Official Statistics

Statistical release for Reported Treasure Finds (2012 and 2013)

Published 6 November 2014

1. Introduction

1.1 Purpose of release

This statistical release presents the number of finds of reported Treasure (in England, Wales and Northern Ireland) in 2012 and 2013.

1.2 The Treasure Act 1996

The Treasure Act 1996 replaced the common law of Treasure Trove in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This has been further supplemented by the 2002 Treasure (Designation) Order. The Treasure Act sets out the definition of Treasure, which includes the metallic composition required for a find to qualify as Treasure and it extends the definition of Treasure to include other objects found in archaeological association with finds of Treasure. The Act confirms that Treasure vests in the Crown, or the franchisee if there is one, subject to prior interests and rights. It simplifies the task of coroners in determining whether or not a find is Treasure and it includes an offence of non-declaration of Treasure. Lastly, it states that occupiers and landowners will have the right to be informed of finds of Treasure from their land and that they will be eligible for rewards.

1.3 The Portable Antiquities Scheme

The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) was established by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in 1997 to record archaeological finds found by the public. It also has an important educational role, enabling children and adults alike to learn about archaeology, get involved and bring the past to life. The work of the Scheme is managed by the British Museum and guided by the Portable Antiquities Advisory Group which advises on issues relating to portable antiquities. The publishing of statistics on the PAS is not included in this release. This administrative data series is continuously updated and available at http://finds.org.uk/.

The PAS has been a key factor in the success of the Treasure Act and the large increase in reported Treasure finds. Through working with metal detecting groups and others, the Scheme’s Finds Liaison Officers (FLOs) are able to explain the system of Treasure reporting and encourage detectorists and others to report their finds.

If you have a continued need for the aggregated statistics on the PAS, as has been available in previous releases, then please contact us on evidence@culture.gsi.gov.uk to allow us to review the contents of this release for next year.

2. Key Findings

This statistical release presents the number of Reported Treasure Finds for both 2012 and 2013. The data for 2012 are available broken down by county, period and disposition, and method of discovery. Provisional headline figures are provided for 2013 by county only.

2.1 Headline results for 2013

• In 2013^{[footnote 1]} 993 finds of Treasure were reported. The equivalent number for 2012 was 990.

2.2 Breakdown for 2012

• In 2012, 84 per cent of Treasure finds were object cases^{[footnote 2]} (833 cases), of which just over half of these were disclaimed/Return to Finder (RTF)^{[footnote 3]} cases. A further quarter of object cases were acquired^{[footnote 4]}.
• In 2012, the vast majority (92%) of Treasure finds were discovered by metal detecting. A further 3 per cent of cases were by an archaeological find and 3 per cent have yet to be confirmed.
• In 2012, 154 parties waived their right to a reward in 93 cases of Treasure, allowing them to be acquired by museums at no (or reduced) public cost.

2.3 Guide to the data included in this release

This statistical release contains 3 tables. The data for 2012 are available broken down by county, period and disposition, and method of discovery. Provisional headline figures are provided for 2013 by county only. The 2012 data are given as final and the 2013 data are given as provisional, as of 19th September 2014.

A glossary of terminology used in this release can be found at http://finds.org.uk/database/terminology

3. Tables

3.1 Table A: Number of Treasure cases in 2012 and 2013 by county (geographic distribution)

England

County	2012 (final)	2013 (provisional)
Bath and North East Somerset	4	0
Bedfordshire	15	17
Berkshire & Reading	12	15
Bristol	0	0
Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes	18	20
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough	28	29
Cheshire and Merseyside	6	10
Cornwall	4	9
Coventry	0	0
Cumbria	9	8
Derbyshire	12	6
Devon	19	20
Dorset	27	41
Durham	1	2
Essex	67	68
Gloucestershire	19	15
Gloucestershire, South	8	4
Hampshire	19	47
Herefordshire	11	10
Hertfordshire	13	17
Isle of` Wight	24	30
Kent	52	50
Lancashire	6	6
Leicestershire and Rutland	17	11
Lincolnshire	62	62
Lincolnshire, North and North East	5	26
London, Greater	11	8
Manchester, Greater	0	0
Norfolk	123	107
Northamptonshire	14	17
Northumberland	8	4
Nottinghamshire	11	9
Oxfordshire	19	19
Shropshire	7	15
Somerset	27	19
Somerset, North	4	1
Staffordshire	18	14
Suffolk	62	61
Surrey	8	14
Sussex, East	20	11
Sussex, West	23	9
Teesside, Redcar & Cleveland	2	1
Tyne and Wear	2	0
Warwickshire	19	14
West Midlands	0	1
Wiltshire and Swindon	35	30
Worcestershire	5	8
York, City of	0	0
Yorkshire, East	22	31
Yorkshire, North	54	41
Yorkshire, South	6	5
Yorkshire, West	4	1
Unknowna	0	0
Total	962	963

Wales

County	2012 (final)	2013b (provisional)
Blaenau Gwent	1
Bridgend	0
Caerphilly	1
Carmarthenshire	0
Ceredigion	2
Conwy	0
Denbighshire	1
Flintshire	2
Gwynedd	0
Isle of Anglesey	0
Monmouthshire	3
Neath, Port Talbot	0
Newport	0
Pembrokeshire	3
Powys	3
Rhondda Cynon Taf	0
Swansea	0
The Vale of Glamorgan	4
Wrexham	5
Total	25	26

Northern Ireland

County	2012 (final)	2013 (provisional)
Antrim	0	1
Armagh	2	0
Down	0	3
Fermanagh	1	0
Total	3	4

^{Notes
a   The location of the treasure case found is not known.
b   A breakdown of finds by county is not currently available for Wales for the year 2013, as the National Museum Wales is still in the process of verifying this data. This will be provided in the 2015 publication when 2013 data will be finalised and provisional 2014 data will be provided.}

3.2 Table B: Analysis of Treasure cases in 2012 by period and disposition – England and Wales

Object Cases

	Disclaimed/RTF	Acquiredc	Donated	Not Treasure	To Be Determined	Total
Bronze Age	13	28	7	2	4	54
Iron Age	-	5	1	-	-	6
Romano-British	28	16	9	5	4	62
Early Medieval	37	58	10	8	4	117
Medieval	150	50	22	2	5	229
Post-Medieval	196	50	24	53	5	328
18th-21st Centuries	-	-	-	12	-	12
Undiagnosticd	2	1	-	22	-	25
Totals	426	208	73	104	22	833

Coin Cases

	Disclaimed/RTF	Acquiredc	Donated	Not Treasure	To Be Determined	Total
Bronze Age	-	-	-	-	-	0
Iron Age	6	11	4	2	1	24
Romano-British	22	30	11	3	1	67
Early Medieval	1	7	1	-	2	11
Medieval	14	7	4	2	4	31
Post-Medieval	11	12	-	-	-	23
18th-21st Centuries	-	-	-	1	-	1
Undiagnosticd	-	-	-	-	-	0
Totals	54	67	20	8	8	157

^{Notes
c   This covers finds that have been acquired as well as finds where museums have made an expression of interest, but have not yet acquired.
d   Includes objects ‘of age’ but not attributable to a particular historic period.}

3.3 Table C: Method of discovery of Treasure cases in 2012 – England and Wales

	Number of finds	%
Metal detecting	909	91.82%
Archaeological find	31	3.13%
To be confirmed	30	3.03%
Chance find	14	1.41%
Reported by buyer	2	0.20%
Fieldwalking/Searching the Foreshore	4	0.40%
Total	990

4. Background Information

4.1 Official Statistics

Report Treasure Finds is an Official Statistic and as such has been produced to the professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. Official Statistics undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure they meet customer needs and are produced free from any political interference. See the Statistics Authority code of practice for more information.

4.2 Previous reports

Statistics covering previous years can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/treasure-and-portable-antiquities-statistics

4.3 Next release of data

The next release of data will take place in the third quarter of 2015 and will include finalised Treasure finds data for 2013 and provisional data for 2014.

4.4 Methodology

The data presented here is collected by the Department of Portable Antiquities & Treasure, British Museum and recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme http//:finds.org.uk.

Contact for enquiries:

The responsible statistician for this release is Jodie Hargreaves For enquiries on this release contact: 020 7211 6327 For general enquiries telephone: 020 7211 6000

Department for Culture Media and Sport
4th Floor, 100 Parliament Street
London
SW1A 2BQ
enquiries@culture.gov.uk

1. The overall figure for the number of Treasure finds is available for 2013, but a number of cases have not been resolved and so it is not possible to provide a breakdown of factors including period and disposition in this release. This final breakdown will be provided in the Treasure Statistical Release in 2015 which will cover Treasure finds reported in 2013. ↩

2. An object case is a find of any non-coin artefact. ↩

3. Disclaimed/RTF cases are those cases where the Crown disclaims title for the find prior to inquest, or where an inquest is held declaring the find to be treasure (and therefore vesting in the Crown) but where a museum subsequently fail to acquire the find and it is returned to the finder. ↩

4. This covers finds that have been acquired as well as finds where museums have made an expression of interest, but have not yet acquired. ↩