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Stash of pure, 24-carat gold coins unearthed in Israel

I would have covered back up and came back that night 😂


Oh me oh my, didn't you see the part about the " ...Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), which organized the excavation...." ? If it were me, I would have jumped up, waived my arms, and alerted all those archies to come swoop in. How could you be so cruel and heartless ? :?: :aok: I wonder if the stuff will ever see the light of day again ? :?:

But seriously now, if you are a tourist in the Holy Land, and go to the various street-vendor tourist trap sidewalk vendor-tents, supposedly there is often times persons selling ancient coins. Thus : this isn't the first time that old coins get found over there. (Go figure, true for anywhere in Europe, middle-east, etc...) And simply enter the collector's market (WHERE THEY CAN BE ENJOYED, SHOWN, etc....)
 
Here's a true story, of something on a smaller scale : I talked to a fellow, who was in his 50s age-wise, about 20 years ago. He was a maintenance worker at a state park here in CA. This park is historically themed, has historical exhibits and significance (the name of the park/monument shall remain anonymous) . There is some decorative gardens in this park, that have to be plowed/ rototilled on occasion, for weed-control, grass-cutting, or whatever.

The guy told me that back in the 1970s, when he was just a college student, he had a summer job working that garden (running the rototiller plow thing in the gardens there). And he eyeballed something gold and shiny. He got off his tractor, picked it up, and it was a $5 gold piece dated from the 1850s !

He rushed to give it to his supervisor. Who looked at it, and said that he would take it to the park's dept. staff archie for examination. This student worker went back to his job. Later, when he attempted to ask his supervisors what had ever become of the coin, he got no answers. Other than vague things about "It's still being studied", or "we passed it on to so & so", or ... just basically the "mind your own business" type of answers.

The more this student worker thought about it, the more he wished he'd just stuck it in his pocket. To this day, 40 or 50 yrs. later, he's never seen it again. It's not in any of the museums associated with this state park, etc... He figures that some head ranger simply now has a $5 gold in his personal collection, or that it's long gone on Ebay.
 
The more this student worker thought about it, the more he wished he'd just stuck it in his pocket. To this day, 40 or 50 yrs. later, he's never seen it again. It's not in any of the museums associated with this state park, etc... He figures that some head ranger simply now has a $5 gold in his personal collection, or that it's long gone on Ebay.

This is why I live by the finders keepers rule. Unless it’s something with sentimental value to someone or can be proven to rightfully belong to someone it’s going in my pocket.
 
.... Unless it’s something with sentimental value to someone or can be proven to rightfully belong to someone.....

Correct. Like if you are walking down the sidewalk, and the person in front of you drops their ring (and they didn't hear it or know it), then you KNOW that you will alert them : "Hey, you dropped your ring". Or if a $5 gold piece is on someone's bedstand, you KNOW not to touch it.

But we intrinsically know that items in the ground for 100+ yrs are in a different class. I know a purist archie wouldn't agree with this logic, but common sense intuition knows differently.
 
Thats a double edge sword - bummer that you have to give it all to the govt, but pretty exciting to have had the discovery.
 
rushed to give it to his supervisor. Who looked at it, and said that he would take it to thark's dept. staff archie for examination. This student worker went back to his job. Later, when he attempted to ask his supervisors what had ever become of the coin, he got no answers. Other than vague things about "It's still being studied", or "we passed it on to so & so", or ... just basically the "mind your own business" type of answers..

Oh yeah , like decorated peace officers or bureaucrats would ever resort to pocketing the stash...pfff
 
....

Oh yeah , like decorated peace officers or bureaucrats would ever resort to pocketing the stash...pfff

Exactly. His supervisors know that , actually ... no one's "being harmed". It was totally unknown, while it sat in the ground. Eh ?

I suppose someone could try to call a "moral foul" by pointing out that it deserves to be in a museum (since this park , after all, had a historical museum). But as a worker at 2 different museums myself (a docent), I can tell you for a fact that most museums ALREADY have more stuff than they can ever display.

That's not to say that it wouldn't have been cool (for md'rs and coin-collectors like ourselves) to have had that $5 gold in their museum. But , as a general rule, they are not perpetually opening up and swapping out displays anytime something new pops up. So too did some supervisor probably recognize that , if this coin essentially 'didn't exist' prior to the kid spotting it. Thus: .... who's been harmed ? NO ONE.

I know this probably doesn't pass legal muster , but .... we can ALL see and intuitively know the difference between that A) coin you just spotted in the ground, versus B) a coin that was perhaps already in their displays. No one would dispute that it would be a high-crime to take something out of a museum display. But some people see the coin in-the-ground as sort of a class by itself.
 
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