That's a nice thing to find, and hopefully you'll get them back. I myself would have kept it secret, having no love for the authorities in general.
and that is where you go wrong !!!! , very wrong !!!!
he ll either get the coins back to be disposed as he likes , or a coroner will be appointed to determine the market value and he will receive the monetary equivalent of the value of the coins , while the coins will be preserved as a
hoard and placed in a museum.
there are authorities and authories and there are laws and laws
finds like these need to be studied and classified and that s why it is important to have the right legislation in place, legislation that allow these finds to come to light and not to be disposed in the black market.
that s why the UK laws on the subject should be copied by places like
Italy ,
Greece or
Turkey so that finds like these dug up in these third world countries (and believe me they are a lot more common than finds in the Uk) end up studied , classified and sold legally in the collector market.
of course
had he found them in a country where the find belongs to some corrupt state and he ll get nothing out of it then the story would change
how many lots of
ancient coins unearth in
turkey (for example) end up sold in european
auction houses or at european fairs ?
quite a lot.......