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"hobby DOESN'T denude the fields?!?!)..."

To underline that point, I just went to search on Google for a Durotrige coin (to show Wysefool that the Uffington White Horse has his hooves firmly planted in the mythology of the iron age) BUT what do I find under Durotrige coins - first and foremost Ebay - come and get the best deals on Ebay !!! not of course forgetting all the coin dealers that are liberally sprinkled over the page as well. You can't, when all is said and done, argue away the physical evidence that is out there. Heritage should'nt be up for sale, it should'nt be in the market place at all.

addressed to Kevmar and co of course.......

Perhaps you need to understand google to see why that has happened. It may have something to do with what Ebay pay google for adwords. As for being directed at me I have never sold one find, neither do I search for finds to sell.
You say about the figures being shameful. I do not see archeologists all over the countryside recovering these so called artifacts. So what happens when the plough and the power harrow gets them. I think you counter should actually say 9,000,000+ artifacts recovered and saved from destruction. Its a good job copper Georgian is not rare as I have about 100 that have been recovered and I cant see his portrait on any of them. Ruined by farming methods and erosion. Crotal bells , beehive thimbels, coinage, and other artifacts mangled and smashed to peices. Most of these finds may I add found in the top 6-8 inches plough soil.
Yes of course there are undesirables within the hobby and may I add in every walk of life(corrupt police officers, government officials, teachers,Military forces). But please dont be so niave as to tar us all with the same brush.

moss wrote:
BUT what do I find under Durotrige coins - first and foremost Ebay - come and get the best deals on Ebay !!! not of course forgetting all the coin dealers that are liberally sprinkled over the page as well. You can't, when all is said and done, argue away the physical evidence that is out there. Heritage should'nt be up for sale, it should'nt be in the market place at all
Thanks Moss for pointing that out. The massive scale of British artefacts passing through eBay – apparently most of them unrecorded by PAS – is a constant and highly visible reminder of the scale of the losses the British archaeological resource is suffering to feed the worldwide demand for antiquities as “collectables”.

Monitoring of eBay.uk sales by the Portable Antiquities Scheme in August and September 2006 enabled a quantification of the number of antiquities being sold. http://www.finds.org.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/ebay.pdf It was found that almost 3,500 ‘antiquities’ were offered for sale on just this one eBay outlet each day. Of these almost 600 ‘British antiquities’ were offered for sale there each day (including a large number of items classifiable as ‘Treasure” under the 1996 act which had not been previously reported as the law requires). This works out at some 42300 ‘British antiquities’ sold through eBayUK alone in each year. A sobering fact is the realisation that – since few “detectorists” will admit to doing it for the money - what many British artefact hunters sell on to dealers or put on eBay themselves are in many cases only duplicates and other items unwanted for their own collections (and/or not saleable to other types of dealers). The vast majority of unreported and reported finds are put in personal collections by the hundred, not on eBay.