalties for excavation, destruction, vandalism, or
removal of archeological resources (historic and prehistoric) from public lands.
Anything
10 years or older is covered by this law. Criminal penalties of up to $100,000 in fines
and/or five years in prison are possible upon conviction. Civil and criminal damages may
also be assessed, based on the value of the destroyed or stolen remains. ARPA provides
for civil confiscation of vehicles and other personal property used to carry out the
violation, and provides for payment of rewards for information leading to convictions.
For your own protection, do not attempt to apprehend perpetrators yourself, but license
numbers, times, dates, descriptions, (photographs or video tape would be nice) if safely
collectable from a reasonable distance, should be reported to the closest local Federal
authorities and nearest BLM office.
On
private or public non-federal lands, an official archaeological site is defined when it has 10 or more artifacts that are 75 years or older
U.S. Federal laws governing recovery of treasure are governed by the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979,[115] Under ARPA, "archaeological resources" more than one hundred years old on public lands
belongs to the government.
Furthermore, the Federal policy against spoliation and removal of "archaeological resources" of any type from federal or Indian lands, even coins and scrip less than 100 years old, means
it is unlikely that a finder of gold or silver coinage on Federal lands will prevail with an argument that the find constitutes a treasure trove of coinage, but rather "embedded property" that belongs to the property owner, i.e. the government.[117]
The broad use of ARPA to target not only archaeological looting but also to prohibit all treasure hunting on federal or Indian lands has been criticized on the grounds that total prohibition and forfeiture simply encourages concealment or misrepresentation of the age of the found coinage or treasure trove, thus hampering archaeological research, as archaeologists cannot study items that when found will never be reported
In addition Spanish treasures in the USA are unlikely as Spain all but gave the Louisiana Territory to France in 1800 due to financial problems. It is unlikely that the Spanish would have given away the land leaving behind treasures being their financial situation was so bad.