Finders Keepers?

[midalake]

If I find something of value and no one has spoke to me before I leave. IT IS  MINE.........

[kac]

On 5/7/2021 at 1:34 AM, Valens Legacy said:

(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.)

According to that law then everyone is safe as long as they get the item in question priced out at a local pawn shop in which case no matter what they will value it at $20 🙂

[Valens Legacy]

2 hours ago, kac said:

According to that law then everyone is safe as long as they get the item in question priced out at a local pawn shop

I think that you have forgotten that this is the State of Illinois, and politicians wrote this law. We have some of the best pick pockets in office that money can buy. Think of it this way, go to any attorney and have him to handle a case for you and then try to pay him $20 for his services. Here if you find a nickel from the early 1900's of no value, they will determine the current worth of it with inflation, add additional fees for historical value from where it came from, demand to know who lost it, and then with any luck it just might stay under that $100 level. However if they say you can keep it, then they will demand a tax that is no less than 500% more than it's worth.

I really wish we could use the pawn shop for a source of getting price of what it is worth, but even they want full retail for most of their junk without a warranty.

[geof_junk]

The gold rush with detectors started in 1979 in Victoria when a team ( I can only remember Bob Shephard ) hit Wedderburn Vic. Aust. They found at least a shoe box each of large nuggets. The rush was on. There were that many speakers going beep, even the Aust. lyerbird ( .......Lyrebird sounds.....) were going off everwhere. That when a set of earphone was the only way of not being distracted from the racket. For sure Earphones gives the best information from your detector. (but then again I have not seen graphical representing of a signal on gold.)  

[sevastras]

On the Minelab website is a find of silver bars with the CTX 3030 in Mexico with the possibility of it being Spanish.  Value is estimated at over $100k USD.  https://www.minelab.com/community/news?article=289984

I wouldnt turn that over to Mexican police or government and I sure as hell wouldnt turn it over to Spain.  

I have however lost sleep over how I would get it back to the US.🤷‍♂️

(I have concluded that I would higher a private jet for the $20k or so it would cost)

[Joe Beechnut OBN]

On 5/10/2021 at 10:10 PM, midalake said:

If I find something of value and no one has spoke to me before I leave. IT IS  MINE.........

Amen...

[Tom_in_CA]

I love all the "amens" and "atteboys".   But what strikes me as odd, is that some md'rs (not on this forum per se) will KNOCK THEMSELVES SILLY fretting over the nuances of whether a shovel is "metal or plastic".   Or whether their digging is construed as "probing" vs "digging" (since, gasp, they found some prohibition about "dig").   And all such worrying about whether or not they're technically obeying all laws.  

 

Yet when you show them that they're disobeying their state's L&F laws, they READILY chuckle and say "too bad" or "who really cares" or "so what" .   Why aren't they equally as worried and fretting about these laws, versus some silly ancillary language that *could* apply to hunting their local sandbox ?     Strange.