Thursday 13 April 2023

Detecting Finds Rates [Updated]

A bloke called Mark who "searches for medieval and Roman coins and artifacts with the metal detector in the northern part of the Netherlands" writes:
Medieval Digger @medieval_digger 19 g.
I had a two hour search today, ended up with 12 coins. One of them was silver! 😎👍🍀 #metaldetecting https://pic.twitter.com/pX1M2fHkXphttps://pic.twitter.com/pX1M2fHkXp
So, a counter based on the estimate that the average number of recordable finds an active detector user will find in the UK in a whole year is 30.5 is not at all extravagant? Who'd 'a thought eh?   

Update 13.04.2023

Medieval Digger @medieval_digger 26 min
30.5? More, way more! I report everything that needs to be reported. I think 60-100 each year.
He'll be getting hate mail from UK detectorists if they see that... If there are 40000 in England and Wales and on average 80000 non-Treasure items responsibly reported to the PAS, how does that compare then? Two-each, what does that say about "British metal detectorists"? Certainly not the oft-automatically-mantric-repeated "the majority are responsible" [when reporting to PAS is a benchmark of that "responsible" behaviour]. In reality (denied by their supporters in archaeology, museums, law enfrcement and silly newspapers), whatever the situation in The EU (here Netherlands), in Britain, the majority of stuff just disappears into artefact hunters' pockets or onto eBay.

1 comment:

Brian Mattick said...

Gratifying to hear that 30.5 is too low. As the original Heritage Action counter explained:

"the rate at which the Counter shows artefacts being found (30.5 per year each) is far lower than all available pointers including a number of well- documented detecting events and detectorists', archaeologists' and official estimates and surveys.

That didn't prevent 30.5 being ridiculed as too high: "Detectorists say it is "ludicrous", the Head of PAS says it "lacks credibility"; a detector retailer told Britarch it is "based on nothing but presumptions and inaccuracies" and the NCMD General Secretary says it "should be viewed with contempt"."

This gentleman is owed a debt of gratitude for breaking the pattern.

 
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