Finders Keepers? What to do if you find treasure on your land What is defined as treasure? What do you do if you find it on your land? And do you need to pay tax on any rewards that you are given? Graham Doubtfire, Private Client Tax Partner, needed to brush up on some unusual tax legislation when one of his clients found gold coins on their land.
Valuing the Find Once the Finds Liaison Officer or local museum curator has examined the find they will write a report which then goes to the coroner who will hold an inquest. Museums have the opportunity to acquire treasure, and finds are valued by an independent expert committee (the Treasures Valuation Committee). A reward, equal to the full market value of the treasure will be divided between the finder, the landowner and/ or the occupier, unless you made a different agreement. If the find was made as a result of an archaeological dig, the volunteers and archaeologists are not entitled to any reward. If the finder acted in bad faith, for example through trespassing on your land or trying to conceal what they found, they are very unlikely to receive anything. We Found Gold! Andrew and Jude Blois who run the Hinton Estate near Southwold really did find a hoard of gold coins on their land in 2018. Andrew commented: “As far as metal detecting goes, I think it is about as exciting as it gets; finding gold! The coins are around 2,000 years old and some of them are the only recorded examples of their type; it is apparently one of the most diverse finds of its type. The coins originate from all over East Anglia; why they ended up in field near Blythburgh I doubt we will ever know.”
Firstly, let’s look at the official definition of treasure. The term ‘treasure’ is defined by the 1996 Treasure Act as:
3. any object which would have been treasure trove if found before 24 September 1997. In practice the only recent finds which would have fallen within this category but not within category 1 have been hoards of gold and silver coins less than 300 years old;
1. any object at least 300 years old when found which:
• is not a coin but has metallic content of which at least 10 per cent by weight is precious metal (ie gold or silver); • when found, is one of at least two coins in the same find which are at least 300 years old at that time and have that percentage of precious metal; or • when found, is one of at least ten coins in the same find which are at least 300 years old at that time; 2. any object at least 200 years old when found which belongs to a class designated by the Secretary of State. At the time of writing, a prehistoric object (other than a coin) any part of which is of precious metal and prehistoric objects (other than coins) any part of which is of other metal provided there are two or more in the same find have been designated as treasure;
4. any object which, when found, is part of the same find as:
• an object within categories (1), (2) or (3) above, found at the same time or earlier; or
• an object found earlier which would be within categories (1) or (2) above if it had been found at the same time. So if you dig up historic objects on your land, the first thing to do is to confirm whether they fall within the definition above. You must report all finds of treasure to your local coroner either within 14 days after the day it was discovered or within 14 days after you realised the find might be treasure. Your local Finds Liaison Officer ( www.finds.org.uk ) can help you in determining whether a find constitutes potential treasure and can report the find to the coroner on your behalf. Failure to report a find of treasure can land you with an unlimited fine, a custodial sentence of up to three months, or both.
4 | SCRUTTON BLAND | AGRICULTURE AND FARMING
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