The thing is, artefact hunters are desperate to have the public (and landowners) believe they are purely history lovers with no interest in the monetary value of what they find. But it doesn’t work as almost every big Treasure find involves a press story about an impoverished local museum desperate to scrape together the money to “save” the object whereas the public are well aware that museums are closing everywhere and that “saving” the find means the museum giving the landowner and detectorist enough dosh to prevent them from not declaring the find and selling it on the side.
Add to that, the press reports invariably contain a standard quote from the detectorist -“The money’s not important, it’s the history” whereas the public are not daft and are more than capable of knowing that if the money WASN’T the most important thing and the detectorists love of history WAS then he’d renounce some or all of his reward money so as to ensure the museum could acquire the Treasure at a lower price. The fact that this happens so rarely constitutes a huge barrier preventing detectorists ever convincing anyone they are lovable.
So here’s how we have decided to help everyone – detectorists, museums and the public purse:
It’s easier to renounce a portion of a theoretical sum of money than a real one so from today we are asking all detectorists to pledge, via the Comments section of this article, that if they find Treasure in future they will renounce at least 50% of their reward in order to make it easier for it to be acquired by Britain’s financially stretched museums.
We hope others will encourage them to do so too as it’s a campaign that has great advantages for both the finances of the museum sector and the reputation of metal detecting so it has no downside. In addition, no-one can feel it’s an unreasonable pledge to expect of anyone since it involves giving up money they don’t have and probably never will [as only a minority find items that qualify for Treasure rewards] and anyway, as every detectorist that has ever had a reward always says in the press, “I don’t care about the money, I only go metal detecting for the love of history”.
It is to be hoped there will be a big take-up for this. (Pledges to be accompanied with real names only please). Periodically we’ll highlight the number of people that have responded. Every pledge will represent a blow against the critics of metal detecting so we’re sure that of 10,000 active metal detectorists in Britain a large percentage will sign up for the pledge.
In a few days we shall publish a second proposal, this time for consideration not by detectorists but by archaeologists and the Establishment but since it comprises something developed entirely by metal detectorists alone then a lot of them will like it too. If adopted nationally it would enable every artefact hunter to carry on seeking and collecting artefacts as much as they liked and without restrictions while being regarded by the public, the Establishment – and us – as not merely lovable but utterly adorable.
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More Heritage Action views on metal detecting and artefact collecting
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The Heritage Journal 
9 comments
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24/11/2011 at 17:30
Helen
I don’t think many metal detectorists read the journal so how can this work?
“it involves giving up money they don’t have and probably never will”
but this statement makes it sound as if the metal detectorists probably never will find anything of any value anyway which goes agains the notion that they find many objects of value. I think this statement needs some tidying up to provide better clarification of the real situation in the UK.
Helen
24/11/2011 at 17:46
heritageaction
“but this statement makes it sound as if the metal detectorists probably never will find anything of any value”
All detectorists find objects of value but probably only a minority find Treasure items of great value. We’ll be glad to clarify that, as you suggest. Many thanks.
“I don’t think many metal detectorists read the journal so how can this work?”
On the contrary, WordPress displays the number of views of each article from different forums. We are read by many hundreds of metal detectorists (several thousand in the case of some articles) via a number of metal detecting forums alone and many more directly no doubt!
24/11/2011 at 18:37
Helen
It is an unusual situation that here in the UK Metal Detectorists are beloved by the majority of the public and press due to them unearthing objects of interest as opposed to unearthing knowledge of interest. I suppose the stark reality is that people flock to museums and gawp at all the shiny stuff in amazement and probably show little or no interest in the accompanying storyboard about the relevance of the object in the historical knowledgebase. As someone who is a regular visitor to museums all over the country, I can testify that my progress through as museum must be at a rate of only 25% of the general public who gawp, pass a comment of amazement and then rapidly move on to the next display. Meanwhile I am the one ready every single note on the relevance of the object, hence my slower than others pace. The paradox is that for museums to survive as viable concerns, they need the shiny items to draw crowds in that then in turn create funding for conservation and academia. The general public wants shiny stuff and the finders of the shiny stuff will always be the heroes of the public for providing the ‘fix’ of short lived amazement in the display cabinets, whilst the academic side of Heritage conservation and knowledge development is sadly often viewed as being (wrongly) the private domain of the ‘Beardy Weirdy’ archaeologists. To change this public perception will be akin to turning an oil tanker, as it is so ingrained within our society. History has now become part of the entertainment industry in much the same way as a theme park and this needs to change but commercial realities will always prevent this, which is a real shame for society in general.
Helen
24/11/2011 at 21:27
kyri
there allready is an initiative to encourage finders and landowners to waive their rights to a reward.its not having much success,with only %6 of rewards being waived.
.%6 are genuine history loving ,ethical detectors,the other %94 [9400] detectorists seem to be doing it for the money.at least this is what the pas figures tell us.
kyri
25/11/2011 at 02:23
heritageaction
The 6% seems to comprise detectorists, landowners and “ordinary finders” such as gardeners, farmers and walkers but the split between them isn’t given. What seems clear though is that a lot less than 6 detectorists in a hundred waive the rewards.
25/11/2011 at 21:32
kyri
i dont blame detectorists for not waiveing their right to a reward,its human nature but lets call them what they are treasure hunters,not amautre archaeologists.
kyri
26/11/2011 at 08:03
heritageaction
I hope you don’t get sued by humans!
But you’re right, holding yourself up as one thing and then doing something quite different grates. A bit like politicians that say they believe in family values. 😉
18/01/2012 at 00:23
Sean Flynn
Kyri, I have never, and never will, think of myself as an amateur archaeologist and neither will I think of myself as a treasure hunter. I have an obsesssive interest in history fuelled by my newly found hobby of metal detecting. My dream would be to find a hoard of some sort and give it to The British Museum rather than see it going to some American businessman or conglomerate for 20million dollars or more. What we dig up is British history. It is our history for us to keep and behold. Does that make me weird or just naive?? And Helen, for you to say the general British public just like “shiny things” really does show your sanctimonious attitude to “ordinary” people who are obviously way below your own social status and cannot in any way appreciate our own history in the way that you do. Thank you and good night….Oh and by the way Kyri, amautre is spelt, amateur
18/01/2012 at 05:53
Pat
I can’t see how you proclaiming your personal virtue is relevant as there are more than 8,000 detectorists in England & Wales. Are you seriously trying to imply that the public should disbelieve PAS’s clear statistical evidence that most finds don’t get reported to them? And DCMS’s clear statistical evidence that a pitifully small number of detectorists renounce their Treasure rewards to help museums acquire what they find? And the fact that not one of them has indicated willingness to conduct themselves in accordance with these inarguably ethical parameters: http://www.ethicaldetecting.org.uk/