Their relevance to metaldetecting is that of recognisable landmarks, potentialy good places to hide valuables on a journey to be collected on the way back (or not, as the case may be) worth investigating.

Gloria, when items are found that constitute "treasure" under the current Treasure Laws a valuation panel is apponted which usualy consists of experts on the items in question, which may include, archeologists and recognised valuation experts in the respective items. Any valuation attached to hoards such as this can be challenged by the finder or the landowner in which case the valuation is reviewed. The valuation is supposed to represent the current market value of the items. If the items are of interest to a museum they can bid for them at not less than the valuation arrived at by the panel. Proceeds from sales are normally shared equally between the finder and the landowner.

Within the metal detecting fraternity, simple agreement forms are available that can be completed by searchers and landowners (usually offered by the detectorist when seeking permission to search)  The agreements protect both parties and ensure that any monetary payment for articles found is equally divided between the finder and the person who owns the land on which the article(s) were found.

Most hoards and high value finds are usually a result of research, sometimes years of research undertaken by the detectorist to determine the best place to look. Of course it is perfectly possible to find hoards such as this purely by chance, you only have to look at some of the articles in the metal detecting magazines to see this. I doubt very much whether the landowner had any idea that his fields contained these items and the location, if he did he surely would have dug them up himself!

If they were searching without permission it is unlikely that there would be a 50/50 share out. Within the law this would be considered theft. Searching without permission is known as "nighthawking" and unfortunately gives the entire hobby of metal detecting a bad name. Some members of the archeology fraterernity cite actions such as this as reason to ban the hobby entirely, some would even like to say that they and only they have rights to all artefacts within the ground even if they have no intention of investigating the history themselves.

The Portable Antiquity Scheme which encourages the reporting of finds is an attempt to redress this imbalance in opinions. It is interesting to note that most metal artefact s recovered from the earth come from within plough depth (9" to 12") this is the same layer of earth that most archeological digs remove before they even start scraping away with their trowels. If you watch "Time Team" you will see that most projects begin with a mechanical digger.

It is also interesting to note that there is a substantialy higher percentage of metal artefacts recovered by detectorists and subsequently displayed in our museums than traditional archeology can or has produced in the past. So it could be argued that the metal detecting enthusiasts are contributing more to the understanding of our past than the professionals are.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6271879.stm

(So far, the title is longer than the list.)

Hmm. I might start a new topic on this theme. It'd be interesting to hear what others would do/are doing.