The Portable Antiquities Scheme has now recorded 1 million objects.
It should be no surprise there are no similar achievements in countries like Bulgaria, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece and Italy. Confiscatory laws and fiats against collecting, the stuff of dictators, don't work. Fair play-- which ensures the State pays fair market value for what finds it wants to keep-- does. The PAS recognizes metal detectorists, collectors, and other interested members of the public as legitimate stake holders, and they have responded enthusiastically. The proof is not only in the numbers, but in what all those finds reported by the public have told us about English and Welsh history.
CPO congratulates the PAS and Roger Bland for this important milestone.
A milestone indeed, and my hearty congratulations to Roger Bland for steering the PAS to become the valuable research and educational facility it is, and not forgetting those detectorists who helped put the PAS firmly on the map.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes
John Howland
England