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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Drusus, post: 514571, member: 6370&quot;]I agree with all you say. I have a few medals that came to me that I think might have been war booty. Some of them are one of a kind...or so rare I have yet to find similar specimens. I was told not to post them just in case. I posted them anyway with the idea that if someone sees it and lays claim to it, then I would be willing to let them go as I DO understand that rare and valuable culturally important artifacts need to be given to those who rightfully own them...not only that but I do also understand that dig sites need to be protected because the information they might produce is important to us all and interesting to me as I am very much interested in history.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>What I gather is that most collectors and those who use metal detectors are, more often than not, people who are interested in history and that is why they look for these things or buy them. They would be more than happy to work WITH archeologists as long as they know that, in most cases, their own interests will be protected...that is...if they find a cache of coins...they wont have them snatch away from them and be labeled a &#039;looter&#039;.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>A good way of doing things in my humble opinion is to allow collectors a chance to buy those artifacts that, realistically, will never been shown in museum...if I find a cache of 300 coins of Constantine...I report it to them, they get to dig the site and make whatever discoveries they find important...then they give me back the coins...and lets face it...90%+ of all coins found will never be considered interesting enough to take up space in a museum as there are thousands of the same kind of coins...and many are common and just not interesting to the common museum visitor. They give me those coins they realistically know will never see the light of day again and allow me to do as I please...This way archeology gets the info they need, and collectors get what they DO want and that is a complete picture of the coin, where it was found, etc...a full provenance starting from where it was found and what it likely was (soldiers buried booty, temple cache, etc...)...what collector would want that info?</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I got the impression that while numismatist seem more than willing to compromise and work together, archeologist (some not all by far) seem to disdain the numismatist as casual coin enthusiasts who can contribute nothing to the process...the reality is that numismatists have a wealth of knowledge and information and often can tell you everything you would ever want to know about the coins that are their passion and could be a real boon...the only people I have seen from numismatic field that seemed a bit less happy about any cooperation between numismatist (collector) and archeology were dealers. If collectors got coins directly from museums and archeological digs...the dealer would have a harder time and his undocumented coins would be &#039;loot&#039;[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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