Statistical Release for Reported Treasure Finds: Key findings
Published 9 November 2016
© Crown copyright 2016
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistical-release-for-reported-treasure-finds-2014-and-2015/statistical-release-for-reported-treasure-finds-key-findings
1. Key findings
This statistical release presents data on the number of reported Treasure finds for 2014 and 2015 within England, Wales and Northern Ireland . The data for 2014 are available broken down by county, period and disposition, and method of discovery. Provisional headline figures are provided for 2015 by county only.
● In 2015 the number of Treasure finds reported reached over a thousand finds (1,009) for the second year in a row and only the second time since 1996. The equivalent number for 2014 was 1,011 .
● In 2014, 87.1 per cent of Treasure finds were object cases (881 cases), of which just over half of these were disclaimed/returned to finder (RTF) cases (447 cases). Just under a quarter of object cases were acquired (248 cases).
● In 2014, the vast majority (96.1%) of Treasure finds in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were discovered by metal detecting. A further 2.1 per cent of cases were by an archaeological find and just under 1.0 per cent by chance find.
● In 2014, 77 cases of Treasure finds were donated allowing them to be acquired by museums at no (or reduced) public cost. 89.6 per cent of donated cases were object cases.
2. Tables
Table A: Number of Treasure cases in 2014 and 2015 by county (geographic distribution)
| England | ||
|---|---|---|
| County | 2014 | 2015 (prov.) |
| Bath and North East Somerset | 3 | 1 |
| Bedfordshire | 12 | 8 |
| Berkshire & Reading | 16 | 11 |
| Bristol | 0 | 0 |
| Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes | 24 | 30 |
| Cambridgeshire and Peterborough | 22 | 22 |
| Cheshire and Merseyside | 14 | 8 |
| Cornwall | 14 | 5 |
| Coventry | 0 | 0 |
| Cumbria | 11 | 10 |
| Derbyshire | 3 | 6 |
| Devon | 25 | 19 |
| Dorset | 35 | 40 |
| Durham and Darlington | 10 | 6 |
| Essex | 80 | 50 |
| Gloucestershire | 15 | 13 |
| Gloucestershire, South | 2 | 1 |
| Hampshire | 40 | 42 |
| Herefordshire | 4 | 11 |
| Hertfordshire | 25 | 13 |
| Isle of` Wight | 17 | 25 |
| Kent | 33 | 38 |
| Lancashire | 13 | 6 |
| Leicestershire and Rutland | 11 | 15 |
| Lincolnshire | 53 | 49 |
| Lincolnshire, North and North East | 9 | 6 |
| London, Greater | 5 | 13 |
| Manchester, Greater | 2 | 1 |
| Norfolk | 119 | 127 |
| Northamptonshire | 20 | 11 |
| Northumberland | 4 | 7 |
| Nottinghamshire | 10 | 22 |
| Oxfordshire | 28 | 46 |
| Shropshire | 9 | 13 |
| Somerset | 22 | 28 |
| Somerset, North | 1 | 0 |
| Staffordshire | 11 | 11 |
| Suffolk | 72 | 87 |
| Surrey | 6 | 8 |
| Sussex, East | 10 | 3 |
| Sussex, West | 9 | 8 |
| Teesside, Redcar & Cleveland | 0 | 0 |
| Tyne and Wear | 0 | 0 |
| Warwickshire | 16 | 14 |
| West Midlands | 2 | 1 |
| Wiltshire and Swindon | 30 | 36 |
| Worcestershire | 18 | 8 |
| York, City of | 7 | 15 |
| Yorkshire, East | 19 | 24 |
| Yorkshire, North | 48 | 34 |
| Yorkshire, South | 8 | 11 |
| Yorkshire, West | 7 | 7 |
| Unknown | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 975 | 970 |
| Wales | ||
|---|---|---|
| County | 2014 | 2015 (prov.) |
| Blaenau Gwent | 0 | |
| Bridgend | 0 | |
| Cardiff | 1 | |
| Caerphilly | 0 | |
| Carmarthenshire | 1 | |
| Ceredigion | 0 | |
| Conwy | 0 | |
| Denbighshire | 2 | |
| Flintshire | 1 | |
| Gwynedd | 1 | |
| Isle of Anglesey | 0 | |
| Monmouthshire | 4 | |
| Neath, Port Talbot | 0 | |
| Newport | 1 | |
| Pembrokeshire | 4 | |
| Powys | 2 | |
| Rhondda Cynon Taf | 0 | |
| Swansea | 0 | |
| Torfaen | 1 | |
| The Vale of Glamorgan | 11 | |
| Wrexham | 4 | |
| Total | 33 | 37 |
| Northern Ireland | ||
|---|---|---|
| County | 2014 | 2015 |
| Antrim | 1 | 0 |
| Armagh | 0 | 0 |
| Down | 2 | 1 |
| Fermanagh | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 3 | 2 |
| Grand Total | 1,011 | 1,009 |
Table B: Analysis of Treasure cases in 2014 by period and distribution - England, Wales and Northern Ireland
| Object Cases | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disclaimed/RTF | Acquired | Donated | Not Treasure | To Be Determined | Total | |
| Bronze Age | 12 | 32 | 4 | 2 | 9 | 59 |
| Iron Age | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Romano-British | 39 | 25 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 81 |
| Early Medieval | 36 | 66 | 15 | 10 | 4 | 131 |
| Medieval | 144 | 66 | 15 | 3 | 10 | 238 |
| Post-Medieval | 216 | 59 | 24 | 30 | 8 | 337 |
| 18th-21st Centuries | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 8 |
| Undiagnostic | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 1 | 26 |
| Totals | 447 | 248 | 69 | 81 | 36 | 881 |
| Coin Cases | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disclaimed/RTF | Acquired | Donated | Not Treasure | To Be Determined | Total | |
| Bronze Age | ||||||
| Iron Age | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 10 |
| Romano-British | 20 | 29 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 61 |
| Early Medieval | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| Medieval | 16 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 27 |
| Post-Medieval | 11 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 20 |
| 18th-21st Centuries | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Undiagnostic | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Totals | 56 | 48 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 130 |
| Overall | 503 | 296 | 77 | 90 | 45 | 1,011 |
Table C: Method of discovery for 2014 Treasure finds - England, Wales and Northern Ireland
| Number of finds | % | |
|---|---|---|
| Metal detecting | 972 | 96.14% |
| Archaeological find | 21 | 2.08% |
| To be confirmed | 3 | 0.30% |
| Chance find | 10 | 0.99% |
| Reported by buyer | 1 | 0.10% |
| Fieldwalking/Searching the Foreshore | 4 | 0.40% |
| Total | 1,011 |