How do you cash in your cache?

[MiddenMonster]

Let's say you beat the odds and find a cache of old Spanish gold coins, or perhaps an old helmet that belonged to a Conquistador and is filled with Aztec gold. How do you convert that to modern cash? At what point do you have to worry (talking about in the U.S. here) that your find could be confiscated by a state or local government, just because of what it is, not where you found it? To make it easier, let's even stipulate that your cover story is that it was passed down by relatives for several generations, you don't know where or when it was found but you do know it was found on property owned by your relatives. Is a valuable cache something you can take to Sotheby's and have them auction off? Or would you need to split it up and sell it bit by bit, which could lower the value?

 

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[jeff of pa]

Personally I'd sell it piece be piece "CASH ONLY"

 

[MiddenMonster]

Personally I'd sell it piece be piece "CASH ONLY"

The practical side of me tells me to do the same thing. But there's another part of me that would tell me to "maintain the integrity and value of the collection!" Have you ever heard of anyone trying to sell something, even if it really was a family hand-me-down, only to have a governmental agency step in and confiscate the relic/object/treasure? Again, I'm talking about the U.S. I already know that in places like Britain or Israel they can take anything you find.

 

[jeff of pa]

IN MY OPINION, Lately it's getting worse here. you not only have the Gov. but you also got the Archies. At least in Britain, they pay Estimated Value, Over here they either take you to court & make you spend Millions to fight, Or just Steal it & threaten you with jail. or at the VERY LEAST, Tax you out of most of you Profit. SELL it for Cash & hide the money in your Matress !

 

[cedarratt]

I'd clean it all up, maybe sell the helmet, then rebury the gold and start my own cache.

 

[MiddenMonster]

IN MY OPINION, Lately it's getting worse here. you not only have the Gov. but you also got the Archies. At least in Britain, they pay Estimated Value, Over here they either taky you to court & make you spend Millions to fight, Or just Steal it & threaten you with jail.

Are they competing for finds, or turning people in and otherwise trying to frustrate treasure hunters? Bu "Archies" I'm assuming you mean archeologists...

Opps! Never mind. I just noticed you answered my question in your last edit. Any examples where they have just stolen it? Not surprised that they would turn tattletail. They seem to think everything historical belongs to everyone.

 

[jeff of pa]

it seems they think everything in the ground over 50 years old belongs to them. If you get it before them, They cant sell it on E-bay or to a Wealthy Historian & make a Buck

 

[spotz]

Amen!!! Spotz

 

[stoney56]

As i read somewhere Gov. is a necessary evil at best and intolerable at it's worst. Sell what you can but keep each transaction below $1199.

 

[jeff of pa]

A Genaric Sample "MiddenMonster" would be the Times they Take Your Detector, Vehicles, & everything you found. It's happend more then once & not only to those who illegally detected.? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?There is a case going on now with Perry Massie & steve phillips, Who were Diving a River & had their Finds Confiscated. ? ?here is one story http://www.cdnn.info/industry/i040528/i040528.html? and http://www.downunderdiveclub.com/view_news.cfm?ID=24

 

[MiddenMonster]

A Genaric Sample "MiddenMonster" would be the Times they Take Your Detector, Vehicles, & everything you found. It's happend more then once & not only to those who illegally detected. There is a case going on now with Perry Massie & steve phillips, Who were Diving a River & had their Finds Confiscated. here is one story http://www.cdnn.info/industry/i040528/i040528.html and http://www.downunderdiveclub.com/view_news.cfm?ID=24

Thanks for the good reads. Now I'm going to be pissed off and otherwise in a bad mood all day. Reading about that kind of government abuse makes me sick. My brother once found a dead bald eagle. Wanting to do the right thing he called the game warden and pointed it out to him. The game warden took his statement and then point blank asked him what he did with the feathers he took. My brother learned his lesson and next time he finds something the government will be left out of the loop.

 

[jeff of pa]

There ya Go .... Another Useless Law. I guess Bald Eagles are Going to go Extinct if someone in the Public owns a Feather.

 

[stoney56]

I guess the phrase "By the People and For the People" is no longer important to those that asks us for our votes when the time comes. Give a lawyer a ticket to D.C. and they only ask of us when they want something for themselves.

 

[TOWcritter]

So...What's in this big cache YOU found anyway

 

[corncrasher]

You should give what you find to me so you dont have to worry about it, I promise if I get in trouble with it I won't say anything about you. I just want to help.

 

[MiddenMonster]

So...What's in this big cache YOU found anyway

Nothing yet, but I like to be prepared. I don't have any connections to sell finds on the black market, so I need to cover my bases before I find anything. If it's any comfort, I did hold an 1865 Morgan silver dollar in my hand. Book said it was worth $20,000. It was in a plastic slip cover and had a certificate authenticating it, so I didn't get the skin on silver feel. But it was still cool to hold the coin.

 

[jeff of pa]

Sorry, You Either Got the Date, Type, Or Value Rong. 1865 Seated Dollar top Value $3,250.00 in PROOF 65. Morgans started in 1878 .

 

[MiddenMonster]

Sorry, You Either Got the Date, Type, Or Value Rong. 1865 Seated Dollar top Value $3,250.00 in PROOF 65. Morgans started in 1878 .

I could have gotten everything wrong but the denomination wrong. I saw several coins Friday afternoon, with the one in question being sealed up in a plastic coin holder, and after that slide into a plastic liner. I'm almost 99% sure the date on this coin was 1865. I also saw something that looked like a Liberty seated quarter (Liberty holding a flag in her left hand) from about the same period, but this one was almost worn smooth, and you couldn't read some of the lettering. The dollar coin looked as though it had just been struck. I read the value of the coin in a book the coin's owner showed me. It was the value on the far right, and it was significantly higher than all the other values for that coin. If I see it again I'll post the info, and if I can get permission to photgraph it I'll do that. I think this person does want to sell the coin, however...

 

[Carl in CO]

I'd keep the helmet and wear it while detecting so as to remain inconspicuous. With the coins, I'd take a new picture of one everyday and post it here and charge people for my secret md settings.

 

[alwayslookin]

Hey Corncrasher..is that an IH Scout??