Guiding & Diving the Similians in the Andaman sea a few years back just of island no 8 (elephant head)
There is an old Burmese trawler that was sunk by the Thai Navy, its been there for a good few years and its created a fantastic eco system
Looking for the ghost pipe fish for my Japanese customers, I spotted a small black object between 2 bomies, it was a coin, putting it into my pocket i carried on with the guiding.
back on the boat after a short debrief i examine the coin but couldn't see any thing so i put in a small pouch in my log book binder and forgot about it.
On my return to UK, on my first dive i open the binder and there was the coin
i showed a few divers the coin but nothing could be seen , so that night i cleaned it and it was a:
1902 British Trade Dollar
doing more research i found plenty of articles on these coins
They where the British Empire coins that was trades between the empire just like the Euro is today
This particle coin was struck in Bombay others where stuck in Calcutta there is a mark on the coin to prove this
very interesting and makes a wonderful story to my students i call it my lucky dollar
I suppose it comes down to the definition of 'landing'. And is it 'landed' if not legally declared in some manner? What other nations have reporting requirements I wonder?
it was a tongue in cheek comment, but I suppose in reality you may have imported something of value to the uk then (i don't know - just surmising). Interesting scenario. I would imagine the RoW would liaise with the relevant authorities and at least ensure you haven't broken any laws that you were unaware of. Alternatively, you could delete your posts and hope no one saw.
Technically the law says that you have to declare any wreck brought back into the UK. From memory failure to do so within 28 days is punishable by a level 4 fine on the standard scale. (£2.5k).
I'd have thought they'd let you keep it. But it's generally good to declare stuff (I must confess I don't declare every bit of rubbish I pick up).
I'd declare it. At the current glacial speed ROW are processing Droits, you'll probably be dead before they do anything anyway. I have stuff 2.5 years since declaration and still no word. IMHO makes a mockery of their own 'declare everything' stance.
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