Official Statistics

Reported Treasure Finds 2019/20 Statistical Release

Published 18 November 2021

Applies to England, Northern Ireland and Wales

This statistical release presents data on the number of reported treasure finds for 2019 and provisional figures for 2020 within England, Wales and Northern Ireland. A treasure find is when a single or group of items is discovered which contains at least one item that may^{[footnote 1]} meet the legal definition of treasure. Data for 2019 are broken down by county, period, distribution and method of discovery. Figures for 2020 are provisional and are provided by county and region only.

At the time of publication, the number of finds for 2020 had not been resolved^{[footnote 2]}. Therefore, the data for 2020 is provisional and it is not possible to provide a breakdown of factors such as period and disposition (i.e. change in ownership) in this release. As usual, this final breakdown will be provided in the Treasure Finds Statistical Release in 2022 which will cover the treasure finds for 2020 in detail and provisional figures for 2021.

Data presented on treasure finds are collected by the Department of Portable Antiquities & Treasure at the British Museum and recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

Estimates reported for participation in metal detecting are based on data collected in the 2019/20 Taking Part Survey.

Released – 18 November 2021 Period covered – 2019 to 2020 Geographic coverage – National, Regional and county level data for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This release does not cover Scotland. Next release date – Data is due to be published for November 2022.

1. Headline Figures

2020

• The provisional figure for reported treasure finds in 2020 is 1,077, lower than the final 2019 figure of 1,303, but still the seventh year in a row when reported treasure finds exceeded 1,000.

• The region with the most finds for the 2020 provisional data was the East of England with 249 treasure finds (23%). The county with the most finds for the 2020 provisional data was Norfolk with 104 treasure finds (10%).

2019

• There were 1,303 reported treasure finds in total across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
• Of reported treasure finds 1,060 cases (81%) were object cases^{[footnote 3]} and 243 finds (19%) were coin cases.
• 352 finds were acquired by or donated to museums (293 object, 59 coin).
• Of the total 1,303 reported treasure finds, 1,246 (96%) of these were discovered by metal detecting.

1.1 Figure 1: Number of reported treasure finds in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 1996-2020 (provisional)

2. Total reported treasure finds in England, Wales and Northern Ireland^{[footnote 4]}

In 2020, the provisional number of reported treasure finds was 1,077. This was lower than the final 2019 figure, though still the seventh year in a row, and the seventh time since the Treasure Act of 1996^{[footnote 5]} replaced the old common law of Treasure Trove in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, when treasure finds exceeded 1,000.

The total treasure finds for England were 1,055 with a further 22 in Wales. There were no reported finds in Northern Ireland. It should be noted that there are additional restrictions on searching for archaeological objects in Northern Ireland, imposed by the Historic Monuments and Archaeological Objects (NI) Order 1995.

In 2019, reported treasure finds were 1,303^{[footnote 6]}, representing a total of 22,620 artefacts (objects and coins). A ‘treasure find’ can be made of multiple artefacts which is why the total number of artefacts is much higher than the number of reported treasure finds. The total treasure finds were 1,254 for England, 45 for Wales, and 4 for Northern Ireland.

3. Reported finds by Location, 2019 & 2020 (provisional)

Among regions in England, the East of England had the highest number of reported finds at 249, followed by the South East of England with 247 finds. London had the fewest reported finds with 5. The second lowest region was the North East with 17.

3.1 Figure 2: Reported treasure finds by county and English region, 2020 (provisional)

In 2020, by county, the largest number of treasure finds in England, Wales and Northern Ireland was Norfolk with 104 cases (10% of total finds) whilst in 2019, the largest number of treasure finds in England, Wales and Northern Ireland was Hampshire with 104 cases (8% of total finds).

4. Characteristics of reported finds, 2019

We are able to provide characteristics of the treasure finds from 2019, reporting on the object type discovered, the period of history it originates from and the number of pieces of treasure museums in the UK were interested in acquiring. A breakdown of the data is not yet available for 2020 as, in line with usual timescales, treasure finds for 2020 had not been resolved^{[footnote 2]} at the time of publication. This also means that the data is still provisional and subject to change. The next statistical release (due to be published in Autumn 2022) will cover characteristics for 2020 treasure finds.

There were 1,303 treasure finds reported in 2019 (1,060 object cases and 243 coin cases). Of these cases:

• 293 were acquired by museums (222 object cases, 71 coin cases) ^{[footnote 7]}

• 59 were donated to museums (47 object cases, 12 coin cases) allowing them to be acquired by museums at no (or reduced) public cost

• 600 were withdrawn or disclaimed^{[footnote 8]} by museums (514 object cases, 86 coin cases)^{[footnote 9]}

• 78 did not meet the definition for treasure (68 object cases, 10 coin cases)

• 273 to be confirmed (209 object cases, 64 coin cases)

Of these finds, the two largest acquisitions were 19 cases obtained by the British Museum and 15 cases obtained by Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery (combined 12% of object cases acquired).

Under the Treasure Act 1996, the Secretary of State has the power to disclaim ^{[footnote 8]} a find, even when the find meets the definition of treasure under the Act. This can occur at any point in the process e.g. if a museum withdraws its interest in acquiring a find, and no other museum expresses an interest.

The total number of finds which have been shown to meet the definition for treasure in 2019 was 952. This includes acquired, donated and disclaimed/museum withdrawal items.

4.1 Figure 3: Reported treasure finds, by change in ownership: England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 2019

Around a third (34%) of treasure cases^{[footnote 10]} in 2019 were from the post-medieval period (405 object cases and 35 coin cases) and a quarter (26%) were from the medieval period (276 objects and 59 coin cases).

4.2 Figure 4: Reported treasure cases by period: England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 2019

5. Mode of discovery

The majority (96%) of treasure finds in 2019 were discovered by metal detecting, similar to the proportion in 2018. In 2019, a further 3% (36 cases) were archaeological finds and 1% (10 cases) were field walking or searching the foreshore.

In 2019/20, according to the Taking Part Survey, an estimated 2% of adults (16+) in England said they had taken part in metal detecting at least once in the 12 months prior to interview^{[footnote 11]}. This is a similar level to participation in 2018/19. The rate varies regionally.

Footnotes

1. Even if the item is found to not be treasure at a later date the discovery is still counted as a treasure find.. ↩

2. Treasure finds are considered resolved when the valuation process has been completed, the interested parties waive their right to a reward, the Crown disclaims interest in the case or a case has been deemed not treasure ↩ ↩²

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

4. Data for Scotland is collated under the Scottish Treasure Trove system available at: https://treasuretrovescotland.co.uk/reports-and-minutes/ ↩

5. The Treasure Act 1996 replaced the common law of treasure trove in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland has a separate law of treasure trove and therefore isn’t covered in this statistical release. ↩

6. This figure has been amended from the provisional 2019 figure (1,311) reported in last year’s release as the number of finds had not yet been resolved at the time of publication ↩

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

8. Disclaimed is a technical term, legally defined as a formal statement saying that you are not legally responsible for something ↩ ↩²

9. Disclaimed/museum withdrawal cases are those cases where the Secretary of State disclaims title to the find prior to inquest because no museum is interested in acquiring the find or, following an inquest, the acquiring museum withdraws its interest. In both cases the find is returned to the finder or landowner. Title is a technical term, legally defined as the actual ownership of the property ↩

10. The figures for treasure cases include those which are to be determined and those categorised as not treasure. This is because while an object case or coin case may not be treasure, the find is still classified as a treasure case. ↩

11. Survey participants were asked whether they had participated in metal detecting within the last 12 months (at the time of the survey), therefore, these statistics are not intended to capture an estimate of ‘regular’ metal detectorists or those who are members of metal detecting clubs within England. ↩