# Accidental finding of treasure

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953>\
**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:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/21 "2012-03-08T04:23:19Z")

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I know a guy who found a horde of gold Roman coins in the mud on the banks of the Thames in London.

Unfortunately for him he’s an archaeologist and he was working on a dig. He did get his pictures in the papers though.

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**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/22 "2012-09-27T04:49:48Z")

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> [@clairobscur](#):
>
> 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.

Got a link? This sounds fascinating.

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**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/23 "2012-09-27T14:53:34Z")

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> [@Hairy\_Bob](#):
>
> 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.

Ah, the Romans. Plaguing british constructors for centuries, first by making them look inadequate, and lately by obstructing their excavations.  
My mum remembers when they turned up the first of hte [Blackfriars ships](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackfriars_Ships). That was apparently good for many lunchtimes of archaeology-watching while eating her packed lunch.

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**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-finding-of-treasure/614953/24 "2012-09-28T01:10:49Z")

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The golden Buddha statue at Wat Traimit in Bankok weighed 5 tonnes and was discovered accidentally only in the 1950s as it was covered in plaster.

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