Sounds like an excellent way to ensure that individuals who find valuable historical artifacts never report them to the authorities and possibly remelt them instead.
You get far more from the state as historical value than you would from the scrappy as bullion value. So, no, quite the opposite.
This is good info.
You can even melt it down with just a propane blow torch, so no exotic equipment required. For the finder, seems well worth the hit in historical value vs the risk of the government seizing it without adequate compensation.
why pay a fee to go into a museum and look at interesting old stuff? you'll never get adequate compensation for that cash!
people do have other values than simply the value of melting King Arthur's crown.