One would think everyone should be happy that the PAS has reported a 36% increase and the Treasure Act has reported a 10% increase in records of finds in 2010. See http://finds.org.uk/news.
Not so. Paul Barford, a standard-bearer of sorts for archaeological snobs everywhere, is not happy. In fact, he claims that the these statistics are misleading because they allegedly incorporate figures from two other projects to record Roman and Celtic coins. See http://paul-barford.blogspot.com/2011/05/pasing-around-with-numbers-week-in.html.
But is this really so?
Looking at the actual figures, it's quite correct that in 2010 PAS took on 52,813 records from the project to record Roman coin finds from Wales and 37,931 from the Celtic coin index, but these were then excluded from the total of 90,416 finds recorded in 2010.
Indeed, if anything, there was an under count. PAS authorities also have a database entry in 2010 for the Frome hoard of 52,503 coins but that was not included in the figure of 90,146 objects recorded that year.
Yes, we should all be happy that PAS and the Treasure Act have encouraged the general public to help the archaeological community record the past in England and Wales.
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