Detectorists

Sanctuary S
Sanctuary Feb 3, 2018 01:16:55
Replying to nigelswift

nigelswift wrote:
carol27 wrote:
Id see that as a compliment..
Hardly. I don't have hundreds of bits of archaeology in a cupboard at home or sell any on EBay!
Nor do I. But I do have hundreds of bit's of wire, fencing staples, bent nails, two horseshoes, cartridge heads, bits of tin and silver paper, bolts, a broken pair of plyers, screwdriver shaft and 100's of other bits of tat- but sadly no ring pulls or toy cars! This very day I found my first coin in months - a 1964 threepenny piece. Pure joy!

This is the type of junk 99% of ordinary honest detectorists find when they go out for the day Nigel, not the -1% of night hawks you keep referring to that sweep scheduled sites illegally. We all think they are scum as well - but try to keep a sensible head on and not over-exaggerate!

Nuff said.

N nigelswift
nigelswift Feb 3, 2018 06:01:36
Replying to Sanctuary

Well, nighthawks are a minor problem compared with "legal" non reporting. Dr Sam Hardy estimates there are 24K legal detectorists finding (per PAS, CBA, EH, archaeologists and a detecting forum survey) circa 30 recordable artefacts per year, which is 720,000 per year whereas so far, in 20 years (per PAS), they've only shown PAS 1.3 million.

Feel free to say that's somehow wrong or exaggerated or unjust, but as Prof David Gill has said: "We have to ask by how much it would have to be "wrong" to make the figures acceptable." My answer to that is "goodness knows" and so should everyone's be.

Anyway, the only reason I got drawn into this was to point out that all the good people who use TMA who take nothing, are in no way comparable. They aren't, and I think that should be made crystal clear.

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