![If the government finds... [549x600 - 38KB]](https://pic8.co/sh/i8g7zJ.jpg){kind=link}
Back in the late 1990s I was walking on an isolated Florida gulf coast beach after a tropical storm. The beach was littered with all kinds of trash washed up. A family walking the surfline from the opposite direction came upon me and the small boy excitedly held up something and said "Look what I found, mister." It was a large brightly polished gold coin about the size of a silver dollar, worn cross still visible on one side and a bust of some person, presumably king or queen, on the other. A date of 1580 something was barely legible. The dad said that the kid just found it in the surf. Some shipwreck treasure pushed around on the bottom by the currents finally pushed something up on shore.
I have never been able to enjoy the view at the beach again, always walking with my head down.
The point I guess is that the state park in which this was found plainly prohibits treasure hunting or digging on their website and makes a point to spell out that anything you might find must be turned in to them. Yeah, right.
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.
This was on the St. Joseph Peninsula SE from Panama City.
You just KNOW there were probably dozens of not hundreds more within a very short radius, but out of reach under sand and water.
Nothing is out of reach if you are motivated enough. :-D I'll tell you what, had I been there I would still be digging right now.
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