Coins Fresh from Carnuntum

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Honest Joe Blazick who has been mentioned on this blog before has some bulk lots of dugup coins for sale, so advertised them on the Uncleaned Coins list: Its Carnutum time again (27th September 2010):

Twice a year they clear the fields around Carnutum and then the detectorist do their thing. Every six months I get a batch from a detectorist that collects and sells the coins him and his friends find. I normally only get the small ones but to my surprise, I was able to get a very nice mixture of sizes that includes from a few Sestertii, Ases and a couple of denarii. Overall the nicest lot he has been able to gather but alas the price was hugher (sic). Look at what I will be putting up on E bay or I may make them directly available to list members.

So normally these "bigger" coins end up where? With whom? Carnuntum (Aelium Carnuntum) on the danube near Vienna is of course a pretty major Roman archaeological site; this rather makes a mockery of the coiney claim that the accumulation of the coins that appear on the US market has nothing to do with the exploitation of archaeological sites. Anyway, just now he's posted more details: "Austrian Dectectorist finds" (Mon Oct 4, 2010) [spelling as in original]:

Its been a long time since my friend in Austria had sent me dectorist finds from around the Salzburg area. As usual they are really nice coins from around Carnatun. This was Marcus Arelius's headquaters in the 2nd century ad. The detectorist are allowed to did up coins after the locals had harvested their crops. They then sell the coins to my friend and then I buy them when he has a good grouping. I now have a little over 400 to sell at $2.75 per coin and free shipping in the US only. No limit on how many you can buy. They usually sell out in less than a week so if you would like a chance to get them basically straight from the diggers, here is your chance. I see a lot of mid 3rd century coins in the mix.

Straight from the diggers eh? So how are they getting out of Austria to the USA?

UK metal detectorists know what the law in various countries of Europe (and beyond) says about all this. So in the case of Austria (from the National Council on Metal Detecting ( as amended in 2008):

The use of metal detectors in archaeological contexts on land or underwater requires an excavation permission issued by the Austrian Federal Monument Authority (Bundesdenkmalamt) because such use is considered to constitute an `excavation for the purpose of discovery and exploration of movable and immovable monuments' in the sense of Section II of the Austrian law for the protection of monuments. Such permissions are in general not issued to private individuals.

So who are Mr Blazick's "friends"? Austrian archaeologists? It is odd that coin collectors seem not to consider under what terms these coins were accumulated. I have many times suggested that collectors sorely need a compendium of relevant laws created by organizations like the Ancient Coin Collectors' Guild, or one of the dealers' organizations. Somehow they do not seem to want to create such a resource telling collectors what the law actually says about various situations they may meet in their collecting activities. Three guesses why (apart from "cant be bothered").

Now previous coin finds from Carnuntum have been well studied and published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, these publications increase our knowledge of many aspects of these sites by studying coins in context. There is no mention by Mr Blazick that the coins he is selling "straight from the diggers" have been seen by anyone connected with that work. Excavators at Carnuntum are well used to seeing at night the flashlights of the metal detectorists going over the area around their excavations (you know, the ones that Mr Blazick says are "allowed" to be there - at night only?). Some of them left traces showing they'd been robbing perfectly obvious excavation trenches. Some of these thieves are scared away, others were caught, and some - despite the presence of archaeologists - have obviously walked away with bags of swag which they dispose of by various means. Where did Mr Blazick say his friend obtained those coins, from whom?

Note the interesting fact that this coiney (who will no doubt say he does what he does out of a "love of history") cares so little about where the coins he sells come from that he cannot even get the name of the site right. The name is "Car-nun-tum" and not "Car-noo-tum" (or Car-na-tum").

Carnuntum Archaeological park - so where was this metal detecting going on? (Map by Planetware)

BTW: Just look who runs the uncleaned coin list where this trade is going on: List Founder & Co-Owner, Susan Headley About.com Coins Guide, List Co-Owner, Mark Lehman, President of ACE; Co-Founder, John Ryan, purveyor of Ryan's Tools for coin scratching, and (Moderator) Curtis L. Clay, Numismatist from Harlan J. Berk.