Focus on Metal Detecting: Collectables Taken Away Unseen by Owners

"It's all rubbish mate, nothing worth looking at"
Baz Thugwit

Heritage Journal, 'Farmer Brown: 17 detectorists who have never found ANYTHING!', 23rd August 2014.

A while back a farmer said about a detectorist: “In 3 years he has amassed a fine collection of habob and baler tines, mower blade, rotaspreader flails, hedgetrimmer flails chinese lanterns and drinks cans, but nothing of even minimal value“. This week a detectorist showed his finds from a field to another farmer who responded: “Do you know, I’ve had about 16 detectorists on that field over the past twenty years, and not ONE has showed me a thing. I thought they weren’t finding anything.“None of them has ever found anything? Sure! But the big question is how many others are there who have been systematically ripping off farmers and the public?

 I doubt many of these farmers who believe that all these camo-gear wierdos trudge around in muddy fields finding nothing of even minimal value time after time have been alerted to the finds valuation sections of "The Searcher" and the "Auction roundup" of the other one. I bet the PAS has not told them about it either. The question is, if the public is paying the PAS to tell the public about portable antiquities issues, why is the PAS failing to tell the public about this one, but keeping sztum - for the sake of the private interests of its partners getting a by-your-leave to walk off with more or less what they want? Why is it up to a private individual an amateur like Farmer Brown to do the informing which the public pay a public institution to do?  Shame on you, compliant and silent archaeologists.