detectorist

He is now one of thousands involved in the hobby nationwide - a number expected to grow sharply following the announcement last autumn that "detectorist" Terry Herbert had found a huge hoard of Anglo Saxon gold in Staffordshire valued at £3.285 million.

Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph 2010

Yet members are quick to shake off any notion that a "detectorist" will get rich with the hobby.

unknown title 2009

A total of 52,500 bronze and silver coins dating from the 3rd century AD found by hobby metal detectorist Dave Crisp

Huge hoard of Roman coins found on Somerset farm 2010

The hoard was found in July 2009 by metal detectorist Terry Herbert in farmland near his Staffordshire home in what was part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia during the 7th century.

The Staffordshire Hoard Appeal 2010

Deuchar has landed at the Art Fund at the perfect time for a ‘new art historian’ — just in time to take on the task of raising the £3.3 million needed to buy the great 7th-century treasure trove dug up six months ago by a metal detectorist.

Keeper of the treasure 2010

A total of 52,500 bronze and silver coins dating from the 3rd century AD – including the largest ever found set of coins minted by the self proclaimed emperor Carausius, who lasted seven years before he was murdered by his finance minister – were found by Dave Crisp, a hobby metal detectorist from Devizes, Wiltshire.

Huge hoard of Roman coins found on Somerset farm 2010

The helmet was discovered by a private metal detectorist in a field in Cumbria, U.K., in May.

Bumper Prizes for Some Deep Pockets Margaret Studer 2010

But fellow detectorist Richard Hunter, of Peterlee, who reported the find to the Portable Antiquities Scheme at Newcastle Museum, says he was with Mr Richardson when the seal was found and claims they had a 'gentleman's agreement' to share anything they uncovered.

Medieval seal of Thomas Becket 2008

If we find one expensive brooch we label the whole site 'high status', but if the site was in use for several decades maybe it only means that one individual struck lucky once and then unlucky, if they then lost the brooch for a metal detectorist or excavator to find 1400 years later!

The Merovingian coins from Sutton Hoo Carla 2008

Two separate hoards were found by the metal detectorist on successive days, one involving 2,366 coins and the other 3,547 coins, 3m away.

Treasure Trove! Jan 2008