hypothetical question regards find

Imagine you are detecting on a hill get a signal and dig up a box and in it a large amount in cash.
What do you do ..... what can you do ......... hand it in? keep it?
Does anyone know what legal rights you would have or not have

A little more info needed here artrix. When you say a large amount of money, do you mean modern day currency, or in the form of of gold sovereigns?

Kon.

Yeah,c'mon Artrix..cough up..spill the beans..show us the money

Don't tell anyone, "Loose Lips Sink Ship"

As far as I know

Hand it in to the fuzz

Then it will get some media , depending on amount .

After 90 days if no valid claim then ,

as far as I know you would , could , should get it back

But

That’s as far as I know

artrix wrote:Imagine you are detecting on a hill get a signal and dig up a box and in it a large amount in cash.
What do you do ..... what can you do ......... hand it in? keep it?
Does anyone know what legal rights you would have or not have

If you find buried treasure trove, that is gold or silver objects such as coins, you will mostly miss out on keeping the loot. No matter who finds treasure trove, or where it’s found, there is an automatic vesting of possession and ownership not in owner, tenant or finder – but in the Crown (i.e. the government). After two tenants of rural land in Victoria turned up old gold sovereigns while digging post-holes, they sold some of the coins. Because the pair had found treasure trove which legally belonged to the Crown they were later actually charged with stealing the coins they had sold.

So do not blab about it if you want a chance of holding on to it.

Seeing as it belongs to the crown then you could contact the Queen  and she will decide what is to be done with treasure trove  find....As far as I know the Queen Is still the head of Australia and should be able to over power any claim the local Gov might think it has over the find.??

If you find a stash of modern Aussie money then you can spend it and hope you don't get sprung or better still; hand it in to the police and wait the designated time for it to be claimed and if it is not claimed then it is yours.

In any case the Government in Australia will take from you whatever you have found if it is treasure trove, artefacts or something of historic value and you will not receive anything in return other than a pat on the back.

https://www.lawyersconveyancing.com.au/real-estate-news/finders-keepers/

artrix wrote:Imagine you are detecting on a hill get a signal and dig up a box and in it a large amount in cash.
What do you do ..... what can you do ......... hand it in? keep it?
Does anyone know what legal rights you would have or not have

It seems that no matter which way you do it you will probably miss out, you hand it in to the cops and probably you will not see it again as it will either be seized by the crown or just disappear without trace into the system, if you don't hand it in and get caught with it you will still lose and also get fined for stealing, I asked the question about finding things like coins and valuables on the beach and so on as I also do some beach and park coin hunting and according to the law if you find something and don't hand it in or return it to the owner, if say it was a watch with a name on it (as an example) you will be charged with theft if you are caught with it, and rightly morally you should return it to the owner anyway, but this law even applies to loose coinage, notes, jewelery etc, the charge would be "theft by finding"

As petty as this seems its the system, and I would imagine that if you wandered into the local cop shop with a hand full of crusty coins that you found on the beach then they would probably laugh at you and send you on your way as they would have to do the paperwork for it even though you are doing whats legally right by the law, but common sense tells you that would be almost impossible to identify who lost some of these things and also most people would not bother reporting lost items in the first place unless they though they had been stolen from them not simply lost.

Its a moral dilemma really and would depend on what you found, these days with the drug trade there have been large amounts of cash found stashed in buildings and under bridges etc but if you were to hand something like that in you would most certainly never see a cent of it thats for sure as the crown would seize it as proceeds of crime probably, most people would probably have a long hard think about it, if you were a goody two shoes then probably you would hand it in and take your chances, but if your situation was different and you were doing it tough then you probably would keep it and take the chance of not getting caught with it.

cheers

au-fever

Sorry for not replying have been very under the weather... it was just a question I have always wondered about. Many years ago someone I new came across nearly $70,000 in a bag hidden in the bush. He assumed ill gotten gain and as far as I know he quietly put it away for a rainy day

As possibly mentioned

Different rules in different states

There is no threshold in Victoria, the new heritage laws make it quite clear ANYTHING over 70 years old can be claimed under the act if found

ttrash wrote:As possibly mentioned

Different rules in different states

There is no threshold in Victoria, the new heritage laws make it quite clear ANYTHING over 70 years old can be claimed under the act if found

Well in that case the 1947 halfpence I found must be handed in to the police station for the Gov. to spend.

We all know that for any large community to work in harmony laws are required to keep the peace and to protect people from each other. (We are all born mean and nasty and will rape  murder and steal from each other if left to our own natural ways) and so we require constraints placed upon us.

However those who make the laws will very quickly become criminal minded where large sums of money are concerned and will adjust the laws to benefit themselves through acts of parlement and senate action.

The Queen of England claimed Australia and all of its mineral wealth for the crown through bluff and bluster.
The state governments claim control of each particular state and everything in the ground when in fact nobody has ownership of any of the earth. It is the natural abode of all forms of life....most of which dose not even know we humans exist.