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My UK Trip .... Double Ancient Gold!


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On 12/14/2018 at 1:53 PM, phrunt said:

Hopefully you win find of the month Tim! Well deserved.

 

Well phrunt, I didn't win the Minelab find of the month contest. As a matter of fact,  nobody won it. It seems like nobody in November had a worthy entry into their contest. It seems thye didn't give out a voucher at all. Hmm. Funny.

2 hours ago, Joshbiz said:

Tim, that was some amazing finds before the last day and then to have gold to top it! simply amazing.. Please let us know when you get them back? Those are amazing pieces of gold.. just amazed.  What did you win for finds of the week?

Thank you for sharing,

Josh

 

Thank you Josh!

I am still waiting for the Brithish Museum to either claim or disclaim the items. It seems the BM is currently extremely backed up with finds and recordings of finds. So there not much in the way of progress as of yet. And as I'm sure you read above, I wasn't lucky enough to get anything out of Minelab for the finds, BUT... I did win Find of the Year with the Colchester metal detecting club!

 

Here was the announcement on the club's forum. 

Wis Tim's monster gold find wins 'find of the year'

award2005.jpg

Landslide victory for Tim's mega chunk off XXXX's old land to win find of the year, see size does matter.lmfao.gif Tim wins the free trip next season and the engraved silver urn to keep, his name is also etched on the clubs shield of honour.cool3.gif

2nd place was Mindy's amazing medieval gold ring and 3rd was Alaskan's Steve's Celtic gold votive offering.

Big congrats to Tim.

This ingot is 3oz of pure yellow wee_hee2_cut.gifclap2.gifhd4.gifbutt2.gif
goldingot.jpggoldingot2.jpg
goldingot3.jpggoldingot4.jpg


Monster ancient gold ingot - 81.54g,40.82mm L, 21.05mm W, 10.02mm T - reported as treasure to museum
 
?I think you all know that Alaska Steve guy. ?
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I’m really happy you got find of the year with the club Tim. I voted for you because you deserved it. The whole thing with Minelab massively irritated me however. As you know I put you in touch with Minelab due to your incredible finds, and if anything it seems like they skipped a month just to ignore you. It left me very embarrassed and I will never refer anyone to them again because of that. It left me that much more pleased that you got rewarded via the club however.

I got all my regular finds from September back after a few months, but I am unhappy that the museums are basically sitting on the treasure finds now and not processing anything. I am getting ready to send my email trying to light a fire under them. The entire system is built on trust. They trust we will turn in the treasure finds. We trust they will get processed in reasonable time. I was ok with a year, but some people are now on their third year and that’s completely unacceptable. It means people will not want to turn in their treasure finds and will pocket them. That in turn could cause the whole system to break down. I have to wonder if there are people in the archeology community there who are hoping for just that.

I was expecting to either settle up or get my find back by the time I return this fall. If that does not happen it will likely be my last visit to the U.K. and I will be telling them just that in my email. It’s not my find so much as the principle of the thing. The club is doing a fantastic job, but the government is not holding up their end of the deal, and that’s just wrong.

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Tim, That is so cool that you win another trip out there. Congratulations on Find of the year!! I think you will have to be in a frame of mind as your going to find amazing stuff and possibly top last year, but at least try too.

Not trying to be nosey and maybe Steve could answer this better but what could those two Gold pieces cost? It wont be scrap price. Would you buy it back if it cost you another $15,000. They are so cool I would want them back but it would be hard to shell out half the cost of the two gold items? Could you haggle with the property owner?

I guess you will find out hopefully sooner than later..

Great stories guy. Cant wait to hear more..

 

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1 hour ago, Joshbiz said:

Not trying to be nosey and maybe Steve could answer this better but what could those two Gold pieces cost? It wont be scrap price. Would you buy it back if it cost you another $15,000. They are so cool I would want them back but it would be hard to shell out half the cost of the two gold items? Could you haggle with the property owner?

The property owners are very good and as a rule have not been greedy. Most gold finds get valued at melt price or a tad more. Remember it is a split.

Let’s say the museums did not want my gold find. That means it is now a negotiation between me and the property owner. I either pay him half the negotiated value to keep the item, or they pay me half the value and they keep it. So the property owner says my piece is a million dollar piece and I say “wow, great deal for you, you get a million dollar piece by only paying me $500,000”

If the value is fair both sides should feel like they can sell it later for about twice what got paid. So there is really no incentive to inflate the value. It’s the old “you split the gold in two piles, and I pick my half system”. It works for prospectors and works in this case normally also.

My find is being called a Celtic votive offering but I have seen things that make me think it might also be a Roman cloak clasp. It weighs just under 8 grams. I might be willing to pay as much as the total gold value by weight, but that would be about it, and even then I would have to think it over. If the property owner thinks it’s worth a lot more than that he can have it and I’ll take the cash.

At least that’s my understanding of it all... somebody can chime in if they have more to add or think I have it messed up. Luckily for me it’s not a big deal. I made the find and have the photos to prove it. Possession is kind of secondary for me.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

Congratulations to both Tim and Steve on their great finds during their 2018 Colchester hunt.  Also found the discussion by individuals about their thoughts on the Treasures Act, sharing the cost of the finds with the landowners and their thoughts on what happens to their finds and whether they receive all the finds they made when they receive them back in their home in North America. 

I have had the opportunity to enjoy two trips to Colchester and one trip for two weeks to the GPAA property outside of Nome, Alaska and have never felt that I didn't receive my money's worth from any of the trips.  Each trip was a trip of a lifetime because each allowed me to experience something special, to meet new people and make new friends and to do something or find something that I would not otherwise have had the opportunity to do.

In spite of a few hiccups along the way, would I do it again?  Darned tootin I would, in a dog gone minute,  if I had the money and wasn't so darned old and stiff and out of shape.  LOL

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The pandemic did not help, adding an extra year to the three it’s now taken, to get my treasure find released and returned. I’ll admit that has let the air out of my desire to go back for another round. I waited a year to get my first treasure find back, but now that time has doubled or tripled. Some of us are too old for those kinds of waits! :laugh:

I did get notification that my gold find was disclaimed, but still not at end of process for some reason. I do not understand why the long delay after finds have been officially disclaimed. I imagine Tim is caught up in the same delay. Apparently finds have piled up at the processing end, but the authorities have done little to add resources for getting finds back, and things are just getting worse with time.

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They should document them then return them to the finder with a note that they can not be sold or damaged until they are fully cleared. The way the system is going it is no wonder some people try to avoid declaring their finds.😞 The finder already had it before they disclosed the find, can't they be trusted now. 

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