A treasure trove is an amount of money or coin, gold, silver, plate, or bullion found hidden underground or in places such as cellars or attics, where the treasure seems old enough for it to be presumed that the true owner is dead and the heirs undiscoverable. An archaeological find of treasure trove is known as a hoard. The legal definition of what constitutes treasure trove and its treatment under law vary considerably from country to country, and from era to era.
The term is also often used metaphorically. Collections of articles published as a book are often titled Treasure Trove, as in A Treasure Trove of Science. This was especially fashionable for titles of children's books in the early- and mid-20th century.
Terminology Treasure trove, sometimes rendered treasure-trove, literally means "treasure that has been found". The English term treasure trove was derived from tresor trové, the Anglo-FrenchThat is, the dialect of French that developed in England following the decline of the Anglo-Norman language. equivalent of the Latin legal term thesaurus inventus. In 15th-century English the Anglo-French term was translated as "treasure found", but from the 16th century it began appearing in its modern form with the French word trové anglicized as trovey, trouve or trove.. The term wealth deposit has been proposed as a more accurate alternative..
The term treasure trove is often used metaphorically to mean a "valuable find", and hence a source of treasure, or a reserve or repository of valuable things.See, for example, the following news articles: ("An extraordinarily diverse array of marine life has been discovered in the deep, dark waters around Antarctica."); ("A Nasa space probe measuring the oldest light in the Universe has found that cosmic neutrinos made up 10% of matter shortly after the Big Bang. ... Scientists say it is collecting a 'treasure trove' of information about the Universe's age, make-up and fate.") Trove is often used alone to refer to the concept, the word having been reanalysed as a noun via folk etymology from an original Anglo-French adjective trové (cognate to the French past participle trouvé, literally "found").. Treasure trove is therefore akin to similar Anglo-French or Anglo-French-derived legal terms whereby a post-positive adjective in a noun phrase (contrary to standard English syntax) has been reanalysed as a compound noun phrase, as in court martial, force majeure, and Princess Royal. Phrases of this form are often used either with the etymologically correct plural form (for example, "Courts-martial deal with serious offences ..."). or as fully rederived plural forms (such as "... ordering court-martials ...").. In the case of treasure trove, the typical plural form is almost always treasure troves, with treasures trove found mostly in historicalFor example, the case of Talbot v. Lewis (1834) 5 Tyr. 1 at 4, 149 ER 1175 at 1176, Court of Exchequer Chamber (England). The version of the case in the English Reports uses treasure-trove rather than treasures-trove. or literaryFor example, . This example has been considered by some later editors to be one of many errata present in divergent copies of the text; they prefer the singular treasure trove: see . works.
History
Roman law In Roman law, treasure trove was called thesaurus ("treasure" in Latin), and defined by the Roman jurist Paulus as "vetus quædam depositio pecuniæ, cujus non extat memoria, ut jam dominum non habeat"Digest, 41. I. 31, 1: see . (an ancient deposit of money, of which no memory exists, so that it has no present owner).. R. W. Lee, in his book The Elements of Roman Law (4th ed., 1956), commented that this definition was "not quite satisfactory" as treasure was not confined to money, nor was there any abandonment of ownership. Under the emperors, if treasure was found on a person's own land or on sacred or religious land, the finder was entitled to keep it. However, if the treasure was found fortuitously, and not by deliberate search, on another person's land, half went to the finder and half to the owner of the land, who might be the emperor, the fiscus (public treasury), the city, or some other proprietor.Institutes of Justinian, bk. II, tit. i, para. 39: see Sandars, Institutes of Justinian, p. 190; Lee, Elements of Roman Law, pp. 139, 145. According to Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius (1583–1645), as the feudal system spread over Europe and the prince was looked on as the ultimate owner of all lands, his right to the treasure trove became jus commune et quasi gentium (a common and quasi-international right) in England, Germany, France, Spain and Denmark.
An interpretation of Roman law regarding treasure trove makes an appearance in the 13th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. The Parable of the Hidden Treasure is told by Jesus of Nazareth to the crowds surrounding him and his disciples. In the parable, the treasure trove is hidden in a field, which is open country and anyone could conceivably discover something hidden in that location. It is also assumed that the present owner has no knowledge or memory of the treasure. The finder of the treasure concealed the discovery until he could raise capital to purchase the land. Selling all he had, the finder purchased the land and then unearthed the treasure, to which he was entitled as both finder and landowner. Jesus compared the kingdom of Heaven to the treasure, being of greater value than all a person's earthly wealth and a wise investment that not everyone understands at first.
England and Wales common law It has been said that the concept of treasure trove in English law dates back to the time of Edward the Confessor (–1066).Lord Denning M.R. in Attorney-General of the Duchy of Lancaster v. G.E. Overton (Farms) Ltd. Ch. 277 at p. 285, C.A. Under the common law, treasure trove was defined as gold or silver in any form, whether coin, plate (gold or silver vessels or utensils). or bullion (a lump of gold or silver),.In Attorney-General of the Duchy of Lancaster v. G.E. Overton (Farms) Ltd., p. 288, Lord Denning said: "'Coin' is a coin of gold or silver, 'plate' is something manufactured of it; 'bullion' is a lump of it. Anything which is not a gold or silver object is not treasure trove." which had been hidden and rediscovered, and which no person could prove they owned. If the person who had hidden the treasure was known or discovered later, it belonged to him or her., paras. 1161–1163. or persons claiming through him or her such as descendants. To be treasure trove, an object had to be substantially – that is, more than 50% – gold or silver.Attorney-General of the Duchy of Lancaster v. G.E. Overton (Farms) Ltd. at pp. 291–292.
Treasure trove had to be hidden with animus revocandi, that is, an intention to recover it later. If an object was simply lost or abandoned (for instance, scattered on the surface of the earth or in the sea), it belonged either to the first person who found it, book 3, ch. 3, folio 118; Armory v. Delamirie (1722) 1 Stra. 505. or to the landowner according to the law of finders, that is, legal principles concerning the finding of objects. For this reason, the objects found in 1939 at Sutton Hoo were determined not to be treasure trove; as the objects were part of a ship burial, there had been no intention to recover the buried objects later.. The Crown had a prerogative right to treasure trove, and if the circumstances under which an object was found raised a prima facie presumption that it had been hidden, it belonged to the Crown unless someone else could show a better title to it.Attorney-General v. Moore 1 Ch. 676 at 683; Attorney-General v. Trustees of the British Museum 2 Ch. 598. The Crown could grant its right to treasure trove to any person in the form of a franchise.; , cited with approval in Attorney-General v. Moore, p. 683, and Attorney-General v. Trustees of British Museum, p. 608.
It was the duty of the finder, and indeed of anyone who had acquired knowledge of the matter, to report the finding of a potential treasure trove to the coroner of the district. Concealing a find was a misdemeanourR. v. Toole (1867) 11 Cox CC 75; R. v. Thomas & Willett (1863) Le. & Ca. 313, 12 W.R. 108., paras. 1039–1040. punishable with fine and imprisonment.R. v. Thomas & Willett. The coroner was required to hold an inquest with a jury to determine who were the finders or the persons suspected to be the finders, "and that may be well perceived where one liveth riotously and have done so of long time".De Officio Coronatoris (Office of Coroner Act) 1276 (4 Edw. 1. c. 2), which was declaratory of the common law. This statute was repealed by the Coroners Act 1887 (50 & 51 Vict. c. 71), s. 45, Sch. 3, but the coroner's jurisdiction as regards treasure trove was preserved by ss. 36 and 45(5) of the same Act. See also Bracton, book 3, ch. 6, fol. 122; ; . Where there had been an apparent concealment of treasure trove the coroner's jury could investigate the title of the treasure to discover if it had been concealed from the supposed owner, but any such finding was not conclusive, 2 vols.; Attorney-General v. Moore, p. 683; Attorney-General of the Duchy of Lancaster v. G.E. Overton (Farms) Ltd., p. 287. as the coroner generally had no jurisdiction to enquire into questions of title to the treasure between the Crown and any other claimant. If a person wished to assert title to the treasure, they had to bring separate court proceedings.Attorney-General v. Moore; Attorney-General v. Trustees of British Museum.
In the early 20th century, it became the practice of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury to pay those finders who fully and promptly reported discoveries of treasure troves and handed them over to the proper authorities, the full antiquarian value of objects which were retained for national or other institutions such as museums. Objects not retained were returned to the finders.Home Office Instruction 159308/14 dated 30 June 1925; Home Office Instruction 159308/47 dated 12 June 1931.
The law regarding treasure trove was amended in 1996 so that these principles no longer hold (see § Present-day legal definitions: England, Northern Ireland, and Wales below).
Scottish common law Under the common law of Scotland, the law of treasure trove was and still is a specialized application of the general rule governing bona vacantia ("vacant goods") – that is, objects that are lost, forgotten or abandoned. The rule is quod nullius est fit domini regis: "that which belongs to nobody becomes our Lord the King's [or Queen's]". The Crown in Scotland has a prerogative right to treasure trove for it is one of the regalia minora ("minor things of the king"), that is, property rights which the Crown may exercise as it pleases and which it may alienate (transfer to another party). As the Scottish law of treasure trove on the matter has not changed, it is discussed in the "Present-day legal definitions" section below, under the subheading "Scotland".
United States law