Netherlands: Lose a tractor key, find a 2,000 year old cache

[MiddenMonster]

All in all I'd say that was a good day. Except for the part about turning them over to the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands:

Cache of Bible-era Roman and British coins discovered by hobby metal detectorists

I kind of feel sorry for the soldier who hid them and never came back to retrieve and enjoy them.

 

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[Nathan W]

All in all I'd say that was a good day. Except for the part about turning them over to the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands:

Cache of Bible-era Roman and British coins discovered by hobby metal detectorists

I kind of feel sorry for the soldier who hid them and never came back to retrieve and enjoy them.

A few of them would have accidently fell into my pants

 

[MiddenMonster]

A few of them would have accidently fell into my pants

Yeah, a cache like that could easily get lost in a boating accident...

 

[ToddsPoint]

We often hear about amazing finds by amateurs that are snatched up by the government.😫😤 It’s sad if you were the finder. (This would exclude the British treasure trove scheme) I think we can rest assured that for every find we read about there are an equal number that are never reported. The private sector will have plenty of everything for many years to come.

 

[Mackaydon]

In the picture, the coin (Trinovantes & Catuvellauni. Cunobelin. Circa AD 10-43) with horse prancing left is a rare coin; most coins of that image show the horse prancing right. What a great find !!
Don in SoCal

 

[MiddenMonster]

In the picture, the coin (Trinovantes & Catuvellauni. Cunobelin. Circa AD 10-43) with horse prancing left is a rare coin; most coins of that image show the horse prancing right. What a great find !!
Don in SoCal

So just to frame a reference point, what would that single coin be worth on the open market if it was auctioned off? I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to the value of coins, but I've read that old Roman coins can vary in value from not very much to a very high value.

 

[ToddsPoint]

I’ve seen bronze Roman coins in poor condition at gun shows quite often. They were very reasonable. I’ve never seen a silver or gold Roman for sale and I’d guess they could get expensive.

 

[Limitool]

You GOT TO ASK... How did anyone else get involved except the guy who found them...? Why in the world would the finder tell anyone I wonder...? Hopefully he found hundreds and hundreds of them and only reveled what was shown. But I most certainly wouldn't have done that either. To each there own I guess. But it was A GREAT FIND...!

 

[Mackaydon]

Midden Monster
lot 5, sold for $2700
Used with permission of CNG (cngcoins.com), March, 2011
Source: https://www.wildwinds.com/coins/celtic/britain/catuvellauni/cunobelin/VA_2029.txt
Don in SoCal

 

[MiddenMonster]

I’ve seen bronze Roman coins in poor condition at gun shows quite often. They were very reasonable. I’ve never seen a silver or gold Roman for sale and I’d guess they could get expensive.

Even though I'm not a big coin collector, if I could buy a 2,000 year old Roman coin at a reasonable price I probably would.

You GOT TO ASK... How did anyone else get involved except the guy who found them...? Why in the world would the finder tell anyone I wonder...? Hopefully he found hundreds and hundreds of them and only reveled what was shown. But I most certainly wouldn't have done that either. To each there own I guess. But it was A GREAT FIND...!

For starters, there were actually two guys who found it. So that's a problem right there. As someone famous whose name I forget at the moment said, two people can keep a secret as long as one of them is dead. Just look at Goodfellas. They had the Big Score with the Lufthansa heist, and couldn't lay low for awhile. They just had to live the high life and flout their newfound wealth. Then there are the laws in the Netherlands--and all over Europe that could really jam you up if you don't turn it over. I am not a fan of those laws, but at the same time I don't know anyone who could fence finds like that. So that leaves one having to ask around to find someone who could handle the transaction. That means you have to skin it back to everyone who is involved in that process, and take much less than what the find is actually worth. Then you have to trust that none of the people involved are playing both sides and hoping to collect a reward for turning you in. I also imagine that the Customs and security people at the airports have pretty much seen it all when it comes to people trying to get valuable artifacts out of the countries.

In the U.S., if you found say, a $2 million dollar cache of coins on your own property you could keep them if they aren't shown to be stolen, but the tax bite would be stiff. And chances are the powers that be will do everything they can to find a whiff of them being stolen or government property. And good luck infiltrating $2 million into your everyday life these days. With AI, machine learning and in your face financial monitoring the government can not only tell if you are spending too much of your known/presumed income, but if you are spending too little of it. It would almost be a situation where you find the cache, then spend several years of laying low and devising a plan to legitimize it before you spring it and hope for the best.

 

[MiddenMonster]

lot 5, sold for $2700

Damn! That's an honest day's work!