# Accidental finding of treasure **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 6, 2012, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953 "2012-03-06T18:54:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/1 "2012-03-06T18:54:58Z")
Throughout my 40 years in the construction business, which took me to many parts of the world, I often wondered why nothing of significance was ever unearthed in all of the excavations we did on construction sites. In fact, other than archaeological finds, I don’t recall any construction company making headlines for finding a hidden trove of gold doubloons and pieces of eight. One would think that with all the digging we’ve done on this planet, that there might have been some sort of significant find. Anybody ever heard of such a thing, or have a link to a find like this? ---
**Author:** ![Vita\_Beata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@Vita\_Beata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vita_Beata)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/2 "2012-03-06T19:17:04Z")
[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33004687/ns/technology\_and\_science-science/t/largest-hoard-anglo-saxon-treasure-found/](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33004687/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/largest-hoard-anglo-saxon-treasure-found/) Chefguy, I hope I’m not misunderstanding what you’re asking for … but a farmer with a metal detector found a fortune in 2009. ---
**Author:** ![Teacake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Teacake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teacake)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/3 "2012-03-06T19:38:17Z")
[First result](http://travel.aol.co.uk/2012/02/14/builders-find-1-million-treasure-in-basement-of-jamie-olivers/) on Google for “builders find treasure” (without quotes). So it does happen. Maybe you were just digging in the wrong place. ---
**Author:** ![lawbuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@lawbuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawbuff)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/4 "2012-03-06T20:06:57Z")
In my state, Ohio, Treasure Trove becomes the property of the finder, even if on anothers land you are on by permission. I have read case law on this before, there may be an excpetion for such as Meteorites, fossils, etc. I would have to check again, but money/coins, etc., is the old age “finders keepers”. When they were digging up ground about 5 or 6 years ago where the Philadelphia White House once stood, they found stained glass, etc., from the windows. The U.S. is over 3 million sq.miles, but IF you dig in the right place, BINGO! ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/5 "2012-03-06T21:06:48Z")
On the other hand, I feel badly for the guy in Toronto who was doing renos and accidentally dsicovered a mummified baby. [http://www.thestar.com/news/article/239573--renovator-uncovers-mummified-infant](http://www.thestar.com/news/article/239573--renovator-uncovers-mummified-infant) Well, maybe not for the guy exactly, though finding that would be a bit of a shock - but the poor schlubs who owned the house he was working on. I can’t imagine being known as “the mummified baby house” is going to do wonders for its resale value. 😃 And imagine how strange it would be to have lived in that house for years and not known about the mummified baby in the walls? ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/6 "2012-03-07T03:49:39Z")
In Guangzhou, a tomb full of treasure was found on the construction site for a hotel. They erected a museum on the site instead. > **[Museum of the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_the_Mausoleum_of_the_Nanyue_King)** > > .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct,.mw-parser-output .geo-inline-hidden{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}23°8′15″N 113°15′40″E / 23.13750°N 113.26111°E / 23.13750; 113.26111 > The Museum of the Western Han Dynasty Mausoleum of the Nanyue King (Chinese: 西漢南越王博物館 Cantonese: Sai Hon Nam Yuet Wong Mou Bok Mat Gu... ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/7 "2012-03-07T04:05:28Z")
I remember the guy with the metal detector, but that’s not what I was looking for really. I remember another metal detector find many years ago in Australia by a retired barber who found a very large gold nugget. The Guangzhou story is more of an archaeological find that happens quite often, albeit perhaps not as rich. The restaurant story is more in line with what I was thinking about. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/8 "2012-03-07T10:28:21Z")
I assume it’s much more common on this side of the pond, where people have been hiding stuff for 2000+ years. The largest “treasure” ever found in France was discovered while demolishing some old Parisian building. Unfortunately for the workers, along with the treasure, there was a 17th century will that was deemed valid by courts. So the money went to the remote descendants of the man who had hidden it. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/9 "2012-03-07T10:57:47Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > In fact, other than archaeological finds, I don’t recall any construction company making headlines for finding a hidden trove of gold doubloons and pieces of eight. One would think that with all the digging we’ve done on this planet, that there might have been some sort of significant find. I really doubt there is very much of it. Not many people have troves of gold to bury, and those that do don’t bury it, and those that do bury it dig it up again. You are really looking at a very special set of circumstances: someone has a heap of gold, has to hide it rather than do something more sensible with it, and then \*everyone \*who knows where it is dies without being able to tell anyone. I think it’s all extremely unlikely, so the number of troves to be found is miniscule, and the number of finds is only a tiny fraction of that. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/10 "2012-03-07T14:45:34Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > I assume it’s much more common on this side of the pond, where people have been hiding stuff for 2000+ years. A lot of religious images in Spain had been hidden and got found centuries later, but I can’t recall any cases of one coming with a mountain of sextertii, or even reales. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/11 "2012-03-07T14:51:13Z")
[Case of a hoard lost within living memory and since accidentally rediscovered.](http://hackneycitizen.co.uk/2011/11/09/hackney-hoard-of-gold-coins-goes-up-for-sale/) The classic example of a hoard discovered in England in an urban context is the Cheapside Hoard, which was unearthed in central London 100 years ago. But the other major hoards discovered in England since then, such as those from Frome, Hoxne, Mildenhall, Snettisham and Staffordshire, were found in rural areas. That imbalance is partly due to several biases. The obvious one would be that metal detectorists tend to search in the countryside. Another would be that a hoard buried within a town was probably less likely to be lost as a result of the person depositing it being unable to remember where exactly they had buried it. Another would be that urban sites are more likely to have been redeveloped, including in periods when such discoveries might go unrecorded. But there is another reason. Despite the fact that towns had higher densities of population (obviously), it need not follow that hoards were more likely to be buried there than in rural locations. Rural isolation may itself have been a factor. Now, it is undoubtedly true that a vastly higher proportion of England is urban than was the case in the past. But most of the areas that used to be rural still are. Given that most of England has never been built over and that hoards are extremely rare anyway, it’s not too surprising that the English examples tend not to be discovered as a result of building work. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/12 "2012-03-07T14:56:08Z")
Builders here would _hate_ to find treasure. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a secret policy of immediate destroying any old stuff they dig up. You see, the law ([Malta Convention](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valletta_Treaty)) > [@](#): > > The Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological heritage of Europe, usually referred to as the Valletta Treaty or Malta Convention, is an initiative from the Council of Europe. The treaty from 1992, aims to protect the European archaeological heritage “as a source of European collective memory and as an instrument for historical and scientific study. All remains and objects and any other traces of humankind from past times are considered elements of the archaeological heritage. The notion of archaeological heritage includes structures, constructions, groups of buildings, developed sites, moveable objects, monuments of other kinds as well as their context, whether situated on land or under water.” > Its main effect is that project developers have to make sure they don’t destroy anything of archaeological value when they build something. Hence, since it was signed in 1992, archaeology has become part of construction work in many areas in Europe. So if something is found, all work has to stop and archeologers called in. If the contructor is lucky, the archeologists give the green light quickly and the builders are only a couple days behind schedule. If more is found, excavations can easily take a year. You can imagine the cost and the hassle to a contractor. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/13 "2012-03-07T16:15:04Z")
Around here builders routinely unearth stuff from the civil war, occasionally some of it is very valuable. ---
**Author:** ![Themenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ee59a6/32.png) [@Themenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Themenin)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/14 "2012-03-07T17:19:07Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > I really doubt there is very much of it. Not many people have troves of gold to bury, and those that do don’t bury it, and those that do bury it dig it up again. You are really looking at a very special set of circumstances: someone has a heap of gold, has to hide it rather than do something more sensible with it, and then \*everyone \*who knows where it is dies without being able to tell anyone. > > I think it’s all extremely unlikely, so the number of troves to be found is miniscule, and the number of finds is only a tiny fraction of that. This is probably valid for Australia, and even most of the US and UK. But Europe for instance, has spent much of the last few thousand years at war. there are certainly plenty of cases of people hiding gold from advancing armies. Not to mention tax evasion (and its medieval counterparts). It’s also worth bearing in mind that you might not hear about it if one of your neighbors came across a hidden treasure in their foundations, you’d just notice them heading off on that luxury cruise 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/15 "2012-03-07T17:51:43Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > I assume it’s much more common on this side of the pond, where people have been hiding stuff for 2000+ years. > > The largest “treasure” ever found in France was discovered while demolishing some old Parisian building. Unfortunately for the workers, along with the treasure, there was a 17th century will that was deemed valid by courts. So the money went to the remote descendants of the man who had hidden it. Wait, the will was buried with the lost treasure? Because if so, you’d figure a barrel of burning trash on the construction site would take care of that… ---
**Author:** ![Hairy\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecc23a/32.png) [@Hairy\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hairy_Bob)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/16 "2012-03-07T19:37:46Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > So if something is found, all work has to stop and archeologers called in. If the contructor is lucky, the archeologists give the green light quickly and the builders are only a couple days behind schedule. If more is found, excavations can easily take a year. You can imagine the cost and the hassle to a contractor. I’ve heard of similar goings-on here in Blighty, a new water pipeline is being laid across 20-odd miles of countyside not far from me, they’ve been on with it for over 2 years now. The project was initially planned for 15 months, but problems arose quite early on when ‘Roman remains’ were discovered on the outskirts of an historic village, whilst digging out a trench. All work in that area was stopped (though they carried on and laid the rest of the pipe) and hordes of archaeologists turned up to have a good old nosy and dig up a strip along 600 or so yards of a farmers field. As of last week they were still there, which apparently infuriates the construction contractor in charge of the job, as he still has to foot the bill for renting the patch of land until it’s decided that all has been found/whatever the criteria for ending a dig are, so he can lay the last bit of pipe and fill the trench in! I’m sure the contractor is laying it on a bit thick, but the farmer in question tells me he keeps getting monthly cheques for the agreed amount from the guy, so I imagine there’s a grain of truth to it. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/17 "2012-03-07T20:26:03Z")
> [@Vita\_Beata](#): > > [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33004687/ns/technology\_and\_science-science/t/largest-hoard-anglo-saxon-treasure-found/](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33004687/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/largest-hoard-anglo-saxon-treasure-found/) > Chefguy, I hope I’m not misunderstanding what you’re asking for .. but a farmer with a metal detector found a fortune in 2009. I just saw this collection in person, and man, is it freakin’ cool. That is all. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/18 "2012-03-08T03:36:07Z")
> [@SirRay](#): > > Wait, the will was buried with the lost treasure? Because if so, you’d figure a barrel of burning trash on the construction site would take care of that… Easy to say in insight, but I assume the workers never envisioned that this old piece of paper would prevent them from getting the money. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/19 "2012-03-08T03:47:13Z")
Another odd thing about this treasure : the designated heir, the daughter of the man who had hidden the treasure, married at some point a countryside nobleman. This man’s own stash of gold (at least it was supposed to be his) was also found in his castle during the last century. So, she probably lost two heirlooms. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/20 "2012-03-08T04:03:21Z")
After looking up, in fact the workers didn’t even realize at first that what they had found were gold coins. Only after one of them figured it out, and honestly went to the police to declare the find was a thorough search organized and then only were most of the coins _and the will_ recovered. So they couldn’t have destroyed it anyway. Also, it took 14 years for the issue to be settled by courts. And another weird detail : the original owner (I mean the man who hide the treasure) didn’t die in a natural way. He had vanished one day never to be seen again. Finally, the remote heirs had a family tale about a treasure hidden by an ancestor and never recovered. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953.md?page=2)