Newbie orphaned block transaction fees question.

[Myrddindc]

 My question to try and better understand what us on the wiki, is what happens to the transaction fees associates with transactions that were processed in the orphan blocks? I know the teansactions themselves are queud to be added to the correct blockchain but surely there's no way to take the bitcoins off the miner that generated the orphan block? If the transaction fees simply disappear doesn't that mean we will eventually over time lose bits of bitcoins until we start running out!?

[Foxpup]

surely there's no way to take the bitcoins off the miner that generated the orphan block?

Wrong. If a block is orphaned, the reward (including transaction fees) is invalid (or more accurately, it no longer exists in the main chain) and the unlucky miner loses the coins. For this reason, newly mined coins cannot be spent until 120 confirmations.

The fees are not lost, however. Since the transactions that were in the orphaned block are no longer in the main chain, they are now unconfirmed and back up for grabs by another miner. The next miner who includes those transactions in a block gets the fees.