In the near future, a local resident will appear in court in the Amur region who tried to sell gold found in the forest in the amount of 2.4 million rubles; he faces up to five years in prison. In the gold-bearing regions of Russia, such stories are not uncommon: every now and then there are people who find themselves in the dock for trying to sell gold. Why is this considered a crime, punishable by sentences no less than drug trafficking? Lenta.ru decided to find the answer to this question.
What is the danger of the act
Law enforcement officials do not stand on ceremony with those who are trying to sell the gold they find. But what is the sign of a crime - the social danger of this act? After all, it would seem that there is nothing reprehensible in a person’s desire to make money from a treasure that has fallen into his hands, and it cannot be called theft...
“The fact is that a resident of the Amur region did not find gold in the form of coins or jewelry. It was schlich gold in the form of grains of different sizes. It turns out that this metal was extracted from the earth, and all natural resources that are not put into civil circulation belong to the state,” explains lawyer Alexander Prudnikov, who also specializes in the problems of “treasures.”
According to Prudnikov, gold is introduced into civil circulation after specialized enterprises or miners hand it over to the state for processing. Ingots are made from it, which are subsequently transferred either to jewelry factories, or used to make coins and other things. If a resident of the Amur region had found a jar of coins or any other gold in a processed form, it would have been a completely different situation, and he would not have been subject to criminal charges.
“What is the social danger of such an act as the sale of raw gold is a mystery shrouded in darkness. You can sell gold coins or jewelry, but you cannot sell yellow metal mined from the ground, although it is not clear what the damage from such an action would be for the state,” complains treasure hunter Vladimir Poryvaev.
Where do treasures go?
So, where to take the found valuables? If a gold nugget is found not on one’s own territory, then the law is inexorable: what is found will have to be given away for the good of the country. However, you will not receive immediate compensation for the find. Do you like to stand in lines and sign dozens of others to get one paper? And what awaits you:
- verification of documents;
- whether an expert assessment has been made, etc.
Many have heard of cases where treasure hunters received their money only after a couple of years. How to proceed? The solution is simple - you need to go to lawyers.
What happens if you don't turn over the jewelry you find to the state? Yes, there is no criminal liability for this. But the law does not apply to treasure that is of cultural or archaeological value. If you don't know what to do with it, just give it to the state. Further actions will already be explained to you.
Finding various ancient treasures is very difficult. It all depends on what technological equipment you have. Plus, a little luck doesn't hurt. It’s better to hand everything over to the state at once to avoid any troubles.
Repeated “washing” of gold
The expert claims: a resident of the Amur region who found a jar of gold could avoid punishment. To do this, he had to inform the police and local authorities about his discovery. They could qualify it either as a treasure or as a find. The treasure has historical and cultural value; these are things that were hidden on purpose, and for quite a long time. The one who found the treasure is entitled to 50 percent of the value of the treasure. The remaining 50 percent goes to the land owner. If experts qualified the jar of gold as a find, then a resident of the Amur region would have to wait for its owner to appear for eight months. And only if he had not shown up would the gold officially find its owner. However, according to Poryvaev, there were virtually no such cases in the modern history of Russia.
Workers at the Central processing plant of the Berezovsky gold mine in the Sverdlovsk region
Photo: Pavel Lisitsyn / RIA Novosti
“Formally, he had to report his discovery to the authorities, but immediately everything was clear what kind of gold it was, where the gold came from... In the gold-bearing regions of Russia, such businessmen are caught every year. Every time they say: I found it; I drove and found it; I walked and found it; I dug for worms for fishing - and found them. But everyone understands the rules of the game. This is such a serious group that has been holding “shadow” gold in its hands since Soviet times. Its participants are regularly caught, but the yellow metal with which they were tied up is easier for businessmen to lose - they will still wash it,” explains the source of Lenta.ru.
Gold jewelry, what applies to them and where to return them
By contacting one of our offices, you can, with the help of a professional jeweler, estimate the real value and profitably sell one or more gold items on the proposed terms.
Buying differs from a pawnshop in that you will not be able to buy your item back; upon completion of the transaction, it becomes the property of the company irrevocably. All transactions are documented and executed in accordance with legal requirements - this is the second main difference from pawnshops, which conduct more than half of their transactions illegally. Our clients, along with the money due, receive an official document with signatures and seals as confirmation, so there is no reason to worry about the integrity of the transaction.
What products are accepted for purchase?
We accept any items of value on the market. Anyone can sell us gold products of the following varieties:
- Jewelry is valued not only based on the weight in grams and the fineness of the metal; the artistic value of the item has an additional influence on the price. Old things are traditionally valued at a high price; prices for new ones depend on the manufacturer and the degree of serial production.
- Accessories made of gold, silver and other precious metals - lighters, cufflinks, cigarette cases, souvenirs, pens, figurines and other types of trinkets made of rare metals.
- Clocks, chronometers, compasses and other mechanisms - antique products of this type are a guarantee of acceptance at a favorable price, especially if they are in good condition and do not have external damage.
- Diamonds and other types of precious stones - whether as part of inlaid objects or separately, these natural phenomena are always in price.
- Bank bars made of 999 fine gold - the personification of financial power - can also be bought and sold, and for a very good price.
- Old and rare or collectible coins are traditionally expensive and do not lose value, since the chances of finding an extra copy decrease every year.
- Scrap gold and other precious metals are items that have become unusable, their fragments or fragments, once attractive items that have lost their marketable appearance. Priced according to the total weight in grams and the current price per unit of weight.
- The manufacturer of gold jewelry or other jewelry does not matter for acceptance for evaluation. The marking of a well-known company affects the final price offered, but its absence will not be a reason for refusal to accept.
Several reasons to contact us
Buying gold items at competitive prices invariably attracts customers, many of whom become regulars. We have many competitive advantages that we can use to distract visitors from competing companies:
- favorable location in Moscow;
- attractive conditions under which you can sell all types of gold and jewelry at competitive prices;
- acceptance of old and new products, regardless of manufacturer;
- accurate weighing in grams and detailed cost calculation - free of charge;
- careful determination of the quality of products - we are not in a hurry to write down old things as scrap, a separate examination is necessarily carried out to determine the artistic value;
- Even for scrap they pay well here, and the larger the volume, the better;
- lack of attention to little things, which in a pawnshop traditionally cause a significant reduction in price;
- the ability to buy and sell in one place.
Greetings! Investing in gold is much safer than in any other asset, since regardless of the exchange rate, it is valued all over the world. It is used in the jewelry, electrical and space industries, in the form of assets. The stability of the national currency depends on the gold reserves.
People use the precious metal as a store of capital and an investment that sooner or later has to be cashed out. I will tell you where to donate gold and how to get a decent payment in this article.
Lawmakers fight for metal
Meanwhile, the ban on gold mining by private individuals, adopted today in Russia, did not always exist. In tsarist times and even in the era of the USSR, there was a so-called “free supply” - the extraction of precious metals and stones by ordinary citizens. They were allowed to work primarily in places of no industrial interest: on dumps and mining waste. The miners had to hand over what they mined to the state.
On the one hand, largely thanks to free labor, gold production in the USSR remained at a consistently high level. On the other hand, gold collection offices often did not ask where exactly the yellow metal came from. Fraudsters only had to cross the threshold of the cash register to legalize stolen gold, and sometimes they stole it from enterprises, tens of kilograms, without even fearing that such a crime was punishable by death - execution.
Critics of liberation felt that in this form it actually encourages illegal mining and theft of gold. After all, if no one asks where it came from, what difference does it make how to get it? As a result, free gold mining in the USSR was banned in 1954. Since then, debate about whether it should be resumed has not subsided. An attempt to revive the free bringing of gold was made in 2004, when the State Duma introduced an amendment “On the free bringing of gold” to the law “On Subsoil”. However, the president vetoed it. Attempts to return the free supply of gold were also made at the local level: for example, in the Magadan region several years ago they tried to introduce local legal acts according to which individuals were allowed to mine gold on the site of man-made placers. Then production increased by 700 kilograms, and shadow turnover decreased.
Gold mining site of the Nergeoprom enterprise in the Nerchinsky district of the Trans-Baikal Territory
Photo: Evgeny Epanchintsev / RIA Novosti
Places where searching is strictly prohibited
In Russia, treasure hunting is prohibited. This means that excavations cannot be carried out in unauthorized places. Theoretically, those who like to search for valuables can take permission to conduct archaeological excavations . But it is worth understanding that everything found will belong to the state.
In fact, you can safely dig up the soil exclusively on your own site. In other places, valuable finds will belong to the owner of the site, but in no case to the digger himself.
Legalize in Magadan style
Today, it is the Magadan Region that has the greatest chance of becoming the only subject of the Russian Federation where citizens will be allowed to mine gold. In the spring, the Ministry of Natural Resources sent amendments to the law “On Precious Metals and Precious Stones” and the Law “On Subsoil” for approval to the executive authorities, which legalize gold mining by private individuals in the region’s placer deposits.
However, according to the document, such mining will have a number of restrictions: gold reserves in the area allocated for prospectors cannot exceed 10 kilograms, and the total area of such areas is 15 hectares. At the same time, free workers will be prohibited from carrying out blasting operations and digging deeper than five meters, as well as using equipment and machinery and engaging contractors on a contractual basis.
According to Vladimir Poryvaev, the return of free trade would only benefit the country’s economy: “The free circulation of gold is a good alternative to the dollar. I would not prohibit free mining of the yellow metal, but on the contrary, I would make sure that people invest more in it. Gold is an investment instrument that has existed since time immemorial, and now, given the difficult situation in the world, it would be nice to remember it.”
Can I take the treasure for myself?
According to the law of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Article 233, a person has the right to keep everything in the following cases:
- if you have discovered funds that are currently in circulation and made of ordinary metal;
- jewelry of a modern brand (perhaps they accidentally fell out of someone’s hands; in this case, you can take them to the lost property office, the police, or keep them for yourself);
- if the item found is an antique without precious stones.
By law, you must notify the appropriate authorities if you find an old product made of precious metals and decorated with expensive stones.
Purchase of precious metals and currency exchange offices
Where is the best place to donate gold? If you need to quickly and profitably sell gold jewelry that has no historical or artistic value, then you should go to the purchase of precious metals. They usually offer good conditions, and the cost of one gram of 585 gold starts from 1200-1300 rubles. If you monitor offers, you can find a more profitable rate.
Currency exchange offices can also be the answer to the question of where to donate gold. Not all exchangers provide this type of service. But in some you can sell scrap jewelry at a relatively favorable rate.
Useful tips
- When selling gold, you need a passport.
- You can sell precious metals from the age of 18.
- You should not contact resellers on the street. They almost always use gray schemes, artificially lower the price, can deceive with weight and fineness, or pay the buyer with counterfeit bills.
- You always need to remove stones from jewelry, since there are practically no salons or pawn shops that undertake the evaluation of stones. If you manage to find it, then you should remember that the service is paid.
- In order to find the best deal, you need to contact several points. Perhaps a pawn shop will be able to offer a better price, rather than a thrift shop or jewelry store.
Is it worth picking up found jewelry?
Should I pick up the found item or not? - it all depends on the person. If he is a deeply religious person and easily susceptible to psychological influence, then it is better to pass by and not stop.
However, if a person is a deep skeptic, then it is quite possible to choose jewelry. In this case, there may be several options for events:
- Try to find the owner;
- Keep the product for yourself;
- Sell it;
- Sell and give the money received as alms;
Important! In order for the found product to be safe for humans and others, it is recommended to soak it in a solution of salt water, after which the jewelry is washed with holy water. If the gold is real, it can additionally be burned with fire - all these actions are called a purification ritual.
