United States v. Shivers
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
96 F.3d 120 (1996)
Billy Ray Shivers (defendant) found decades-old metal tokens, once used as mill-worker payment, buried in soil at an abandoned lumber mill within a national forest, and the government seized them, claiming ownership under both the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) and the common law of finds. Shivers argued that because the tokens were less than 100 years old, they fell outside ARPA's definition of archaeological resources and could be collected without a permit, and separately invoked ARPA's arrowhead exception, contending both provisions supported his ownership claim; the district court ruled the tokens belonged to the government, and Shivers appealed.
Whether a private collector obtains ownership of non-archaeological items, such as decades-old tokens, found embedded in soil on federal land, based on ARPA's permit exemption for private collection of non-archaeological resources or its separate arrowhead exception.