Article About Metal Dectorists in the New Yorker

It's sad, but the space issue is endemic both to museums and libraries. American public libraries seem to be especially ruthless. My exhibit A of that is a complete 2-vol. Oxford Compact Dictionary, ...at $1.00 (mind the dot) per volume.

 

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I think museums are generally staffed by professional, conscientious staff. Of course there are exceptions, such as the medals in buckets mentioned earlier, but on the whole I think museums, repositories of our history and culture, serve a vital role in promoting learning and educating the public about how societies of the past existed evolved.

This is the issue of how collections donated to these organizations are handled. Of course, not everything can be exhibited, and museums do sell off duplicates and other items to raise funds.

I think my collection will be bequeathed to either a museum or university classics department (at least for the ancients), since I would like to think all of this accumulation would serve a useful purpose, but that's of posterity to decide.

 

No one seriously doubts their motives (aside from glaring exceptions, per se); that's why it's sad, more than anything. ...Maybe American public libraries don't even belong in the same class. Owing, one should ad, far less to competence than to divergent agendas. Emphasis tends to be on circulation --they have to justify their existence, generally to civic boards that are orders of magnitude more philistine than they are-- and on the shelves, survival rates, even of classics, are often reducible to a popularity contest.

 

Yes, it was. I felt it really conveyed how well the system actually works and how unfortunate it is that these two detectorists chose to ignore it.

 

Now that’s funny. Still laughing

 

He ain't Brit......he's NY.

 

Legally, they do not have to be reported, but there's no reason not to. The finders and landowners are fairly compensated, so if you discover a large hoard, you might as well report it and get a little glory along with your coins.

 

As both an individual detectorist and a shareholder in a treasure hunting company, I can state the laws and regulations concerning this are confusing and ever changing. Archeologists hold the upper hand and have an undeserved air of superiority. I have been lucky to deal with one who respects my efforts and appreciates my finds. I have placed a number of finds in museums and never sold any. In fact I refuse the title “treasure Hunter” so beloved by many detectorists and the public. I think the title depicts an effort to make a profit and I do not sell nor trade but often give items away. I have found and returned 30 items with values of over $8000 for a wedding ring all for free. I do it for my pleasure.

 

@Chip Kirkpatrick, that's really too bad. From across the pond, where mercenary motives are really the default mode, especially in the popular media ('don't bore me with what it is; what's it Worth?!!?!'), it was fun to think that the dynamics between detectorists and archaeologists were more collaborative than that. Another bubble burst.

 

On the whole I would say there is excellent collaboration but of course bad news sells better than good news so the bulk of the interaction doesn't see the light of day. However If you go onto the PAS site you can research 1.5 million reported finds see https://finds.org.uk/database/search/results/q/denarius
I would say that the bulk of these end up on the market as Museums do not have the budget or inclination to buy duplicates unless there is a particularly scholarly reason to do so such as the location of a hoard.
I was probably too negative in my earlier comments and expressing more the frustration of an individual than collective experience. I hold by my belief that pride of ownership by private owners often serves to perpetuate the history of an artefact better than being hidden in a vault. Although this is not the forum for, it although we are all collectors, medal collecting is a prime example where individual collectors will either study recipients themselves or engage researchers to delve into the service and genealogy of the medals recipient as they have the time and interest to do so. My "buckets of medals" scenario would take a huge amount of financial resource to do this for every medal.

 

Oh and I think my "hate museums" comment was the result of a bad day at the office considering I spend so much time in them. Somewhat hypocritical of me and I regret the comment. In actual fact these pages are a virtual museum because I have derived so much pleasure and interest from reading threads and comments from my peers that the forum deserves some virtual museum award should there be an appropriate one. It would get my vote in a Cardiff minute ( I'm not from New York!).