TREASURE TROVE. Found treasure.
This name is given to such money or coin, gold, silver, plate, or bullion, which, having been bidden or concealed in the earth, or oth er .private place, so long that its owner is un known, has been discovered by accident. Should the owner be found, It must be re stored to him; and in case of not finding him, the property, according to the. English law, belongs to the king. By the civil law, when the treasure was found by the owner of the soil he was considered as entitled to it by the douLle title of owner and finder; when found on another's property, one-half be longed to the owner of the estate and the other to the finder; when found on public property, it belonged one-half to the public treasury and the other to the finder. Leona du Dr. Rom. § 350-352. This includes not only gold and silver, but whatever may con stitute riches : as vases, urns, statues, etc.
If the owner is known it is not technically treasure trove; Livermore v. White, 74 Me. 456, 43 Am. Rep. 600. The crown is prima facie entitled to treasure trove; [1903] 2 Ch. 598; and there need not be an inquest to in form the crown of its rights; 41 W. R. 294. Gold and silver articles hidden for safe keeping, and forgotten or remaining undis covered by reason of the death of the person who hid them, are technically known as treasure trove; Kuykendall v. Fisher, 61
W. Va. 87, 56 S. E. 48, 8 L. R. A. (N. S.) 94, 11 Ann, Cas. 700; [1903] 2 Ch. 598. There is some doubt in this country as to who is enti tled to the treasure trove. Danielson v. Roberts, 44 Or. 108, 74 Pac. 913, 65 L. R. A. 526, 102 ,Am. St. Rep. 627, holds that the finder is entitled as against the owner of the land on which the' treasure is found: but a contrary case in the same volume of re ports gives it to the landowner; Ferguson v. Ray, 44 Or. 557, 77 Pac.,600, 1 L. R. A. (N. S.) 477, 102 Am. St. Rep. 648, 1 Ann. Cas. 1. Another case holds that the owner of the soil acquires no title as such; Weeks v. Hackett, 104 Me. 264, 71 Atl. 858, 19 LI R. A. (N. S.) 1201, 129 Am. St. Rep. 390, 15 Ann. Cas. 1156. In the Roman law valuables hid in the earth for safety were not treasure trove, unless hid so long before that the owner was not known ; Hunter, Rom. Law 256. See Murray, Arch. Surv. of the United Kingdom.