Latest news with #TreasureAct1996
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What are the rules if you find treasure in the UK?
Malcom Weale knew he'd discovered "something very special" when he spotted a lost 18th century ring "gleaming in the sunshine". The 53-year-old detectorist was overcome with excitement when he found the ring while walking in a field near Thetford, Norfolk. The gold and enamel coated ring is believed to be mourning ring believed to have been made in memory of Sir Bassingbourne Gawdy, the third baronet of Harling, who died in a hunting accident in 1723, The Independent reports. Weale says he had been searching the area for 18 months before finding the jewellery and "did a bit of a dance" when he realised what he'd discovered. However, due to strict regulations in the UK, he has had to hand the ring into a coroner and does not get to keep it – for now at least. Here, Yahoo News explains the rights and responsibilities of people who discover treasure in the UK, and how much money can be made from these discoveries. If you think you've found treasure in the UK, you are legally obliged to report it to your local Finds Liaison Officer within either 14 days of finding it, or within 14 days of realising the item might be treasure. Finds Liaison Officers, who are employed by the Portable Antiquities Scheme, work to identify and record archaeological objects found by members of the public. You can find your local Finds Liaison Officer here. After reporting your find, you will be contacted by either your local Finds Liaison Officer or a museum curator to talk about how and where you made the find, according to the UK government. You'll be given a receipt, and the liaison officer or museum curator will then write up a report on the find. At this stage, museums may express an interest in keeping the item if it might be treasure. A coroner will then hold an inquest on the discovery, which you may be invited along to, along with the site occupier and landowner of where the treasure was found. If your find is not counted as treasure, or no museum wants it, the coroner will return it to you, although the landowner and site occupier will have 28 days to object beforehand. People who find treasure and fail to report it face an unlimited fine or up to three months in prison. You only need to report items officially defined as treasure under the Treasure Act 1996, which you can find here. If the item you found isn't classed as treasure but is still of historical or cultural interest, you can report it to the Portable Antiquities Scheme in England, or the Cymru PAS Scheme in Wales. While you are legally required to hand in any treasure you find, you may be entitled to a payout depending on its value. Following a discovery, the Treasure Valuation Committee (TVC), comprising of independent antiques or coin experts and a representative of metal-detecting community, will ask an expert to value your find. Afterwards, the committee will recommend to the Secretary of State for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) how much the treasure is worth and how much should go to anyone eligible for a share of a reward. You'll have an opportunity to comment on the valuation, along with the site occupier and landowner, and if you disagree with it, you can ask the Treasure Valuation Committee for a review, send your own valuation to the committee to consider, or appeal to the DCMS. You may get a share of the reward, paid by the DCMS, if you had permission to be on the land at the time and acted in good faith, if you had freehold of the land, or if you occupied the land as a tenant, the government says. Legal firm Boodle Hatfield says that in most scenarios, the reward is shared 50:50 between the landowner and the finder. However, if you acted in bad faith, for example by trespassing or trying to hide your find, you may get a reduced share or nothing at all. Rewards for finding treasure in the UK will vary a lot depending on valuations, but some lucky detectorists have made substantial sums. A hoard of 2,400 coins from the time of the Norman Conquest, found in a field in Chew Valley, Somerset in 2019, was valued at £4.3m. This made it the highest value treasure find on record in England, the Guardian reported, with half of the proceeds going to the band of seven detectorists. In 2009, detectorist Terry Herbert discovered Britain's largest collection of gold and silver Anglo Saxon treasures in Brownhills, in the West Midlands, using a metal detector he bought at a car boot sale for £2.50. He got a substantial return on his investment, as the haul was valued at £3.28m, which, despite a dispute with landowner and former friend Fred Johnson, was shared equally between the pair, The Independent reported. A less eyewatering but still substantial reward of £110,000 was split between the owner of a field in Silverdale, Lancashire, and stonemason Darren Webster, who in 2011 found a stash of Viking treasure using a metal detector his wife had bought him for Christmas. The Guardian reports that the haul included more than 200 pieces of silver, including arm rings, brooches, and silver ingots and a misspelt coin that revealed a previously unknown Viking ruler. Read more Excavation looks to solve mystery of King John's lost treasure after 800 years (Yahoo News UK) Why picking up a lost £20 note could leave you with a criminal record (The Telegraph) 90-Year-Old Treasure Hunter Finds Iron Age Hoard Worth £20,000 In Dorset Field (Cover)
BBC News
04-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Bronze Age Cambridgeshire debris hoard 'like our recycling bins'
A hoard of metal fragments found on farmland was the Bronze Age equivalent of a modern-day recycling bin, an expert stash of copper-alloy debris, dating back more than 2,000 years, was found by a metal detectorist David Stuckey from Stevenage in a field in Guilden Morden, Cambridgeshire, in December county's finds liaison officer, Helen Fowler, said the hoard was most likely deposited in one go to be melted down later, once there was enough metal to make the process worthwhile."The hoard is like our blue recycling bins here [in parts of Cambridgeshire]," she said. The hoard is the subject of a treasure inquest and Cambridge University's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology hopes to acquire it, subject to 66 fragments date from the late Bronze Age - between 1050BC and 800BC - and include chapes, pieces of metal used to protect the sharp end of a bladed item such as a a report to the Cambridgeshire coroner ahead of a decision on whether it should be declared treasure, Mrs Fowler and colleague Dr Edward Caswell, finds liaison officer for Oxfordshire, referred to the items as a "founder's hoard".The term is used to describe a collection of bits and pieces gathered together by a metalworker - or a smith, or a founder - for re-melting at a later report stated: "The objects were found in close proximity and are associated, therefore representing a single find all of which appears to have been deposited in the late Bronze [Age]. "As such this represents a collection of more than two base metal objects of prehistoric date and consequently qualifies as Treasure under the stipulations of the Treasure Act 1996 (Designation Order 2002)." Mr Stuckey, 69, said he had been detecting on the land where he found the hoard for about seven years."About a foot down I suddenly saw fragments of green-coloured metal coming out of the hole. I picked up the pieces and could see that they were bronze fragments of 'something'," he said."As more pieces came out I noticed that some of them had identifiable characteristics of Bronze Age metalwork."Afterwards I showed the hoard to the landowner, who was very excited by what I'd found."Mr Stuckey said there were Bronze Age barrows (burial mounds) on the land, so to find artefacts from that period was of great interest to its owner."Being pre-historic I was obliged by law to report the find," he there was a significant delay because of the Covid-19 pandemic, meaning he could not deliver the hoard to be properly assessed by an expert."It was quite some time before I was asked to bring the hoard in, followed by a two-year wait until I heard anything more," he said. The hoard contained a number of "plate fragments" that Mrs Fowler said were the most intriguing to said "plates", generally, were "a bit of a mystery" to archaeologists."We're not sure what they are yet, but mystery is one of the nice things about archaeology. There are more questions than answers - always," she said."There is lots of research to be done on these Bronze Age plates - we need to know more and that's what's most intriguing to me." But, whatever these items were, they were almost certainly destined for the scrap heap."We certainly didn't invent recycling and in the Bronze Age you would save up everything until you had enough to melt down for something else as the melting process takes a lot of work," said Mrs the hoard was acquired by a museum, it would provide "the potential for future research, and that's what is important", she added. Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
21-04-2025
- General
- BBC News
Thetford gold ring find remembers 'rackety' baronet
A gold mourning ring that was made in memory of a dead baronet has been found in a 20mm (0.7in)-round jewel was discovered by a metal detectorist near Thetford, Norfolk, in Helen Geake was able to connect it to landowner Sir Bassingbourne Gawdy thanks to its inscription. He was a "notable sportsman" who researchers said liked "rackety exploits".The ring is the subject of a treasure inquest and Norwich Castle Museum hopes to acquire it. A coroner at a treasure inquest typically decides whether the discovery is treasure, and therefore whether a museum should have first refusal over Bassingbourne died in a hunting accident in 1723.A baronet was a title in the British aristocracy that was passed down through families. Dr Geake, who is the finds liaison officer for Norfolk, said mourning rings were made to remember a person who had would leave money in their wills for rings to be created and distributed to family and friends in their politician Samuel Pepys wrote about being given one in his 1660s diary. This find was inscribed in Latin B.G. Bart. ob: 10. Oct: 1723. aet: 56, which translates as B.G. Baronet, died 10th October 1723, aged Geake's investigations revealed Sir Bassingbourne lived at West Harling, east of never married and was described as a "notable sportsman" who enjoyed "rackety exploits" by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. "What is also interesting is he was the grandson of the celebrated painter Sir John Gawdy, who was born deaf," Dr Geake said. He and his brother Framlingham, who was also deaf, were the first known deaf people in Britain to be educated through the use of sign language, according to the British Deaf History Society. Dr Geake said the ring would not have been classed as treasure if it had been found a year is because the Treasure Act 1996 categorises a find as treasure if it is at least 300 years old and made at least in part of precious metal, like gold or if the ring had been found in August 2023 - not August 2024 - the detectorist and landowner would not have had to declare it. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
