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18 hours ago, Tom_in_CA said:

Technically, if the ring or piece of jewelry meets the cutoff valuation criteria for your state of Illinois L&F laws , then your friend is in violation. 

Here is exactly what the law states:

(765 ILCS 1020/28) (from Ch. 50, par. 28)
    Sec. 28. In all cases where such lost goods, money, bank notes or other choses in action shall not exceed the sum of $100 in value and the owner thereof is unknown, the finder shall advertise the same at the court house, and if the owner does not claim such money, goods, bank notes or other choses in action within 6 months from the time of such advertisement, the ownership of such property shall vest in the finder and the court shall enter an order to that effect.
    If the value thereof exceeds the sum of $100, the county clerk, within 20 days after receiving the certified copy of the court's order shall cause a notice thereof to be published for 3 weeks successively in some public newspaper printed in this county and if the owner of such goods, money, bank notes, or other choses in action does not claim the same and pay the finder's charges and expenses within one year after the advertisement thereof as aforesaid, the ownership of such property shall vest in the finder and the court shall enter an order to that effect.
(Source: P.A. 83-1362.)

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35 minutes ago, Valens Legacy said:

within 6 months from the time of such advertisement

6 months.. Wow!

 

36 minutes ago, Valens Legacy said:

within one year after the advertisement

1 year.. Even bigger Wow! 

Thank you very much for that research Valens Legacy, is that the same for other U.S states as well? I'm pretty sure it's 3 months in Oz but you've got me thinking now.. I'll have to find out.. 

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1 minute ago, Erik Oostra said:

is that the same for other U.S states as well?

I am unsure of that as each state has their own rules. Here in this county the court has told us they can have the items after 30 days in most cases. But you must place it in the paper for at least 3 weeks for it to be legal.

Just remember if someone does claim it, they must pay your finders fee.

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3 minutes ago, Valens Legacy said:

each state has their own rules

This is from the Queensland Government website regarding found property..

Found property

If you find property that someone has obviously lost, take it to your local police station.

If you find goods or money, you can’t keep them. In fact, police can charge you for keeping goods or money you’ve found that you don’t hand in.

If you tell the police that you’ve found something of value, they may later return the goods to you if they can’t find the owner. 

 

I can't find any mention on the Queensland Police website about how long they hang on to found property before the finder gets to keep it.. It does say that: "if these items are not claimed by the owner within 30 days of written notice (i.e. publishing on this site), then the Commissioner may destroy or dispose of the items."

 

 

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Here in Victoria while chasing coins back in 1980 one of my boys found an expensive Automatic shot gun. No one claimed it, but neither my son (10 years old) or myself were able to obtain it. We did not want it anyway but wondered who or what happened to it, but did not believed it was destroyed. 

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9 hours ago, geof_junk said:

No one claimed it,

Maybe it was Ned Kelly's shotgun? 😆

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On 5/8/2021 at 2:38 AM, geof_junk said:

Here in Victoria while chasing coins back in 1980 one of my boys found an expensive Automatic shot gun. No one claimed it, but neither my son (10 years old) or myself were able to obtain it. We did not want it anyway but wondered who or what happened to it, but did not believed it was destroyed. 

Police get to keep a lot of stuff here in Calif if no one claims it... I know lots of cops. Tow truck companies really get some great stuff if not reclaimed...their just out their time and reg fees...you never have to buy a vehicle again if you own a two truck company 🙂 

I keep my finds unless someone asks me to help find something they lost...what would happen if I found a hoard of gold coins? I'd probably have to follow the book at that point..?? 

strick

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1 hour ago, strick said:

What would happen if I found a hoard of gold coins? I'd probably have to follow the book at that point..??

Not sure if that question was rhetorical....  That cache discovered in 2013 may answer your question, at least if what you find is anything of significant value.  Fortunately for the finders there, the USA government determined it wasn't theirs (from the above Wikpedia article):

On March 4, 2014, The U.S. Mint stated that "[they] do not have any information linking the Saddle Ridge Hoard coins to any thefts at any United States Mint facility",[16][17] and "[they've] done quite a bit of research, and we've got a crack team of lawyers, and trust me, if this was U.S. government property we'd be going after it."  (emphasis mine)

Publicity has it's pluses and minuses....

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That is what I was referring to... hard to believe it was that long ago already. 

strick

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I sometimes sit in bed at night 'dreaming' of these scenarios.  What if I found a single, not rare date, gold coin?  (Several here have already done that.)  Find of a lifetime?  So far, yes, and likely would remain that way.  Would I post pictures here?  Sure.  How about a single ultra-rare coin (meaning 10's of thousands of dollars or higher)?  If rare enough I would feel obligated (but not in a pressured way) to show it to the numismatic and detector world, paying them back in a way for all the joy I've gotten reading stories of similar finds.  And finally, what if I found a cache worth many 10's of thousands or more?   Other than singling out a coin that fits one of the above two descriptions, no.  I don't want to deal with the parasites coming out of the woodwork.

On a related topic (more related to the original post and thread than I have so far), I read recently of a sad story regarding certain rare numismatic finds.  In the past 100 years there have been a handful of USA minted coins that are true rarities.  Ignoring the gold coins (a few from the late 20's and early 30's) they are all mint error rarities such as the 1943 copper alloy and 1944 steel alloy cents.  Next to those, one of the rarest and maybe the most valuable is the 1969-S double die Lincoln Cent.  When first discovered the USA government decided they were counterfeit and confiscated (and destroyed!) the first few specimens.  Eventually the numismatic community confirmed that this coin was an authentic mint strike.  They are worth $10,000 and up in higher grades (Very Fine or better) and I'm sure even a worn or damaged specimen would fetch some nice jack.  (So, detectorists, it's possible to find one although the chances are astronomical given that their current estimated population is well less than 100.)  Oh, did those people who had theirs confiscated get reimbursed?  I hope so but not sure I want to know the real answer.

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