American metal detector enthusiasts pay

[Puffin]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... nglia.html

Is this the worst holiday ever? American metal detector enthusiasts pay more than £2,200 to search field in Norfolk

[popsandme]

That excluding flights, the organisers must be coining it in.

[bodvoc]

No wonder its difficult to get permission to detect land in Norfolk!!

[Deetektor]

That was five years ago

[popsandme]

Its still going on though because there is a member over on the xp owners forum who attends from over the pond, he aint been on there for a good 6 months though but he told me all about it.

[Deetektor]

There used to be (maybe still is) someone who ran them around Colchester.
Fields especially planted for them

[DiOz]

"One enthusiast, Jim Normandy, 79, a retired pharmacist from California, said he was 'thrilled' to unearth a 17th century button."

I think "Jim Normandy" may be more than just a retired pharmacist.

[Old Git John]

No matter what it costs, this type of business can only harm metal detecting as a hobby in the entire UK.

O.K. the folk who are daft enough to spend that kind of money, may tell you they do so out of love for the hobby.
How many of you even knew an American who did things purely out of his/her love of doing so. ? They do it for
the same reason "hawkers" do it, to make a buck or more on anything they dig up.

They come here because, in their tiny minds, their is no real history in their, comparatively, young country, which to a degree
may be true. However, I feel bound to ask, did nobody occupy lands in what we now know as the United States of America
before we turned up ? Was this just an enormous wasteland, completely lifeless, were there no humans who would have
needed tools, or weapons?. Did it really take a tiny group of islanders to find the place, colonise it, and then cross breed
until we have what we see now, an oversized nation, with oversized ego's, who can only see as far as the end of the pen which
signs the cheque?

Britain is one of the most tolerant nations on earth, we as citizens have an enormous amount of freedom of choice, in what we say
or do. One of the offshoots of that is the fact that, at present, we no longer have to hold a licence to metal detect. We do however
have some very stringent rules in the codes of practice, and access permissions rules, as well as those concerning such things as the
Treasure Act, scheduled monuments, SSSI's, and so on.

I cannot imagine that overseas visitors, paying specifically to go on this kind of dig, would be made entirely aware of the restrictions
which have to be faced.

You may by now have gathered, I am somewhat against the digs which brought this on. Rant now over, and "time for another coffee"

May I now please remove my tongue from my cheek ?

[sic odiggin]

On one of the video's on youtube, they go on about finding coins from 'the hoard'. All nice roman silvers keep coming up from this 'hoard' yet there is no mention or any record of this hoard being found. Makes you wonder why doesn't it!

[Deetektor]

As I've mentioned on here before, our (then) FLO refused to record finds brought in by
these detecting holiday groups. As most were of a type not found in the UK.

[popsandme]

The person I spoke about in my earlier post asked me to id a shed load of hammered coins for him, to which I obliged until I saw on the web link he sent me of the organisers which stated that they provided a full id as well as a recording service with the PAS and export licenses were also organised. Now if that were true he needent of required a further ID would he? ID service stopped there after.
There was a distinct smell of rat. Either he found them and just pocketed them without informing the organisers and then took them out of the country without an export license, or, the organisors are not sticking to their end of the contract and an export license wasnt organised.??

[DiOz]

The organisor is Jim Normandi (the "retired pharmacist from California") ..AKA Jimmy Sierra.... http://www.discoverytours.us/index.html

[Dino - UK]

I've been an invited guest on a few of Jimmy Sierras tours over the years and have never seen anything untoward.

They were hosted and finds recorded by David Barwell, chairman of the National Council for Metal Detecting.

The guys that come over are not the run of the mill detectorists but tend to be wealthy people, they used to stay in the Norwich Hilton hotel on a full board basis...now that doesn't come cheap.

Whenever I've visited one of these tours I have seen no evidence of planting of finds. Unlike when I guested on a couple of the Essex ones, the organizer of those, and I soon fell out after I spoke my mind.

[Old Git John]

Dino, nothing wrong with your thoughts. I would feel very uncomfortable with this kind of arrangement, as my previous post would indicate, and for that reason I do not intend to carry it on any further than the comments I have already made.

I will however say that, this is entirely opposed to my idea of responsible detecting, according to the U.K. codes of practice. It is no more, or less than a money making project.

[Dino - UK]

It is no more, or less than a money making project.

No different really from any other paid for rally, it's about making money albeit for an individual, a farmer, a charity or a combination of one or more.