2009 – 2023: Eight years of National Council for Metal Detecting blackmail threats.

There’s nothing new in the “we won’t report treasure finds if you don’t speed up the wonga” threats (see yesterday), Look at this, a National Council for Metal Detecting Policy Statement back in 2009: “We believe that the current levels of delay are unacceptable. They are severely testing the goodwill of finders and undermining the provisions of the Treasure Act by introducing a disincentive to reporting”

Churlish, certainly since British detectorists are already uniquely privileged as their activity is legalised and even encouraged and rewarded handsomely whereas elsewhere it would land them in jail. Oh, and saying the delays are a disincentive to reporting is actually saying “encouraging lawbreaking” since reporting Treasure is mandatory, not voluntary.

Thus Britain stands in a practical and philosophical quagmire. So not only are we permitting recreational and entrepreneurial erosion of our archaeological resource; not only are we paying millions to buy our own Treasure; not only are we rewarding people for not breaking the law….. we are being warned in unmistakeable terms by the main representative body of metal detectorists that unless we pay up fully and promptly we can forget about seeing some of those treasures at all. Here’s a handy guide for PAS:

Signs Someone Is Trying To Blackmail You

1. Guilt-Tripping
2. Gaslighting
3. Promises of Incentives
4. Protection
5. Punishment
6. Blaming
7. Threats
8. Repeated Shaming for Flaws

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More Heritage Journal views on artefact collecting
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