Targeting the Archaeology: Until There is None Left

pustka

On a metal detecting forum near you, member 'trc007'  wants to know: 'How often do you find hammered?', he means hammered medieval coins which due to their small size and thinness tend to be the touchstone of how well a detectorist can use his machine for artefact hunting. It seems the answer depends on targeting the right archaeological sites. jcmaloney (Tue Apr 19, 2016 6:45 am) says:

Certain parts of the country they are relatively abundant, within these areas are "hotspots" trade sites, hoard sites, long gone villages, fair sites etc etc. I have a long held theory, based on lots of searches over 10+ years, that there is a hammy in every field. However the hard part is finding it!

The same sort of answer is given by "JamieB" (Tue Apr 19, 2016 7:22 pm)

The best sites for hammered will always be fields that had markets on .. It's no surprise to me that the most productive hammered fields always have coin weights, tokens and jettons on them .. Every field will have one or two in but if you get hold of a market field it will be stuffed full of them! In answer to your question I average about 1.5 per hunt

So first step is to find out where Deserted Medieval Villages and medieval trade emporia were and hoik away there, and fill yer pockets. It's foolproof, well except if you are john Colin (Tue Apr 19, 2016 1:18 pm)

in all the years I have been detecting and researching the land, the most promising sites that seem to be steeped in history and past activity often turn out to be the most disappointing. I am currently searching the grounds of a manor house that preceded [sic] much earlier settlements

Some friends of member "clint" (Tue Apr 19, 2016 8:55 pm) have located such a site and is busy selectively and clandestinely emptying it into their pockets:

Busy sites are the key...friends of a friend have happened upon what appears to be a market site....first go on produced 10+ hammered including some big ones and stacks of georgian coins inc some nice silvers and numerous artifacts! Looks like a virgin site and needless to say is a secret!

Needless to say. Empty it first then tell the archaeologists, or empty it first and walk away with the loot and tell nobody, recording is voluntary innit. Like here ("targets", Tue May 03, 2016 4:20 am):

Not much lately don't forget guys have been at it for about 45 years and I hear some places have been cleaned out ...they used to be very common from the Thames but now rare as its been hammered for 45 years ..I use to get a few dozen hammy per dig but little now...nowt now!!

and every single one of those coins removed from 45 years worth of cleared-out sites has no doubt been reported by responsible detectorists... yes? This is the "benefit" the UK has from metal detecting?

UPDATE 3rd May 2016 evening
What a load of cowards the UK's so-called "responsible detectorists" are, craven selfish, covetous cowards. Clicking on the link now gives a "The requested topic does not exist". Would that the problem itself, the problem that anyone pretending to the title of "responsible detectorist (artefact hunter)" should jolly well be discussing (targeting of known sites, depletion of the archaeological record and massive non-reporting) would go away. Sadly, simply refusing to talk about it is not a solution  that anyone but a marmot would think is the way to resolve an issue. The way to resolve an issue is honestly to talk about it - not ignore it. Cowards, cowards, cowards.

Here's the Google cache, so you can check out I am not making this tuff up. They really are as bad as I say.  Why are no British archaeologists telling you this? Where are they?