DD14: Finders, Not Keepers

Who owns gold that has been in the ground for thirteen centuries? Not the person who digs it up, and not quite the person whose field it lies in. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the answer is written in the Treasure Act 1996, and the most famous test it has ever faced was the Staffordshire Hoard, the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found. The story of that hoard is also the story of how the state puts a price on buried treasure, and the answer turns out to be the auction room.

The find

According to Guinness World Records, "On 5 July 2009, metal detectorist Terry Herbert" was searching a field near Lichfield when he came across gold and silver metalwork, and he "reported the find to Staffordshire Portable Antiquities Scheme". The archaeologists who recovered it, writing in The Antiquaries Journal, record that it lay on arable land in the parish of Ogley Hay and that "More than 3,940 pieces were retrieved, mostly of gold or silver alloy". The objects "appear to range from the late sixth to the early eighth centuries AD".

This was not a jeweller's stock. The Guinness record lists "97 sword pommel caps and 71 hilt plates", and Birmingham Museums says the objects were "buried some 1400 years ago". Why anyone buried them is still open. In the fieldwork team's words, "The reasons for burial remain, as yet, largely unknown."

What the law calls treasure

Section 1 of the Treasure Act 1996 sets the test. An object is treasure if it is "any object at least 300 years old when found" which, not being a coin, has metallic content "of which at least 10 per cent by weight is precious metal".

The Act replaced something much older. The government's Code of Practice puts it plainly: "The common law of treasure trove was abolished by the Act." But the old idea survives inside the new law. A find that would once have been treasure trove is still treasure if it is made more than half of gold or silver, was "deliberately hidden with the intention of recovery", and has no known owner or heir. For that class, "There is no age limit". The Code's own examples are "hoards of 19th or 20th century coins (such as sovereigns) or jewellery buried in the ground or hidden in a building". A tin of sovereigns under a floorboard can be treasure, however recent.

The law moved again in 2023. The Treasure (Designation) (Amendment) Order 2023, "Coming into force 30th July 2023", added a class for metal objects at least 200 years old that, in the Code's words, "provide an exceptional insight into an aspect of national or regional history, archaeology or culture".

Who owns it

Section 4 is short and absolute. When treasure is found, "it vests, subject to prior interests and rights", in a franchisee if there is one, and "otherwise, in the Crown". It applies "whatever the circumstances in which it was left (including being lost or being left with no intention of recovery)".

The finder's part is a duty, not a right. Under section 8 a finder must tell the coroner, and "The notice period is fourteen days beginning with" the day after the find, or the day the finder first believes the object may be treasure. Failing to report is an offence, with a penalty of up to "imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months", a fine, or both.

The price of a hoard

If the Crown owns the gold, why would a finder ever see a penny? Because of section 10. When treasure is to go to a museum, the Secretary of State must decide whether a reward is paid, and set the treasure's market value. "The total reward must not exceed" that value, and in a line worth reading twice, "Payment of the reward is not enforceable against a museum or the Secretary of State." The reward is a policy, not a debt.

The Code explains how the value is found. The Treasure Valuation Committee is made up of "independent experts representing finders, museums, archaeology, commercial dealers" and others, and its job is to recommend a figure close to what the object would fetch "as reflected in the anticipated hammer price for the object(s) at public auction". The state does not invent a price for a national treasure. It asks what the saleroom would pay. Then, as a rule, "The Committee normally recommends that landowners receive 50% of the reward, and that the remaining 50% is shared between the finders."

The money does not come from the Treasury. "The acquiring museum is responsible for raising the money to fund rewards," the Code says, and it admits the consequence: in some cases "it will not be possible for a museum to acquire the find".

Buying it back

That is exactly what the Staffordshire Hoard tested. The Museums Association reported in January 2010 that two museums, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent, set out to raise "£3.3m purchase price by the 17 April deadline", which it described as "the statutory four months after the Treasure Valuation Committee put a price on the artefacts". "The Art Fund has contributed £300,000", the two city councils had each given £100,000, and once the hoard was secured "another £1.7m needs to be spent on conservation and display". The public was invited to give. Today Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery says that "Hundreds of pieces from the Hoard are on show".

So gold buried around the seventh century belonged to the Crown the moment it came out of the ground, was priced by the standard of the open market, and then had to be bought, at that price, by the public. The reward goes to finder and landowner, which is the whole design: pay finders fairly, and they report.

Why it matters

A sword fitting cast before England existed was priced in 2009 against the same yardstick as a ring sold this week: what a willing buyer would pay a willing seller. Gold carries its value across thirteen centuries, and the law simply asks the market what it is.

If you ever find something in the ground, the Code's advice is to seek help from your local Finds Liaison Officer, and the fourteen days start the day after the find. Gold that comes to us has a different history: it was made to be worn, and every hallmark on it is a record that an assay office tested it.

Every piece we sell is hallmarked, or its exemption is evidenced. You can read the marks yourself with our free identifier, see what is on the shelf, or sell with Chapman Gold. Nothing here is legal or financial advice.