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Julia - silver (ebay)
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On checking back with the Change.org petition website to see progress on the "Digger Dawn" petition, a little personalised window opened right in the middle of the page:
Julie Argent needs your help with “Remove the lockdown BAN on Metal Detecting private land in England”. Join Julie and 948 supporters today.
Thanks, but I'd rather not. The Argent family have been mentioned on this blog a number of times, none of them anything to boast about. Julie is the one that
apparently rejects the idea of recording artefacts found in metal detecting, unless they are "rarer" or the law dictates it (
'Artefact Hoiker on Fudgeworld explains... Responsible Detecting is not LAW, so anyfink goes', PACHI Saturday, 4 January 2020). They were also involved in the trashing of the Holt Hoard findspot ('
Metal Detecting Bad Practice Again: Dorset Roman Coin Hoard Hoiked' PACHI Monday, 29 December 2014
and
here). Ironically, though she Julie Argent has, without first checking out the contents, put her name under this infantile and uninformed crap, she's one of the detectorists that declares that it is "in the archaeological world" that there is "
serious education required". There is quite a revealing
interview with her on a metal detecting blog,
wouldn't it be (and encourage) good practice if when they show their "best finds", these people would give the PAS database number so you can look them up and find out more about them? I cannot find the North Thames quarter stater that is shown as one of her finds on the PAS database (help, please?) [Update: see comments below, the coin is included, but under a completely different name!] but it looks a bit ominous that she says "
I found out from Liz Cottam at Chris Rudd Celtic coins that it was also only the 4th known example of that type. With the reversed ‘S’ it made the coin rarer". So Julie wants us to sign her friend's petition so that she can earn the right to go out trash sites like at Holt, record only the rarer bits and pocket the rest with no record during the remainder of lockdown. So far just under a thousand English metal detectorists have expressed the same desire, 22 hours after the petition was set up.
12 comments:
Petition: "Metal detecting is one of the safest and most solitary hobbies there is."
But it's not always "solitary". It has the potential to be very UNsolitary. What is a "responsible" detectorist meant to do if they make an important large discovery? Park their car over it? Then guard it day and night for weeks until lockdown ends and a team of archaeologists can safely come out and excavate it?
No mate, just bury it again and keep your mouth shut until the FLO can attend...simple really!
You sound like a twat, please go away, noone cares if you dislike someone. Save the drama for your momma. You should leave people be, noone likes a bully. I say this because Tom Knows Best
So Tom, like Julie, should know that if you are addressing a petition [to "Culture, Media and SPORT" and the Prime Minister himself] that says that the government has "banned metal detecting" (no it has not) while allowing golf (no, read the schedule of restrictions), you really needs to check facts before putting your name under it. So far over 1000 English tekkies have signed the petition, showing what a lot of ignorant prats they are. No, when artefact hunters like this leave the archaeological record "be", then I'll stop talking about them trashing it, using real examples found in the public domain in the real world and not the fantasy generalisations of many of my British colleagues. OK? Any problems with telling it how it is "Tom"?
I think Boris Johnson should get on with getting Brexit done properly, not spaffing around talking to metal detectorists.
The advice before November 5th for "if they make an important large discovery" was cover it over "if secure". I think we all know what PAS meant by "if secure" - if you can be confident none of the witnesses will later return and dig it up". But who would bet their mortgage on that? (Or tuppence?)
But it is not just that, is it? If an outsider is entering a property, like a farm (a workplace) then - for insurance and safety purposes - they need to appraise the owner (or their representative) of that each time they enter and leave. When they leave, they ought to show the owner what they are removing and why, and obtain some kind of documentation of transfer of title of the removed property (like you get a receipt when you leave a shop). So each visit should mean contact with farm personnel, and while the first can be done by phone, the second cannot.
I don't know you Paul but you sound very bitter. Personally attacking a person and a whole group of people and calling them ignorant prats is not very professional. I can provide you the link to the coin that Julie sis indeed register if you are unable to find it. Please let me know and I'll happily do so.
Yes, please do, the PAS search engine is a load of crap isn't it? But you see, the point of having that information recorded is to use it, so I do not see why Ms Argent could not have supplied that information alongside the photo.
By the way, it says at the bottom of the window, "This blog does not allow anonymous comments". You called me by first name terms, yet refuse to reveal your own identity, for all I know you could be her loving Essex FLO coming on here... Are you?
But, if there is one, give us the link by all means, I am curious to see what the FLO made of it.
and I say that it is not an "attack" to say that a named person has put something on the Internet showing what she has done. That named person invited me through to change.org petition to add my name ALONGSIDE HERS. I am saying why I have no wish to put MY name alongside here. That seems fairly simple, where do you have a problem anbout that?
If someone did not want us to see what happened to the findspot of the Holt Hoard then they should not make two videos of it and stick it up on the Internet for all to see. If they don't want to record their finds, then why plaster an explicit comment saying so on the Internet where we can all see? Because that is bond to attract the attention of someone who thinks it is BEST PRACTICE and part of being a Responsible Detectorist to record the finds.
And if you are her FLO (or any kind of a responsible detectorist) you should bloody well be saying the same thing, loudly and publicly.
I don't know why it's come up as unknown with my name, my be something in my settings. Any, my name is Wayne Ogilvy so that's cleared up. I'm not a FLO or anything similar. Here is the link I promised, I hope you find it helpful.
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/585352
Dear Mr Ogilvy, I don't know why you are being anonymised by your settings when the other commentators have names. Anyway thanks for the link. I note the FLO never saw the coin. The problem here is that in publishing the photo as one of her trophy finds, Ms Argent got everything (except 'quarter stater' and 'gold') wrong. Her description, the date she gives for it, are totally at odds with the PAS record. Which is why, when you use the terms she gives, nothing that looks like that coin comes up. A Google image search also only produces Ms Argent's coin and not the one in the PAS database,
This therefore reinforces the point I made about metal detectorists should be supplying information about the things they have TAKEN from the archaeological record in a consistent manner and not force people to hunt around the houses for it. Don't you agree?
And since that's one of the "rarer"things she's found, the fact that she's recorded it here (AND on UKDFD) does not induce me to want to sign any silly petition alongside her name.
DirtScanner: just bury it again and keep your mouth shut until the FLO can attend
You have more faith in the ability of the average person to not drop even a hint of an exciting discovery than I do. Most people cannot keep totally silent about a hammered penny, let alone a major spectacular find.
Why not simply leave archaeological evidence intact where it is instead of randomly digging up all the metal bits - at least until the experts are in a better position to deal with it? Can your "hobby" not wait that long?
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