.
Let us for the moment accept as true the (as yet unsupported) assertion made today that 650 000 metal detectors have been sold in the UK over an unspecified period. If we assume that the sum total of metal detectorists sold was referring to the whole 40-year history of metal detecting in the UK, that still means that sixteen thousand (16250) of these machines were sold every year. Sixteen thousand new metal detectorists sold each year would suggest many more than sixteen thousand artefact hunters out there, since not every hobbyist will be buying a new machine each year. The PAS used to have a running total of big numbers on its front page, now you have to dig deeper to find them. What is interesting is the total number of finders reporting finds to the PAS since records began in 1998. It is a disturbing fact that according to the 'overall statistics' search of the PAS database, in fifteen years of outreach there have only been
finders who have reported finds to PAS offices. That would be the equivalent of less than two thousand (1705) a year. The total number of finds reported and recorded is a disappointing show for the scale of depletion of the record caused by the use over a forty year period of 650 000 detectors in the hands of tens of thousands of metal detectorists over at least two generations. If the FID figure of detector sales is anything like the truth, it would have to be acknowledged that there has been hoiking of collectables from the archaeological record on a massively unreported scale.
Let us for the moment accept as true the (as yet unsupported) assertion made today that 650 000 metal detectors have been sold in the UK over an unspecified period. If we assume that the sum total of metal detectorists sold was referring to the whole 40-year history of metal detecting in the UK, that still means that sixteen thousand (16250) of these machines were sold every year. Sixteen thousand new metal detectorists sold each year would suggest many more than sixteen thousand artefact hunters out there, since not every hobbyist will be buying a new machine each year. The PAS used to have a running total of big numbers on its front page, now you have to dig deeper to find them. What is interesting is the total number of finders reporting finds to the PAS since records began in 1998. It is a disturbing fact that according to the 'overall statistics' search of the PAS database, in fifteen years of outreach there have only been
25582
Number of recorders per institution
Institution Number of finders - 253 BERK 1503 BH 491 BM 84 BUC 1219 CAM 349 CAMBRIA 5 CCI 3 COOK 4 CORN 224 CPAT 103 DEN 4 DENO 609 DEV 300 DOR 322 DUR 233 DYFED 4 ESS 1138 FAHG 228 FAIL 4 FAJN 1 FAKL 81 FAOXB 0 FAPJW 199 FASAM 37 FASW 207 GAT 34 GLO 517 HAMP 817 HESH 443 IARCW 0 IHS 79 IOW 350 KENT 1003 LANCUM 605 LEIC 672 LIN 750 LON 478 LVPL 846 NARC 169 NCL 335 NLM 457 NMGW 557 NMS 594 PAS 1363 PUBLIC 770 RESEARCH 107 SF 748 SFHER 1 SOM 322 SOMDOR 170 STAFFS 1 SUR 889 SUSS 828 SWYOR 745 WAW 487 WILT 776 WMAS 16 WMID 732 YORYM 1316 25582
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