“So you are saying one can steal a winning lottery ticket, and only be responsible for a dollar’s worth of paper and foil?”
In criminal case, yes, it is only worth its value when stolen.
Suppose you stole a painting from a thrift store and the painting was valued at $5.00.
But today, the artist is famous and sells paintings for ten million dollars a piece.
Did you steal a $5.00 painting or did you steal a $10,000,000 painting?
There would be a different standard in civil court, but you argue the value the item when it was stolen.
There was a guy who stole bitcoins worth under a million at the time of the theft. Years later when he was caught the media reported it as a billion dollar theft.