The National Council for Metal Detecting ("Dig with confidence") has always been coy about its membership figures, such a number can be compared with the number of "Responsible Detectorists" recording finds with the PAS.
Now there is news about the NCMD creating its own parallel "recording system", to replace the now-floundering private UK Detector Finds Database and muddy the waters of discussion of how many freshly dugup artefacts are being recorded.
New NCMD Portal
The NCMD Mobile app enables members to record their finds and find spots for their own reference. This data is (sic) currently only available to the individual member, however we are developing a portal so that you can share any finds you want, directly with your local FLO. We are working with the PAS to ensure that the data will integrate into the new PAS system.
Other news is that in April 2024 there was an
inquiry into Metal detecting in which the government requested feedback from organisations within the detecting community and the ever complaining NCMD sent a
respose that is on their website, and it is that which unwittingly gives us some information:
"many of us have been metal detecting for more than 25 years, so we were
extremely surprised at the comments suggesting that the relationship between
archaeologists and detectorists has improved significantly over that time.
We would beg to differ and have highlighted a number of key points that we feel clearly
demonstrates the reasons for this view.
We would also like to make you aware that we have had a flood of calls and emails from
across our 38,000 membership that mirror this view and in particular, the consensus is one
of concern that this inquiry is extremely one sided and that the detecting community is not
being fairly represented in it.
Telling us that everything is fine, and that the inquiry is in our best interests doesn’t make it
so, and the suspicion that abounds tells its own story."
and so on in the came vein. Ever the victims...
But it tells us that there are 38000 detectorists in the United Kingdom (rather than just England and Wales) who are represented by the NCMD (and have their insurance).
There is also the rival FID (the Federation of Independent Detectorists) established in 1982 by Colin Hanson and this also issues third party insurance and claims (has claimed) to be "
the Worlds largest metal detecting organisation". Yet it has not released any membership numbers to back that up.
But the issue is that when we lost track
of the apparent increase in numbers of UK metal detectorists it was in the 20-25k range... but that was some six years ago. Now it seems it is substantially bigger. By maybe 13k+... That is a substantial increase.
And when we put the latest Treasure "
record figures" on the graph showing what I call the '
Treasure blip' (and yes, I must get around to
redrawing that graph, as obviously nobody else is going to do their OWN version)... we find that although the PAS say its a record, it is
fully part of the same downward trend I warned about in 2020. The jobsworth PAS is totally oblivious to that and its implications. The Treasure blip is now a Treasure Gap.
What are the brits going to do about it?
Oh, and the number of finders? The
2023 report says (p.5 Table 2) that
the total number of finders reporting stuff in the last year was "3,877" which includes metal detectorists, but is not exclusively metal detectorists. So the NCMD has 38000 members, yet less than a tenth of that number have reported a single find in the last year. Don't let anyone tell you that obvious lie (LIE) that "the majority of metal detectorists in England and Wales are Responsible and follow the Code of Best Practice". It is simply NOT TRUE. So I do not understand why so many people in the UK keep repeating it. They are simply disregarding the facts and actual numbers. I have no patience with them.
finders who had their
finds recorded on the
PAS database