Bloomsbury countdown, 631,128 records referring to 1,021,067 objects. Through Stakhanovite efforts of Vincent Drost of the British Museum (National Finds Adviser - Iron Age and Roman Coins), who single-handedly today recorded as many as a round 22000 objects, which he managed to get not only in one working day, but also one record (phew!) PAS have reached their long-desired "million". Whatever it was Mr Drost recorded today, it's not in the PAS database yet....
Two things become clear. First of all that 22000 looks suspiciously like an estimate. Let's have the details Dr Drost. If so, the PAS database figures contain estimates, and not real numbers? Why? Secondly, this much-vaunted "million" number is nowhere near being an index (as it is currently being used by supporters of current policies on artefact hunting and collecting) of the number of metal detectorists voluntarily reporting their finds to the PAS.
If PAS are going COUNT "pennies in a jar", then they should by the same token be describing and publishing individually every single one of them. I really find it hard to believe that Mr Jost today Monday 8th September photographed and described 22000 individual artefacts. Why, anyway, are hoards (because I bet that's what this is) going onto the PAS database of NON-TREAURE finds?
Do search the PAS database (of non-Treasure finds) for 'hoard' yourselves . I got total results available: 4,632, and the maximum number of objects in one of these records is 52,504 and the average is 36.3. That means 4632 records and 168,307 objects (that's 17% of that "million") are being used to boost the non-treasure finds voluntarily submitted for recording by members of the public, data which are of a totally different order. How many more ruses have been used to bump up the figures?
PAS stop avoiding the issue and give the British public a proper breakdown of what your figures mean in terms of policies on artefact hunting. You owe them nothing less.
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