Comments on: Look What I Dug Up! 1817/4 Half Dollar http://www.coinlink.com/News/auction-news/look-what-i-dug-up-18174-half-dollar/ Rare Coins & Currency News for Numismatic Collectors - Updated Daily Mon, 07 May 2012 19:57:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: Olden Atwoody http://www.coinlink.com/News/auction-news/look-what-i-dug-up-18174-half-dollar/comment-page-1/#comment-48250 Olden Atwoody Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:06:46 +0000 http://www.coinlink.com/News/auction-news/look-what-i-dug-up-18174-half-dollar/#comment-48250 A case can be made for the poor homeowner, who contracted for, and subsidized the foundation work though payments to the General Contractor, as being part owner of this discovery piece. Found in soil that was specifically ordered for this job, under contact, there's every reason to believe that the homeowner acquired title when the soil was delivered. I have seen several articles about this, with no mention of the homeowner, but based on my knowledge of contract law, this is now a stolen coin. There is a recent presence in the discovery, a few months back, of a cache of old, but pristine, US small currency, found hidden in the walls of a home being remodeled. There was a significant court battle over ownership, wherein the Contractor claimed he “owned” the numismatics items found secreted in the home, in spite of the homeowner occupying the very residence! Further the former home’s owners’ descendents also sued for the cash! http://www.fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/entertainment/drama/news.php?q=1226343451 breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/H/HOUSE_HIDDEN_MONEY ************** Nov. 9, 2008 CLEVELAND (AP) -- A contractor who found $182,000 in Depression-era currency hidden in a bathroom wall has ended up with only a few thousand dollars, but he feels some vindication. The windfall discovery amounted to little more than grief for contractor Bob Kitts, who couldn't agree on how to split the money with homeowner Amanda Reece. It didn't help Reece much, either. She testified in a deposition that she was considering bankruptcy and that a bank recently foreclosed on one of her properties. And 21 descendants of Patrick Dunne - the wealthy businessman who stashed the money that was minted in a time of bank collapses and joblessness - will each get a mere fraction of the find. "If these two individuals had sat down and resolved their disputes and divided the money, the heirs would have had no knowledge of it," said attorney Gid Marcinkevicius, who represents the Dunne estate. "Because they were not able to sit down and divide it in a rational way, they both lost." ************** It would behoove Heritage Auction Galleries to insist on a release of title from the homeowner, lest they be sued. I have notified Heritage of my opinion. A case can be made for the poor homeowner, who contracted for, and subsidized the foundation work though payments to the General Contractor, as being part owner of this discovery piece. Found in soil that was specifically ordered for this job, under contact, there’s every reason to believe that the homeowner acquired title when the soil was delivered.

I have seen several articles about this, with no mention of the homeowner, but based on my knowledge of contract law, this is now a stolen coin.

There is a recent presence in the discovery, a few months back, of a cache of old, but pristine, US small currency, found hidden in the walls of a home being remodeled. There was a significant court battle over ownership, wherein the Contractor claimed he “owned” the numismatics items found secreted in the home, in spite of the homeowner occupying the very residence! Further the former home’s owners’ descendents also sued for the cash!

http://www.fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/entertainment/drama/news.php?q=1226343451

breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/H/HOUSE_HIDDEN_MONEY

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Nov. 9, 2008

CLEVELAND (AP) — A contractor who found $182,000 in Depression-era currency hidden in a bathroom wall has ended up with only a few thousand dollars, but he feels some vindication. The windfall discovery amounted to little more than grief for contractor Bob Kitts, who couldn’t agree on how to split the money with homeowner Amanda Reece.

It didn’t help Reece much, either. She testified in a deposition that she was considering bankruptcy and that a bank recently foreclosed on one of her properties.

And 21 descendants of Patrick Dunne – the wealthy businessman who stashed the money that was minted in a time of bank collapses and joblessness – will each get a mere fraction of the find. “If these two individuals had sat down and resolved their disputes and divided the money, the heirs would have had no knowledge of it,” said attorney Gid Marcinkevicius, who represents the Dunne estate. “Because they were not able to sit down and divide it in a rational way, they both lost.”

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It would behoove Heritage Auction Galleries to insist on a release of title from the homeowner, lest they be sued.

I have notified Heritage of my opinion.

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