Why are all of the good metal detecting finds in England?

Gam3rBlake

Has anyone ever noticed that?

In England metal detectors are always finding stuff ranging from way back to the Iron Age, to the Roman period, or even Anglo-Saxon stuff.

Here in the US we don’t really have much to look for. 😔

Namvet69

Au contrare, my good fellow! There's treasure everywhere, you just need to know how to find it. Yeah there's centuries more of man's debris in foreign lands but I'm okay with that. Peace Roy

ricko

Certainly Europe and Asia have been inhabited far longer by civilizations with coins and other artifacts. North American has other artifacts, i.e. Arrow points, stone bowls and implements, primitive adornments. Not much in the line of metals though....Until the 1600's. Cheers, RickO

SmEagle1795

The Portable Antiquities Scheme in the UK is a great system and encourages finders to document what they dig up and they'll almost always be able to export and sell it legally (or, the government will make an offer on it if it is truly a unique item).

I bought this coin at auction which was found on November 3rd, 2017 in Woodbridge, Suffolk in the UK. It's one of the 100 Greatest Ancient coins and depicts the emperor trying to legitimize his claim by showing his "brothers" alongside him: (Maximianus, Diocletian and Carausius).

If it were found in Italy, the finder would have to smuggle it out and face prosecution with it being questionable whether it could be imported into the US. In the UK, they were able to sell it one year later and make a five-figure profit in a well-publicized auction in New York. And yet, the rest of the world doesn't implement the UK's system...

Gam3rBlake

@SmEagle1795 said:
The Portable Antiquities Scheme in the UK is a great system and encourages finders to document what they dig up and they'll almost always be able to export and sell it legally (or, the government will make an offer on it if it is truly a unique item).

I bought this coin at auction which was found on November 3rd, 2017 in Woodbridge, Suffolk in the UK. It's one of the 100 Greatest Ancient coins and depicts the emperor trying to legitimize his claim by showing his "brothers" alongside him: (Maximianus, Diocletian and Carausius).

If it were found in Italy, the finder would have to smuggle it out and face prosecution with it being questionable whether it could be imported into the US. In the UK, they were able to sell it one year later and make a five-figure profit in a well-publicized auction in New York. And yet, the rest of the world doesn't implement the UK's system...

Yeah I agree PAS is a good scheme that they have in England.

However even if we implemented a similar scheme here in America it would not make any sense.

I mean afterall you’re never going to find Ancient Greek or Roman coins anywhere in America.

Odds are you won’t find anything older than 1700. Which kinda sucks. 😔

I feel like England’s land is more inundated with treasure than American land will ever be just due to the fact humans have been all over Europe for millenia whereas until recently the only inhabitants of America were native Americans who were not known for their metal working abilities or coinage.

However I was really excited to see that challenged by a man who found a 10th century VIKING coin in the US.

His find could potentially imply that Vikings travelled further South than believed and potentially even made contact with native Americans.