Disgraceful loss of coins from official storage. But let’s put it in perspective

Silver Roman Coins Missing ; “Hi guys, Today I received a email from pas in Lancashire who wrote to inform me that my small hoard of Denari were unaccounted for…….ie stolen. To say I’m sickened by this news is an understatement”
As you can imagine this prompted a torrent of anger – we are virtuous, PAS are lax, maybe we’ll stop giving them our finds, this man should be compensated …

Such virtue signaling! From a hobby which fails to report most of its recordable finds! And as for “imagine it was a hoard of gold nobles worth many 1000s that went missing” well yes, I do remember the Twinstead Rally …

“METAL detector enthusiasts on a charity day ended up in a brawl after 300 ­sovereigns worth £75,000 were found in a field. They then ran off with the loot – half of which belonged to the farmer who owns the land – instead of declaring it under treasure laws. One enthusiast said: “The find was made by someone inexperienced who started yelling about a gold coin. Soon there were about 100 individuals digging. It was out of hand. Metal detecting is a cut-throat world. Only two of the 300 coins were in the finds box at the end of the day.”

Some were returned, (under duress and without punishment) but many weren’t. If it comes to comparing who steals the most artefacts and knowledge it would be better if detectorists stayed profoundly silent.

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More Heritage Journal views on artefact collecting
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