Yeah, but I'm pretty sure it all belongs to the fucking queen. Or at least that's what they like to pretend.
There was a huge hoard from 1000 years ago, royal shit if I'm not mistaken, and the bitch's gangsters claimed it belonged to them. I'd have melted it down and thrown it in the sea before handing it over. Fact.
The crown is required to pay the finder and the landowner the value of the find within 2nyears IF they intend to keep it for museums, display, research, etc. all gold must be reported. Not other stuff. If the money can’t be raised to pay the finder... then it goes to the finder. The money paid to the finder and landowner, btw, is tax-free. Which in the UK is a big deal!
Value is determined by independent appraisers.
It is actually a pretty well-run thing and has done a lot for archaeology and historical knowledge. Plus made some farmers very rich.
The biggest bane is “nighthawkers” who detect and dig at night and they destroy sites and steal artifacts that then can’t be dated, put into context, etc. the real value of some of. These things is not their scrap or gold value... but their historical value.
The antiquities stuff done by the UK gummint is one of the few things I think they got right. And they have encouraged a generation of detectors and diggers to learn and contribute to history instead of looting it.
Metal detector enthusiasts should be the historians best friend... and Vice versa. But both are often at odds as the metal detector wants to keep his finds... which should be allowed. And the historian needs them (and context) to explain the history they represent. The real value of an artifact is lost when it is moved or pocketed and sold on eBay or at a Civil War show. Ways that promote the partnership between the detectors (who really are archaeologists themselves) and the scientific/ historical communities should evolve. But so far, the two communities remain stand-of fish. One screaming “you are destroying history” and the other yelling “I found it, it’s mine.” Both should realize they are in the same side!
Sadly, in the US and a lot of other places, there is no money in academia to do things like pay finders for important artifacts or reward critical discoveries. So artifacts get seized which is unfair and pissesmoff those at the front lines of archaeology and history... or the folks just pocket the items and they become knickknacks and the real history is lost forever.
Too bad a few of our weenie tech billionaires aren’t putting their zillions to things like this... instead of being history-denying communists. Too bad we have trillions for free cheese... and not a few million here and there to preserve and understand history.
[\rant]
Sirhr
