And there's more

.
I should have checked out the Polish dealer's online shop (sklep internetowy ANTYK-WARIAT / FELIS, run by Robert Łączyński) before posting the text above. It turns out that the mysterious "metal detectorist" Restricted-identity has a tendency to get bored with his dugup finds soon after the PAS has looked at them. On the Warsaw dealer's website we find another four finds. Rather tedious searching of the still-clunky (it turns out if you want to find a particular artefact without its finds number) PAS database eventually tracked down all four. Like the buckle noted above, they are from the same Vale Royal area, recorded by the same FLO within a few days of each other. They all have the findspot identified by an NGR which just refers to the centre of the field where the "detectorist" asserts they were found. I bet if more detail was visible on the PAS database, we'd learn that these were all found by the same guy.



Średniowieczna klamerka. Datowanie: 1150-1350 rok = PAS LVPL-82C4B3 A cast copper alloy single looped oval buckle frame with ornate outside edge, typically of late 12th to late 14th Centuries AD. , Parish: Northwich

Klamerka od butów = PAS LVPL-83CDA4 A complete cast copper alloy double loop oval buckle frame and plate, of late Medieval dating (c.1400 to 1600 AD). Parish: Cuddington

Średniowieczna klamerka = PAS LVPL-81AF00 A complete cast copper alloy single loop folding strap clasp fastener of Medieval dating (c.1300 - 1450 AD). Crowton.

Element paska datowany na lata 1400-1600 = PAS LVPL-007B86 A complete cast copper alloy strap fitting of probable Post Medieval dating (15th to 17th Centuries AD). Parish: Lach Dennis.

The PAS records that there are some 60 finds from the same "finds cluster" recorded in Liverpool by Ms Gilmore. Their present whereabouts is unknown.

While these finds are not in themselves earth-shatteringly important, the fact that they all ended up for sale over in Poland does rather raise questions about the motives of the person(s) going out in the fields and searching sites to dig them up only to sell them on within a few weeks or months. It is perfectly legal, but is this "best practice", is this what the PAS would tell their "partners" is "responsible artefact hunting"? Or is it just metal detecting a finite and fragile resource for profit?

What would we find if somebody had the time and patience to compare internet antiquity sales with a database like the PAS one? That many dugups get sold within a year of the date they were dug up and recorded by the PAS? Or that the vast majority of the British-origin dugups on sale have not been recorded by the PAS?