A Potpourri of Treasure Hunting News…

REMEMBERING…

I recently mentioned the passing of Derek Ingram, and wanted to share a eulogy written by his family and friends at Regton, Ltd..

FAREWELL DEREK JOHN INGRAM

(Derek was a fascinating, talented man and  a major player in the early, formative years of treasure hunting, both in the UK  as well as here.  It was indeed a privilege to have known him and he will me missed… D.S.)

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TODD HILTZ NEEDS TO FIND A WAY TO SHARE

I received an email from Todd Hiltz the other day, sharing with me his rarest find to date.  A George Washington Success Token!  He added, “one theory is that it could have been a “game token” in the mid 19th century, but the more reliable sources indicate it was probably made between 1792-1795 for Washington’s 2nd inauguration.  The token has 15 stars and the words “success to the United States”…

Todd, congratulations, a really nice find. You continue to amaze me, but hey, should you ever be in need of money or face tough times, give me a call.  I will give you 20 bucks for this item, no questions asked!

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NIGEL INGRAM WITH A WARNING

Across the pond the BBC has a show called “Fake Britain”, and its purpose is to make viewers aware of the many pirated products now in the marketplace.  Nigel Ingram from Regton was just featured and the topic? Garrett Pro-Pointers.

(Nigel you never seem to age, and that baffles me given your years of over-indulgence in evil things.  What’s the secret?)

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PROVENANCE

One of the buzz words we continue to hear from archaeologists is “provenance”. Its become a rallying cry of late, intended I suspect, to impress us with their knowledge of words other than ‘hoik’. If we are lucky maybe they will also work on ‘self-serving’ and ‘righteous’. So what about this word provenance?  If you look up the definition you might see the the following:

• Place of origin; derivation
• History of ownership of a valuable object or work of art
• Records of documents authenticating such an object of the history of ownership
• Earliest known history of something
• The beginning of somethings existence

As I pondered all these, the first thing that came to mind is that detectorists would not have to deal with provenance, if not for the fact that we actually find things that are important and of interest to others. That in itself is a good thing, no matter how you look at it. The alternative would be for those items to remain buried and in all likelihood, lost forever.  Of course the archaeological community would prefer that, because it’s better they never see the light of day, than for a lowly hobbyist to find them.

I wonder too what archaeologists would do if there were no metal detectors, no hobbyists or collectors looking for treasure (holy sh*t, no one to piss and moan about).  What would happen to the millions of items buried throughout the world?  Would they ever be found and shared, or would they be lost forever?  Would ‘all’ the items they say we “hoik” or collect be better off plowed under or concreted over?  Would they ever have the resources, the manpower and the time to find them?  Remember all the stockpiled artifacts now waiting to be catalogued…

Okay, back to the word provenance!  For me, and I think for most detectorists, we do care about the origin and history of what we find, and in fact even more so now with all the information available to us on the internet. We certainly know where an item was found and we can approximate the date of its origin.  At times we can determine who lost or owned an item because we might know the owner and/or the history of the property we are searching.  Most of the time however we can only guess….just like archaeologists do.

Speaking for myself, if I am on public property, I am the owner of the items I find.  Yes, certainly I think about who the last person was to have held it and if possible I will return it to them, but all things considered, I will probably never know the answer to that, nor would an archaeologist.  You see to me, archaeology is nothing more than  an imperfect science based on guess-work and speculation.

Other than a few days of detecting a farm in Gettysburg, I have done very little relic hunting, but I do know relic hunters who can talk at great lengths about their finds and run circles around most archaeologists. They do due diligence, they document their finds, know it’s place of origin and it’s historical importance. A great many report and/or donate their finds to museums, historical societies, and quite often share their finds at community events and celebrations.  Do they document every single item they find?  Probably not, but as long as they are not breaking the law they are not beholding to anyone!

Finally, as a law-abiding hobbyist/detectorist I will continue to enjoy my pastime as I have for many, many years. To those of you who keep trying to stop me or make me feel like a second class citizen,  I’ve got your provenance, right here!

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IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO HELP!

Jolie

Just wanted again to share Ron Guinazzo’s latest project and ask you all to help by digging deep into your pockets and by passing the effort along to your friends. It’s a chance to help a family facing a very difficult time and a great way to show them just how much detectorists care about friends and family… Likewise, the more you spend, the better your chances to win a few really great prizes.

Jolie’s Fund Raiser

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