“it has been noticed that some people have been asking our Finds Advisers for an ID on an item, then popping straight across to Ebay to sell the item complete with Finds ID word for word, with not even a polite word of thanks to the guy who spent his time identifying the item !! This is not on !! Anyone found guilty of this sour practise will be made very aware that we do not condone this at all !!”  (From the latest newsletter of UKDN, the leading metal detecting website).

A sour practise eh? The point has rather been missed. Digging up our history and flogging it on EBay is an obnoxious practice in our view, much worse than being disrespectful to the UKDN finds advisors, yet where’s the UKDN official statement that THAT is also “not on”? But there’s something far worse than flogging it: digging up our history and not recording it with PAS (something UKDN says it “encourages” it’s members to do) is far more obnoxious since it clearly injures the whole of society without even a token bit of mitigation. Patently, the UKDN finds advisory service is being used by some detectorists instead of approaching the Portable Antiquities Scheme’s Finds officers so items are consequently not being reported or recorded.

UKDN cannot have it both ways. They cannot claim they are encouraging UKDN members to report their finds to PAS while at the same time providing a quick and convenient alternative non-PAS identification service. It is as damaging and wrong as the activities of the alternative “detectorists recording scheme” that UKDN quite properly avoids promoting.

Metal detecting, eh? So many fine words. Such historicidal behaviour. We await their “solution” with interest. We doubt it will involve abandoning their ID service in order to better encourage all their members to go to PAS but who knows? Maybe those in charge, some of whom actually know what’s what, will decide to do the right thing despite their members!

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