An Auctioneer's Assurances Hit Reality

Apparently a celebrity in the UK

I was forwarded this correspondence back in July 2016 and use it with the permission of the sender. This was just after a certain auctioneer announcing he was going into the antiquities business and was looking for metal ("not in it fer the munny") detected artefacts to flog off. A heritage activist wrote to him:

From: Charles Hanson [...]>
To: Nigel Swift [...]>
Sent: Fri, 29 Jul 2016 13:44
Subject: From Charles Hanson
Dear Mr Swift
We will certainly be taking due care as you outline below
At present the sale is only in its infancy and will be hopefully inviting consignments in due course
I appreciate your email
Yours sincerely
Charles Hanson

I assume one can't do punctuation on a Blackberry.

From: Nigel Swift 
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2016 14:01
To: Charles Hanson
Subject: Re: From Charles Hanson
Many thanks for your response. Hopefully you won't be offered or accept any metal detecting finds that don't include both PAS documentation and landowners' consents.

Reassurance, quick as a flash:

From: Charles Hanson
To: Nigel Swift [...]
Sent: Fri, 29 Jul 2016 14:02
Subject: Re: From Charles Hanson
I certainly won't Mr Swift
All the best
Charles
Charles Hanson

On seeing that, my single-word response to Nigel back then turned out totally prophetic. Of Mr Hanson's 200 lots of metal detected artefacts, and umpteen dugup ancient coins up for sale next week, it is rather the minority that had been reported to PAS before Mr Hanson accepted them for sale, and if somebody sees even one there where the sales offer indicates that a copy of the protocol transferring title by the landowner is available to the buyer, please let me know.