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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;SeptimusT, post: 3114028, member: 91240&quot;]I agree with you in principal; there&#039;s nothing wrong with having coins and other artifacts in private ownership (obviously, considering I&#039;m collecting them). The difference with the Pompeii example is that it&#039;s an established archaeological site, and everything needs to be kept, with its original context recorded, for future study. Every coin is part of a large puzzle, and if you take something out of it it becomes harder to see the whole thing. With archaeology it&#039;s important to be able to reconstruct the site, so there&#039;s lots of data recorded, and the artifacts are preserved at important sites like Pompeii, so they can be studied later. Less important sites don&#039;t always do this, and sometimes the artifacts do get sold.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are more than enough coins out there that don&#039;t have a context like that to satisfy collectors, and if we had systems like the Portable Antiquities Scheme everywhere more minor sites and finds would get found and reported, adding to our knowledge base, while at the same time satisfying collectors. Coin hoards don&#039;t have much context outside themselves, but can tell us a lot of examined in aggregate; the location of contemporary hoards in relation to one another can be used to track military activity, for instance.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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