Hey don, did this guy break the law?

[King Ranch]

I found this site tonight, www.atochatreasures.com/edperry.htm This guy is from the Mclarty Treasure Museum, he's a park service specialist. This is the same guy that was on, the best way to find cash and treasure show. Did he break the law?

 

[therick]

n/t

 

[JW]

n/t

 

[DonNWF]

If you donate your historical finds to the State, The State Historical Interests Are happy to accept them.
(As stated in the Website all artifacts in the museium have been donated to the State of Fl).
If you don't,, the State of Fl has the right to confiscate those items, without recourse, and prosecute you.

The problem with the law is that classifying any item over fifty years old as an artifact in which the state has a proprietary interest, make amateur collectors law breakers. We are not talking looting historic sites here. If you find (on state lands/waters) a 1908 Indian head penny (or a 1950.s penny for that matter) and keep it you are breaking State law. How historical are these items.? If you find a 10,000 yr old arrowhead on a Fla sandbar the same law applies. . Is the arrowhead significant? The State has barrels of 10,000 yr old arrowheads. The basic purpose of Fla law and similar Federal/State laws, is not so much to preserve and protect artifacts, but to discourage, intimidate, and harass, amateur collectors .

I believe that amateur collectors have a right of ownership to items found. However I also believe some items to be of such historical significants that the public have a right to have the item placed in the public domain.. A reasonable law would permit voluntary donation and or purchase of the item at a fair price such as England has had for years.

It is generally permitted to hunt Fla beaches from the water line to the dune line without a problem. You also can hunt in the water off most public beaches but not in all State Parks and not in areas that have been leased from the state. .But just because you hunt in a legal area does not mean you can keep items protected by Florida's stupid law of State ownership.

I'm not paranoid about this but if I found an item of historical interest I would be very careful about displaying it on this forum or any other..The State of Fla has confiscated items. The number of prosecutions has been small because of obvious difficulties in making cases and cost. Thats why alll my finds come from private property. , Don


..

 

[mattockman]

n/t

 

[Silverstar_Lawman]

n/t

 

[mick]

" If you find (on state lands/waters) a 1908 Indian head penny (or a 1950.s penny for that matter) and keep it you are breaking State law"

A penny is legal tender. Is that still breaking the law in FL? It's not against the law according to the feds

 

[DonNWF]

You have just pointed out some of the absurdity of this type of law. The part of the Fla law that I read does not define what an "artifact " is, only that it is an item at least 50 years old. .It does not make any distinctions between coins, rusty horseshoes, ,civil war bullets.. or thousand year old arrow heads. Historic value of such an item is determined by the State. In this case by arbitrarily setting an age.limit. The bottom line is that this non-specific. law give the Fla control over almost anything found on State lands.waters... Last year, after a combined effort by all categories of artifact hunters, the State of Alabama rewrote their recovery laws to define -clearly- what an historic item of interest to the state is. Indian head pennies and Wheat pennies do not qualify. Check it out. Its a good law and one that should be of interest to all MDers.

 

[John 'n' W.Va]

A metal detecting club needs to have a hunt at an older home and collect all the 50+ garbage. Then turn your finds over to the state. Take it to the state capital and dump it on the steps. Its not garbage, it's artifacts!!! Obey the law.