Last updated at 17:24, Wednesday, 22 August 2012

THE responsible use of metal detectors has improved our knowledge of the ancient world and resulted in the finds of recent Viking coin hoards on both sides of Morecambe Bay.

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The Furness and Silverdale hoards were both promptly reported under the terms of the Treasure Act and the Portable Antiquities Scheme – but this has not always been the case.

Roger Bland, president of the British Numismatic Society, explained some of the problems in his Yorkshire Numismatic Society lecture at the York Racecourse coin fair.

The Treasure Act emerged almost 15 years ago from a need to reflect the huge increase in finds made by metal detectors.

Most European countries rarely issue licences to hobbyists wanting to use metal detectors but in Britain anyone can use one – if they have the permission of the land owner and avoid 20,000 scheduled archaeological sites.

Mr Bland said it was estimated that there were between 9,000 and 10,000 metal detector users in Britain – there were 100,000 in the 1980s.

Users have 14 days in which to report any find which comes within the scope of the Treasure Act – which includes groups of coins, other metal objects more than 300 years old or with a gold or silver content of more than 10 per cent. The rules also include pre- historic items such as bronze axes.

Finders and land owners are rewarded with the full market value of any items kept by museums.

Museums then have up to four months to come up with the money.

In 1988 there were only 25 treasure finds a year. By 1998 that had reached 200 and Mr Bland expects it to exceed 1,000 this year.

Not everyone follows the rules and some items which would be classified as treasure have been spotted for sale on internet auctions sites.

A few detector users also preyed on archaeological sites in the hope of lucrative pickings – an activity called night hawking.

In 1995 there were 188 attacks on sites classified as scheduled monuments but this had fallen to 70 in 2008.

There were complaints of raids on 74 per cent of active archaeological sites in 1995 but this had also fallen to 28 per cent by 2008.

First published at 16:24, Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk