Hypothetical question re: gold coins found on Federal land

Like I said it will prompt disagreement. I’ve lost something valuable that someone immediately took for their own. I reported it stolen as I was instructed to do by the police and it was rightfully returned to me 2 years later.

TIME MATTERS. I don’t know much about confederate coins other than they are likely very valuable. Don’t know if the US government would lay claim the same they would have immediately after the conclusion of the war.
So you LOST something, and the police told you to lie to the police by claiming it was stolen?
 

Well...Don't ask, don't tell type of thing? OR, how about a melt value? Heat purifies all.
 

So you LOST something, and the police told you to lie to the police by claiming it was stolen?
Correct. If it doesn’t belong to you, you need to keep your hands off it.

If you’re being a good citizen and picked it up to prevent something from being stolen, you are to turn it into the local police (lost and found) and they will hold it for a defined period of time before returning it to the finder as their new property.

Kind of makes sense to me. If you were walking behind me in the supermarket and an envelope of cash fell out of my pocket onto the floor. You have two choices - one involves being a thief.

With that said, if I find a wrench along the road, I don’t feel like a thief picking it for my own.
 

Correct. If it doesn’t belong to you, you need to keep your hands off it.

If you’re being a good citizen and picked it up to prevent something from being stolen, you are to turn it into the local police (lost and found) and they will hold it for a defined period of time before returning it to the finder as their new property.

Kind of makes sense to me. If you were walking behind me in the supermarket and an envelope of cash fell out of my pocket onto the floor. You have two choices - one involves being a thief.

With that said, if I find a wrench along the road, I don’t feel like a thief picking it for my own.
I too sir would pick up the envelope of cash and return it to you. I also would also pick up the wrench and outright keep it as my own. I would also pick up leather bags hidden for 150+ years in the wilderness with coins and put next to the wrench.
 

First, the only “confederate “ double eagles were the 1861-O strikes. Mint records show only 17,000 struck. Only a portion of those were struck after the confederates took over the mint. The confederates sent about every dime they had to England to buy war matériels. Digging on most Fed land is prohibited. You can legally dig in a National Forest. I think BLM land is legal but I’m not positive. After you found them, you would have to pay income taxes on the actual value of the coins, not just face value. Payment must be made in the same yr they were found. That’s if you do it the legal way.
Found one on E Bay...

 

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I too sir would pick up the envelope of cash and return it to you. I also would also pick up the wrench and outright keep it as my own. I would also pick up leather bags hidden for 150+ years in the wilderness with coins and put next to the wrench.
What wrench? I don’t know what you’re talking about.
 

What wrench? I don’t know what you’re talking about.
I’m assuming he is thinking the same as me…..if I see a tool laying in the road, I’m making a U-turn and picking it up. Not posting that in Facebook or turning in to the sheriff. If however that “tool” was a bag of cash…..different situation. Feel free to replace “bag of cash” with anything of a level of value I considered material, or if there was something identifiable to the one who lost the item.
 

If I find any cash or treasure and there's not any way to identify exactly who it belonged to, I'm keeping it, unless at a later date someone can convince me it is truly theirs.

I'm not going to advertise exactly what I found or turn it in to the police, once it is known what it is anyone can try and claim it, even one of the police officers, I will however let it be known that I found something of value and if anyone that lost something in the area I found it and can describe it exactly I will return it to them.

I have done this more than once and at least 3 times what I found was returned to its rightful owner.
 

If I find any cash or treasure and there's not any way to identify exactly who it belonged to, I'm keeping it, unless at a later date someone can convince me it is truly theirs.

I'm not going to advertise exactly what I found or turn it in to the police, once it is known what it is anyone can try and claim it, even one of the police officers, I will however let it be known that I found something of value and if anyone that lost something in the area I found it and can describe it exactly I will return it to them.

I have done this more than once and at least 3 times what I found was returned to its rightful owner.

I’ll say I had this very thing happen while I was shopping with my kids. Found a bank envelope with $250 cash on the floor. We took it to the manager, who just happened to have been trying to console an elderly lady in a power cart. She was beside herself worrying how she was going to get through the month. I asked her how much was in the envelope and she knew exactly. I handed it over to her and she thanked me and tried to give me a reward. Good lesson for the kids.

Not necessarily relevant to finding treasure in the woods. But none the less, you’re supposed to attempt to find the owner.
 

Found one on E Bay...

Only $80,000. 🤣 Having only 17,000 strikes will do that to a coin. They struck 2.9 million in Philly and over 750K in SanFran that year.
 

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I’ll say I had this very thing happen while I was shopping with my kids. Found a bank envelope with $250 cash on the floor. We took it to the manager, who just happened to have been trying to console an elderly lady in a power cart. She was beside herself worrying how she was going to get through the month. I asked her how much was in the envelope and she knew exactly. I handed it over to her and she thanked me and tried to give me a reward. Good lesson for the kids.

Not necessarily relevant to finding treasure in the woods. But none the less, you’re supposed to attempt to find the owner.
You have a good soul and taught your kids a valuable lesson! Thanks for sharing!
 

As long as you pay taxes on the sale, if you benefit the government, they will tolerate you! Actual laws are too numerous to enforce. Probably some law against everything we do.
 

maybe the guy who built SilkTrade will revamp his site and you can go on the dark web and sell it there - hypothetically
 

Hello! I’m looking for a quick answer and I bet someone here has a quick answer: If someone found a collection of uncirculated $20 Confederate gold coins buried on Federal land, would the cache automatically be turned over to the government or might someone keep the find? What are the legalities?
Thank you! These threads are fascinating.
Stay humble melt it lol.
 

I too sir would pick up the envelope of cash and return it to you. I also would also pick up the wrench and outright keep it as my own. I would also pick up leather bags hidden for 150+ years in the wilderness with coins and put next to the wrench.
If i find things along the road. Depending where i am at if there is a Guard rail I usually pick the item up and put it on a guard rail showing the most i can of it.
 

You have a good soul and taught your kids a valuable lesson! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you. Opportunities to do the right thing in front of your kids are actually pretty numerous.

I once found a $20 bill blowing around in the wind in the middle of nowhere. I saw that as good luck and pocketed it happily.

My only point is that not only it sometimes the right thing to do, it is the law. But time matters and not every situation is the same.
 

If i find things along the road. Depending where i am at if there is a Guard rail I usually pick the item up and put it on a guard rail showing the most i can of it.
I’d appreciate that if I lost something along the road.

Funny story. When my younger brother was a kid, an old lady moved into our small gulch. She would walk a mile every day. While walking she would find something to hang on a fence post. Could be a sock, or maybe a hub cap. Soon it was just about anything she thought might be useful. That pissed my brother off so much seeing trash hung up on the fence that he would immediate ride his bicycle down there and take them off the posts. Soon the old lady figured out who was taking her stuff off the fence and it was on! She would hang stuff up faster than he could take it down. I believe they encountered each other one day and words were exchanged. He said she was a witch. Then one day she moved somewhere else.
 

Totally agree Tesorodeoro.... $20 bill in the wind in the middle of nowhere... mine. Nice wrench on side of road in middle of nowhere... mine. Bags of coins under a flat rock in middle of nowhere... mine.

If I see someone drop the envelope of cash I'm giving back ASAP. If I find anything of value with a lot of people around I'll do my best to return because they have to be close by. But "the middle of nowhere" scenario and anything 150+ yrs. old is mine. Nobody alive put it there and if anybody knew of its existence should have gotten it.

The OP is now gone. 1st post was hypothetical and then post #10 it wasn't. Now he's gone...?
 

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