I've done gold panning for a few years, and been detecting with a friend a few times. Never any big finds... yet. But I read the forums a lot for tips. I come across stories on a regular where someone did hit a big find, very large nugget, or coin box or whatever. When they declare their find, they often lose a good portion if not the totality. Why anyone would declare their find to the state is beyond me. If I ever find a vein, I'm keeping that shit for me. I've put in hundreds of hours of research on local geology and at least a hundred to two hundred panning dry sand to find next to nothing. When I get my hands on some gold, its mine, I worked for it and earned it.

A few years back some private treasure hunters (on their ytube channel) found a whole bunch of confederate era gold coins and gold bullion and stuff in the ground and notified the parks and services and Smithsonian all excited as shit as they starting digging the shit up, later that day the feds come down , shut them down, sealed off the area, dug up all the treasure and whatever without them and wouldn't let these guys know how much they found - exactly what was there and then threatened to take them to federal court for not having the right permits etc for not shutting the hell up and having the nerve to keep bothering them about it ... lmao fcking chumps ...

I grew up in Ft Lauderdale, I used to hear stories of people finding gold on the beach after heavy weather at least once a year. In one of my places of employment, a customer was wearing what I immediately recognized as a gold dubloon around his neck on a chain. I asked him if it was real. Not only was it real, he fished it out of the bottom of the ocean. He worked on a salvage vessel that specialized in hunting sunken pirate ships and other vessels from by gone eras. I was seriously envious, and I do not normally envy peoples posessions.