The collecting element of Metal Detecting introduces the emotive subject of selling or buying finds. Selling archaeological finds is one of the most controversial aspects of metal detecting and is regarded as highly unethical by those of us to whom artefacts represent a historical archive.
Though many detectorists now work closely with archaeologists, there is a huge market in artefacts for private collection and sale. This is directly opposed to the traditional archaeological view that artefacts should be valued by what they can tell us about the past and not by what they are worth financially.
So………Does a responsible detectorist sell their duplicate or unwanted finds for example on e-Bay?
If they are sold on the antiquities market, they mostly lose all association with their find-spot and therefore lose all of their significance to archaeological research. You should consider donation or sale of objects of particular interest to a local museum rather than sale on the antiquities market. If you must sell you should make sure that your find is recorded with PAS first.
Donating or selling an Artefact to a Museum
Museums may sometimes be glad to have the opportunity to acquire your non-treasure finds, but this could only happen with your agreement and that of the landowner. People give things to museums so that they will be preserved for future generations to enjoy and for future research.
The Museum staff will be more than happy to talk to you about an object you would like to donate. However they often have strict collecting policies, so don’t be disappointed if the museum you approach cannot take the object. Most museums collect things which are relevant to the history of an area. You may also find that the museum already has a number of similar examples. The bulk of museum collections are not those you see when you visit a museum – but those which are kept behind closed doors – however these are then available and accessible to anyone with a valid reason to study them.
Its worth remembering that donating items to a Museum often presents several problems to the institutions that are left to look after these objects:
- Conservation of the objects – very expensive and time intensive.
- What to display, after all some collections may have objects which aren’t display worthy.
- Storage space.
- Provenance – the objects are of more archaeological worth when they have NGR details and even PAS numbers attached or associated (stops dual recording!)
Some museums, while not wanting an object for their collections may want your object for its ‘education’ or ‘handling’ collection. These objects are not given the care that the main collection is given – they may be picked up and felt by children and visitors – and inevitably damage and wear means that the object will eventually be ‘loved to death’, and discarded.
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This is one Detectorists viewpoint on selling finds If a find has been fully recorded I do not have an issue with selling. If I still had all my finds I would have some serious security and storage issues that would be difficult to resolve. Every find that I have ever made has either been donated to a museum, sold to a museum, or sold to a collector or dealer and I do not intend to keep any of the finds that I make in the future. I do not have a problem with this but I certainly would have if the finds had not all been recorded first. I don’t expect everyone to agree with this selling viewpoint but that’s the way it is for me. I don’t feel I have to justify my actions to anyone either. I have seen quite a few of my artefacts published and no doubt in the future I will spot a few more. Richard Hattatt’s brooch catalogues are widely quoted by archaeologist and detectorist alike – if it was not for the brooches becoming available to him for research his catalogues would most likely not be available to us now. If anyone doubts that the detector can be used as a tool for research then take a look here – there were very few of these around (or recognised) before I did something on them in Treasure Hunting magazine in 1986/7:- The Medieval Tumbrel |
Selling to a Collector
Collectors have contributed immensely to the scientific study of artifacts such as coins and seals, providing essential information used in dating and cataloguing these artifacts, which probably never would have been developed if they had been inaccessible to collectors. Good examples of this are the databases which have been put together such as The Celtic Coin Index and the Corpus of Early Medieval Coin Finds