Artefact Hunters Complain Rewards "Not Big Enuff Wot's an Diss-Incentif to Sell it Through the Proper Means"

Metal detectorist
Joe Kania found gold
in Staffordshire 

The revisions to the Treasure Act are open to public consultation until April 30. A DCMS spokesperson said: "The aim of the proposed changes is to ensure that more outstanding artefacts can be preserved by museums on behalf of the public. They were launched in February following a profitable 2018 for metal detectorists ( Oliver Barnes, 'Metal detectorists claim new Treasure Act will see them shortchanged', Telegraph 31st March 2019). For them, a major problem is that among proposed revisions to the current legislation, passed in 1996, is the suggestion to include redefining single gold coins as treasure upon their discovery.

Hobbyists insist the change could result in a drastic decrease in them cashing in on their rewards at auctions. Officials from the National Council of Metal Detecting (NCMD) said the changes could see huge financial windfalls become “a thing of the past”. A NCMD spokesperson said: "Extremely rare solo coins are beyond the value of even the British Museum when sold at the market price. I suspect that the advantage of them being captured as treasure is that these institutions won’t have to pay as much.

Not the "institutions' but the British Public.

[...] Peter Welch, founder of the Weekend Wanderers metal detecting club in Hampshire, said: "I strongly disagree with a single gold coin being classified as treasure. "For a coin worth thousands, you’re not going to get the good price for it anymore, so that’s a disincentive to sell it through the proper means.”

Speaks for all greedy, grabby oiks out there. The archaeological record belongs to us all, and it should not be 'finders keepers' - and it is sad that the Telegraph did not actually focus on other areas of the proposed revisions making the public ownership of the past more firmly set in practice.