Wednesday 24 October 2012

£31,000 Shortfall in Hoard Reward Stash


A couple of metal detectorists do not look like getting the state handout they were expecting for digging up a hoard on historic Bredon Hill last October ('£9,000 raised for coin hoard', Cotswold Journal 23rd October 2012). A year into fund-raising, a campaign to raise cash so the hoard can be displayed glittering in the local museum has raised nearly £9,000. Museums Worcestershire has to raise the £40,000 needed to acquire, conserve and display the hoard in just two months, or it will be handed back to the finders and the landowner who will have to flog it off on the open market to raise the cash they want for it. that will pleasse coin collectors immensely who are looking forward to more such windfalls as cash-strapped cultural institutions can no longer afford the luxury of financing the metal detectorists' hobby by relatively indiscriminately buying up anything that glitters.  The article goes on to say:
Donations can be made online at charitychoice.co.uk/worcestershire-hoard/ [...]
So, supporting metal detecting has now become a CHARITY in England? Whatever next? I can think of a whole load of better uses for charity money than paying for another tekkie's sunshine holiday or flashy gas-guzzling sports car, or whatever it is they spend the dosh on (another survey the fluffy bunny brigade could do - "what did you spend your treasure reward on"?).

When are we going to put a STOP to this cash-guzzling erosive abuse of the archaeological record?

[And to make matters even more interesting: "Ads by Google" right slap-bang in the middle of that page of the Cotswold Journal of all places when I looked at it was:
Gadoury coins auction
republic[an] and imperial roman coins
sale of aureus denarius sestertius [indeed, multiple examples]
auction.gadoury.com
That's in Monaco. Maybe they'll want to take the Bredon Hill Hoard coins? Not likely, from what they currently have on offer it looks like they prefer coins with no stated collecting history or provenance. I'm hoping at those prices that the several apparent 'soapies' are an artefact of the apallingly bad lighting of some of the photography].

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