...what do I say when I'm about to leave with a pocket full of silver and gold and they ask if I found anything good? If I say "oh, nothing" then I'm a liar and a thief, and if I hold back even one item then I'm still a thief......
Word gets around.
Your right it is his property but it's still a slimy thing to do to a guy, let him work all day knowing well that he want's to keep his finds and then take them because he wasn't clear up front. It would be no different than letting a neighbor's kid cut your lawn for some extra money and then paying him a penny because the kid never set a price up front.
I've only searched one yard that belonged to my mom's friend. I asked before I started if she'd lost anything of value that I should be looking for. She hadn't. When I was done I had a handful of clad, one silver dime, a chauffeur's badge, and a Fossil watch. I laid them all out for her to see and asked if she wanted any of it. She found them interesting but allowed me to keep everything.
I was pretty vague in my initial post about how I feel about this topic of sharing or not sharing finds with a private property owner... all I said was that I know “that I need to be careful how I manage things when hunting private property”. Here’s my full take, for what it’s worth:
In my opinion, it’s equally low for a detectorist to withhold finds from a property owner as it is for a property owner to just take everything found during a hunt and leaving the MDer with nothing except the trash. Toysoldier’s post is spot on IMO - withholding finds feels slimy. I know, because I’ve done it - and I only needed to do it once to realize I never wanted to do it again. In a way, it’s a slippery slope...if you can justify that, you can almost justify hunting private property without permission, can’t you? At the same time, Ron71 has a point too - a property owner taking all the finds completely disrespects a detectorist’s time, experience, and investment in equipment.
The solution in my experience has been simple - I
really talk with the person I’ve secured permission with. That doesn’t mean I have to spend a lot of
time talking to them - sometimes I glean all I need to know instantly, sometimes it takes a few minutes, depends on the person. But here’s my key when asking permission: if they say “yes”, I always ask “are you interested in seeing what I find?” It’s amazing how many say something like, “Nah, have fun”. But any other response, and I use the opportunity to lay some basic ground rules - I don’t make it sound like rules, but it helps me gauge the kind of person I’m dealing with. I might say something like “Ok, I’ll knock once I’m done and show you. I collect trade tokens and old coins, so I’d like to keep those if I find any. But anything of significant value, it’s customary to split - is that ok?” I find that the response I get to this tells me everything I need to know. Assuming they don’t say something that raises big red flags, I go hunt. And yes, I’ve walked away from “yes” permissions.
Finally, I hold to my word....if they want to see the finds, at the end of the hunt I show them everything, right down to the trash if they let me! As V mentioned, I find that people are interested in the story/history behind the items, but ultimately they’ve always let me keep everything. Eventually someone is going to want to keep something, but I’ve been amazed that in almost 2 years of detecting, it hasn’t happened yet.
And yes, if I find an 1874 CC Seated dime on private property, I’d be honest and reveal to the property owner that we’ve got something special. Call me crazy.
All that said, there’s always a grey area. What’s “significantly valuable” enough to point out to an owner? $1000 coin, definitely. $100 coin? Probably. What about a $20 seated dime? Starting to get into the grey area there. What about two or three $20 seated dimes? What do you do about the honking 18k gold ring circa 1920 at a house owned by someone who bought the property in 2008 if jewelry isn’t specifically talked about? Honestly, it’s a problem I wish I had!
