Seen on ebay:A COLLECTION OF METAL DETECTOR FOUND COINS ROMAN ECT (sic)
DETECTOR COINS Size: - mm. A very good collection of coins found with a metal detector in essex. The lot includes Roman, Medieval coins as well as a 17th century love token.
Hmm. Essex is a big county though. Tayla.Anne comes from Brentwood and has been having a lot of private sales with a lot of artefacts with which the buyers are very happy. Do we get to know where these Roman and hammered coins are from? No. Any mention of them being reported to the PAS before being flogged off? No. Any of them show any sign of potentially falling apart if they had been left in the ground? Well, again, No.
But seller Tayla.Anne has some other stuff for sale, did it too come from somewhere in "Essex"? Like for example:
NICE UNIDENTIFIED EUROPEAN COPPER COIN DATED 1737 (actually it is not unidentifiable at all, it is a denga of Anna Ivanova empress of Russia)
TWO CHARLES I HAMMERED COPPER ROSE FARTHINGS
A VERY GOOD ROMAN BRONZE COIN (CAMP GATE)
A VERY GOOD CARAUSIUS ANTONINIANUS ROMAN BRONZE COIN
A COLLECTION OF HAMMERED SILVER MEDIEVAL COINS "A very good collection of hammered silver coins including cut half and quarter shortcross pennies as well as many others". (18 items)
A NICE HALF GUINEA COIN WEIGHT
COLLECTION OF UK CELTIC BRONZE COINS "A collection of three Celtic bronze coins all from Essex". What she does not say is that two of them have been atrociously stripped electrochemically, leaving them totally pitted and barely legible, the third has rampant bronze disease. Of course "Essex" is no provenance whatsoever.
TWO 17TH CENTURY FARTHING TRADE TOKENS "A collection (sic)of two 17th century farthing tokens, one of Nicholas Shepherd, Saxmundham and the other unidentified".
VERY GOOD EDWARD II HAMMERED SILVER FARTHING LONDON "London mint".
RARE MEDIEVAL PEWTER BIRD FIGURE "A rare Medieval-Tudor pewter bird in a great state of preservation. Recovered from the Thames foreshore in London".
EXCELLENT MEDIEVAL HERALDIC HARNESS PENDANT
EXCELLENT VIKING LEAD GAMING PIECE WITH INLAYED SCEAT "Size: 15 x 8 mm. A very nice Viking gaming piece inlayed with an Anglo saxon silver sceat. A great piece in very good condition". 5 Bids $56.55 1d 13h 0m. ("This is a private listing and your identity will not be disclosed to anyone except the seller"). Well, the fact that this object contains silver means if found in the UK, it should have been reported as Treasure. I bet the seller would claim that this was the only thing here not found in the UK if challenged. I thought PAS was monitoring eBay for unreported Treasure. No mention here of provenance or reporting procedure followed.
VERY NICE ROMAN BRONZE HALF FOLLIS COIN "A very nice Roman bronze half follis? of Constantine. R. SOLI INVICTO COMITI, PLN in ex. Recovered from the Thames foreshore in London".
The last is the only coin that has both the place it was minted and the place it was found given, the rest are without any form of meaningful provenance, though in several cases the places they were issued for is given. This is typical. So here we have a mixture of items that are reportable to the PAS (and one possibly as Treasure) being sold off here (though without any mention of any reporting procedures followed as if the seller feels this is no concern of the responsible buyer) alongside "Old Timey" stuff. This person is making money from the selling off of decontextualised elements of the archaeological record, and British archaeologists apparently think this is OK, because some metal detector users show some of what they find to the PAS and TTU.
Why are sales like this continuing to go on without eBay and the public being told in no uncertain terms that the non-reporting of these finds is irresponsible use of a finite and fragile resource? Where is the public information campaign telling people that non-reporting artefact hunters are heritage thieves?
Where is the public information campaign hammering home the message that to buy unreported stuff like this apparently is, is merely aiding and abetting the destruction of a finite and fragile resource for mere commercial aims? Where is the PAS? When are ebay going to be faced with an angry public reaction (instigated by the PAS) inducing them to introduce policies that only archaeological finds responsibly reported should be on sale? When are British Archaeologists going to find it in themselves to say "stop taking our past"? Or even "stop taking our past irresponsibly "?
Hmm. Essex is a big county though. Tayla.Anne comes from Brentwood and has been having a lot of private sales with a lot of artefacts with which the buyers are very happy. Do we get to know where these Roman and hammered coins are from? No. Any mention of them being reported to the PAS before being flogged off? No. Any of them show any sign of potentially falling apart if they had been left in the ground? Well, again, No.
But seller Tayla.Anne has some other stuff for sale, did it too come from somewhere in "Essex"? Like for example:
NICE UNIDENTIFIED EUROPEAN COPPER COIN DATED 1737 (actually it is not unidentifiable at all, it is a denga of Anna Ivanova empress of Russia)
TWO CHARLES I HAMMERED COPPER ROSE FARTHINGS
A VERY GOOD ROMAN BRONZE COIN (CAMP GATE)
A VERY GOOD CARAUSIUS ANTONINIANUS ROMAN BRONZE COIN
A COLLECTION OF HAMMERED SILVER MEDIEVAL COINS "A very good collection of hammered silver coins including cut half and quarter shortcross pennies as well as many others". (18 items)A NICE HALF GUINEA COIN WEIGHT
COLLECTION OF UK CELTIC BRONZE COINS "A collection of three Celtic bronze coins all from Essex". What she does not say is that two of them have been atrociously stripped electrochemically, leaving them totally pitted and barely legible, the third has rampant bronze disease. Of course "Essex" is no provenance whatsoever.TWO 17TH CENTURY FARTHING TRADE TOKENS "A collection (sic)of two 17th century farthing tokens, one of Nicholas Shepherd, Saxmundham and the other unidentified".
VERY GOOD EDWARD II HAMMERED SILVER FARTHING LONDON "London mint".
RARE MEDIEVAL PEWTER BIRD FIGURE "A rare Medieval-Tudor pewter bird in a great state of preservation. Recovered from the Thames foreshore in London".
EXCELLENT MEDIEVAL HERALDIC HARNESS PENDANT
EXCELLENT VIKING LEAD GAMING PIECE WITH INLAYED SCEAT "Size: 15 x 8 mm. A very nice Viking gaming piece inlayed with an Anglo saxon silver sceat. A great piece in very good condition". 5 Bids $56.55 1d 13h 0m. ("This is a private listing and your identity will not be disclosed to anyone except the seller"). Well, the fact that this object contains silver means if found in the UK, it should have been reported as Treasure. I bet the seller would claim that this was the only thing here not found in the UK if challenged. I thought PAS was monitoring eBay for unreported Treasure. No mention here of provenance or reporting procedure followed.VERY NICE ROMAN BRONZE HALF FOLLIS COIN "A very nice Roman bronze half follis? of Constantine. R. SOLI INVICTO COMITI, PLN in ex. Recovered from the Thames foreshore in London".
The last is the only coin that has both the place it was minted and the place it was found given, the rest are without any form of meaningful provenance, though in several cases the places they were issued for is given. This is typical. So here we have a mixture of items that are reportable to the PAS (and one possibly as Treasure) being sold off here (though without any mention of any reporting procedures followed as if the seller feels this is no concern of the responsible buyer) alongside "Old Timey" stuff. This person is making money from the selling off of decontextualised elements of the archaeological record, and British archaeologists apparently think this is OK, because some metal detector users show some of what they find to the PAS and TTU.
Why are sales like this continuing to go on without eBay and the public being told in no uncertain terms that the non-reporting of these finds is irresponsible use of a finite and fragile resource? Where is the public information campaign telling people that non-reporting artefact hunters are heritage thieves?
Where is the public information campaign hammering home the message that to buy unreported stuff like this apparently is, is merely aiding and abetting the destruction of a finite and fragile resource for mere commercial aims? Where is the PAS? When are ebay going to be faced with an angry public reaction (instigated by the PAS) inducing them to introduce policies that only archaeological finds responsibly reported should be on sale? When are British Archaeologists going to find it in themselves to say "stop taking our past"? Or even "stop taking our past irresponsibly "? 
4 comments:
Oh dear, If only you had asked before posting this very inaccurate information. I am a business and by my items from auctions, dealers and detectorists from all over the UK. Please remove this or at least correct it. You have no right to do this without getting your facts straight
A "business" eh? And what type of business would that be?
http://shop.ebay.com/tayla.anne/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686
Certainly if you would like to point out where the information I give is indeed "inaccurate" I will gladly correct it. What exactly is the problem?
Are you disputing the identification of the denga? Was the gaming piece reported to the Coroner as British law requires?
Why have I "no right" to discuss this without asking you first? The information is available in the public domain (ie eEBay). This is a blog about portable antiquity collecting, and this is what you are selling to collectors, why can't I cast my eye over it and pass comments on what I see?
Now, since you are here, I see you have a "Viking silver wire bead" for sale now; is that a British find, if not, from where is it imported ? No mention there of either a Treasure inquest or export licence. Would you mind telling us a bit more about it please than you have up-front on the eBay sales list? http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-VIKING-SILVER-WIRE-BEAD-/220688760355?pt=UK_Antiquities&hash=item3362133e23
Why is it dated by you to the "Viking" period?
And the job lot of metal detected (?) "silver scrap"? Reported? Again no upfront mention of the procedures followed is there? Why? Is that not part of the description?
In my text I make a couple of specific points; instead of moaning about me making them, perhaps you would like to use this opportunity to put forward your side of the story. Please let me and any readers I may have know, where is what I have written "inaccurate"?
Thanks.
No answer was ever received, but I note this post still attracts attention, probably it's metal detectorists annoyed this type of trade of the things they find is being discussed out in public ....
Amazingly enough this post (which has consistently received attention from - I presume - tekkies) is now 19th February in the "top ten" popular posts. Even so, we never got an answer to any of the questions.
This is of course just one of several hundred, or maybe several thousand, people selling off on eBay what they dig up out of the archaeological record of Britain in order to make a bit of cash on the side. When is the British public going to say "stop", stop this rape of the common archaeological heritage for personal gain? When are British politicians going to stop sanctioning this by doing nothing about it? Nothing that is except fund a PAS which appears not to have seen any of the objects I discussed.
And where are these objects now?
STOP -
Stop
Taking
Our
Past
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