Treasure and Portable Antiquities  
Treasure (2010 & 2011) and Portable Antiquities (2011)
Statistical Release
October 2012   

Treasure and Portable Antiques is an Official Statistic and has been produced to the standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics

Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction	4
Chapter 2: Key findings	5
Chapter 3: Tables	6
Chapter 4: Background information	12

Chapter 1:	Introduction
Purpose of release
This statistical release presents the number of finds of reported Treasure (in England, Wales and Northern Ireland) in 2010 and objects recorded through the Portable Antiquities Scheme (in England and Wales) in 2011.

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. 

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 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.  
Chapter 2:	Key findings

•	In 2011 970 finds of Treasure were reported. The equivalent number for 2010 was 860. 

•	In 2011 97,509 finds were recorded with the Portable Antiquities Scheme (http://finds.org.uk).  The equivalent  number for 2010 was 90,099.

•	In 2010 86 parties waived their right to a reward in 70 cases of Treasure, allowing them to be acquired by museums at no (or reduced) public cost.

Guide to the data included in this release

This statistical release presents the number of Treasure finds recorded by county in 2010 and the number of portable antiquities recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme in 2011. The release contains 9 tables. 
A glossary of terminology used in the release can be found on the Portable Antiquities Scheme website http://finds.org.uk/database/terminology.

Chapter 3:	Tables

Treasure finds in 2010 

Table A: Number of Treasure cases in 2010 by county (geographic distribution)

England
County	No. of treasure cases	
Bath & North East Somerset	1	
Bedfordshire	8	
Berkshire	3	
Buckinghamshire (inc Milton Keynes)	12	
Cambridgeshire (inc Peterborough)	21	
Cheshire	11	
Cornwall	3	
Coventry	1	
Cumbria	13	
Derbyshire	7	
Devon	13	
Dorset	16	
Durham	5	
Essex	57	
Gloucestershire	5	
Gloucestershire, South	4	
Hampshire	18	
Herefordshire	7	
Hertfordshire	14	
Isle of Wight	30	
Kent	52	
Lancashire	10	
Leicestershire & Rutland	16	
Lincolnshire	67	
Lincolnshire, North	11	
London, Greater	11	
Norfolk	65	
Northamptonshire	21	
Northumberland	12	
Nottinghamshire	20	
Oxfordshire	12	
Shropshire	9	
Somerset	16	
Somerset, North	7	
Staffordshire	18	
Suffolk	59	
Surrey	7	
Sussex, East	6	
Sussex, West	12	
Teeside, Redcar and Cleveland	1	
Warwickshire	8	
West Midlands	1	
Wiltshire (inc Swindon)	36	
Worcestershire	8	
York, City of	0	
Yorkshire, East	19	
Yorkshire, North	67	
Yorkshire, South	8	
Yorkshire, West	5	
Unknown	2	
Total	835	

Wales
County	No. of treasure cases	
Bridgend	0	
Caerphilly	1	
Carmarthenshire	1	
Ceredigion	0	
Flintshire	1	
Gwynedd		0	
Isle of Anglesey	1	
Monmouthshire	3	
Newport	1	
Pembrokeshire	5	
Powys	4	
Rhondda Cynon Taf	0	
Swansea	1	
Vale of Glamorgan	5	
Wrexham	2	
Total	25	

Northern Ireland
County	 No. of treasure cases	
Total	0	

Table B: Analysis of Treasure cases in 2010 by period and disposition - England & Wales

Object Cases							
	Disclaimed/RTF	Acquired	Donated	Not Treasure	To Be Determined	Total	
Bronze Age	7	13	5	1	5	31	
Iron Age	0	3	0	1	0	4	
Roman	36	15	15	3	3	72	
Early Medieval	25	43	6	2	5	81	
Medieval	133	51	15	2	4	205	
Post-Medieval	168	56	13	37	6	280	
Modern	0	0	0	21	0	21	
Undiagnostic	4	0	0	34	1	39	
Totals	373	181	54	101	24	733	

Coin Cases							
	Disclaimed/RTF	Acquired	Donated	Not Treasure	To Be Determined	Total	
Iron Age	6	4	0	0	0	10	
Roman	17	20	10	2	7	56	
Early Medieval	1	7	1	0	0	9	
Medieval	14	11	2	0	0	27	
Post-Medieval	11	6	3	0	1	21	
Modern	1	0	0	0	2	3	
Undiagnostic	0	0	0	0	1	1	
Totals	50	48	16	5	8	127	
 							
Overall (all cases)	423	229	70	106	32	860	

Table C: Method of discovery of Treasure cases in 2010 - England and Wales

	Number of finds	%	
Metal detecting	797	92.7	
Archaeological	29	3.4	
To be confirmed	16	1.9	
Chance	15	1.7	
Reported by buyer	3	0.3	
Total	860	100.0	

Portable Antiquities Scheme finds in 2011

Note: The following tables are based on data taken from the PAS database (http://finds.org.uk) on 21 May 2012. This data is updated constantly and is therefore subject to change.
  
Table D: Portable Antique Scheme (PAS) finds in 2011 recorded by county (geographical distribution)

County	PAS records 2011	PAS finds recorded 2011	
Avon	1,358	1,500	
Bedfordshire	645	655	
Berkshire	934	1,170	
Buckinghamshire	2,090	3,178	
Cambridgeshire	1,631	2,002	
Cheshire	441	479	
Cleveland	28	28	
Cornwall	3,798	3,861	
Cumbria	527	721	
Derbyshire	153	211	
Devon	417	646	
Dorset	582	4,675	
Durham	257	296	
Essex	1,214	2,580	
Gloucestershire	993	1,158	
Greater London	649	755	
Greater Manchester	23	23	
Hampshire	2,007	2,182	
Herefordshire	617	658	
Hertfordshire	1,067	1,193	
Isle of Wight	1,743	2,472	
Isles of Scilly	1	1	
Kent	2,135	7,551	
Lancashire	344	623	
Leicestershire	1,344	1,382	
Lincolnshire	5,183	5,828	
Lincolnshire, NE	102	105	
Lincolnshire, N	1,195	1,356	
Merseyside	82	82	
Norfolk	14,071	14,176	
Northamptonshire	1,128	1,253	
Northumberland	212	323	
Nottinghamshire	1,182	1,270	
Oxfordshire	1,558	1,763	
Rutland	58	68	
Shropshire	410	508	
Somerset	1,303	2,840	
Staffordshire	529	630	
Suffolk	3,358	5,144	
Surrey	1,369	1,634	
Sussex, E	674	681	
Sussex, W	486	565	
Tyne & Wear	2	2	
Warwickshire	603	1,308	
West Midlands	12	12	
Wiltshire	2,522	3,143	
Worcestershire	381	4,288	
Yorkshire, E	2,403	2,670	
Yorkshire, N	2,235	3,032	
Yorkshire, S	520	1,017	
Yorkshire, W	402	1,152	
Other	1,409	1,758	
Wales	884	901	
Total	69,271	97,509	

Table E: PAS finds in 2011 recorded by class (where known)

	Metal objects	Coins	Worked stone	Pottery	Other	
Number	27,197	39,831	7,323	5,481	4,635	
%	32.2	47.16	8.67	6.49	5.49	

Table F: PAS finds in 2011 recorded by period (where known)
	Stone Age	Bronze Age	Iron Age	Roman	Early Medieval	Medieval	Post-Medieval	
Number	6,673	1,530	1,343	42,683	2,425	13,311	14,549	
%	8.09	1.85	1.63	51.73	2.94	16.13	17.63	

Table G: PAS findspot precision in 2011 (where recorded)
	No NGR	4 Fig	6 Fig	8 Fig	10 Fig	12 Fig	
Number	6,567	1,428	32,468	18,019	21,866	3,905	
%	7.79	1.70	38.54	21.39	25.95	4.63	

Table H: Method of discovery of PAS finds in 2011 (where known)

	Metal -detecting	Chance find while metal-detecting	Field-walking	Other chance find / gardening	Controlled archaeological investigation	Building / agricultural work	
Number	70,083	2,075	6,549	2,681	1,848	1,017	
%	83.19	2.46	7.77	3.18	2.19	1.21	

Table I: Land use of findspot for PAS finds in 2011 (where known)

	Number	%	
Cultivated land	47,831	82.51	
Grassland/heathland	5,073	8.75	
Woodland	157	0.27	
Coastland	838	1.45	
Open fresh water	638	1.10	
Wetland	10	0.02	
Other	3,417	5.90	

Table J: Use of PAS website in 2011

	Unique visitors	Number of visits	Page requests	Average page views per visit	
Number	463,160	677,965	4,485,956	6.62	

Chapter 4:	Background information

Formats of statistical release
This release is available in word/excel and pdf format.

Previous reports
Statistics covering previous years can be found at http://www.culture.gov.uk/publications/8459.aspx 

Next release of data
The next release of data will take place in the third quarter of 2013 and will include data for 2011 (Treasure) and 2012 (PAS). 

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:

Department for Culture, Media and Sport
2-4 Cockspur Street
London SW1Y 5DH

evidence@culture.gsi.gov.uk

The responsible analyst for this release is Penny Allen
For enquiries on this release contact: 020 7211 6106
For general enquiries telephone: 020 7211 6000

2-4 Cockspur Street
London SW1Y 5DH
www.culture.gov.uk