Treasure Act & Metal Detecting Coin Finds: What the Law Says You Must Do

The treasure tests for coins

The Treasure Act 1996 replaced the old common-law rule of treasure trove, which only bit when gold or silver had been deliberately hidden with the intention of recovery. The Act sets out objective tests instead. For coins, a find is treasure if it is:

• Two or more coins from the same find, at least 300 years old when found, where each coin contains at least 10% gold or silver by weight.
• Ten or more coins from the same find, at least 300 years old, of any metal. This is the test that catches Roman bronze hoards.
• Any coin found in the same place as, or as part of the same find as, another object that is treasure.
• Since 30 July 2023, any object at least 200 years old of exceptional historical, archaeological or cultural significance, under the Treasure (Designation) (Amendment) Order 2023. This can bring in an outstanding single base-metal coin that the older tests missed.

Two points trip people up. First, “300 years old” is counted from the date of the find, so the threshold moves every year: in 2026 a coin dated 1726 or earlier qualifies. Second, the 10% precious-metal test is generous. Debased late-Roman silver, billon and most hammered silver pass it easily; Victorian sterling silver passes but is not old enough.

The 14-day rule and how to report

You must report a find you believe, or have reasonable grounds to believe, is treasure to the coroner for the district within 14 days of finding it, or within 14 days of realising it might be treasure. The 14 days are not a target; they are a legal limit, and failing to report without reasonable excuse is an offence under section 8 of the Act, with a maximum of three months’ imprisonment, a fine, or both.

In practice almost nobody writes to a coroner. The route that works is:

1. Contact your local Finds Liaison Officer (FLO). The Portable Antiquities Scheme lists them by county at finds.org.uk/contacts.
2. The FLO examines the find, records it, and submits the treasure report to the coroner on your behalf. Your 14-day duty is met once the FLO has it.
3. Keep a note of the exact findspot: an eight-figure grid reference or a phone GPS fix. The location is part of the find’s significance and the FLO will ask for it.

If you are unsure whether something is treasure, report it anyway. There is no penalty for reporting a find that turns out not to qualify, and a great deal of penalty for the reverse.

What happens after you report

The find goes into the treasure process, which is slower than most finders expect:

1. Recording. The FLO or a British Museum curator writes a report identifying the coins, their date and their likely significance.
2. Coroner’s inquest. The coroner decides whether the find is treasure. Since 2023 most treasure inquests are decided on the papers without a hearing.
3. Museum interest. If a museum wishes to acquire the find, it says so. The British Museum and national museums have first refusal, then local museums.
4. Valuation. The Treasure Valuation Committee, an independent panel that takes advice from the trade, sets a value equal to what the find would fetch on the open market. You may submit your own valuation evidence and challenge theirs.
5. Reward and transfer. The museum raises the money, the reward is paid, and the find is transferred. If no museum wants it, the find is disclaimed and returned to you and the landowner.

Allow one to two years. Large hoards, particularly ones that need conservation before they can be counted, take longer.

How the reward is valued and split

The reward is the full market value as assessed by the Treasure Valuation Committee, not a percentage of it. It is normally divided equally between finder and landowner. The committee can reduce or refuse a reward where the finder trespassed, damaged the site, delayed reporting, or otherwise behaved badly, so the paperwork of permission and the discipline of stopping when you hit a hoard both have a direct cash value.

Landowners can waive their share in favour of the finder, and some detecting agreements provide for that; more commonly they specify 50/50. Either way, agree it in writing before you dig. See the permission section below.

Recording non-treasure finds with PAS

The overwhelming majority of detected coins are not treasure: single hammered pennies, Roman bronzes, Georgian halfpennies, Victorian silver. You keep them. But recording them with the Portable Antiquities Scheme is free, takes a few minutes with your FLO, and does three things for you:

• It gives the coin a permanent public record with a PAS number, which is the strongest provenance a ground find can carry when you come to sell it.
• It gets you an expert identification, often better than anything you will get online.
• It contributes to the national database used by archaeologists, which is the reason responsible detecting is tolerated on the scale it is in England and Wales.

The database is searchable at finds.org.uk and is one of the best free references for identifying an unfamiliar coin: search by ruler, denomination or county and compare your find against thousands of recorded examples.

Scotland: a different system

None of the above applies north of the border. Under Scots law all ownerless objects belong to the Crown as bona vacantia, and the Treasure Trove system administered by the Treasure Trove Unit at National Museums Scotland requires that all archaeological finds be reported, whatever they are made of and however many there are. A single Roman coin from a Fife field must be reported; a single Roman coin from a Northumberland field need not be. The Crown then either claims the find, allocating it to a museum and paying the finder an ex gratia reward, or disclaims it. Landowners in Scotland have no automatic claim on finds or rewards.

Permission, agreements and protected sites

Every field, beach and footpath in the UK is owned by someone. Detecting without the owner’s permission is trespass, and taking finds away can be theft. The three things a written agreement should cover are: that you have permission to detect and to remove finds, how sale proceeds and treasure rewards will be divided, and what happens to finds the landowner wants to keep. The Portable Antiquities Scheme and the National Council for Metal Detecting both publish model agreements.

Some land is off limits regardless of permission. Detecting on a scheduled monument without a licence from Historic England, Cadw or the equivalent body is a criminal offence, and Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Ministry of Defence land and many Forestry and National Trust holdings have their own prohibitions. Check the scheduled monument list before you ask a farmer, not after.

The Code of Practice for Responsible Metal Detecting in England and Wales is short and worth reading in full. Its two rules that matter most for coins: dig no deeper than the plough soil on cultivated land, and stop and call the FLO the moment a find looks like more than a single loss.

From find to value

Once the legal position is settled, valuing a detected coin is the same exercise as valuing any other, with two adjustments. Ground finds are usually in lower grades and frequently show environmental damage, which our guide to cleaned and damaged coins covers. And provenance matters more: a PAS record can add a premium at auction because it settles the question of legal title. For the coins most often dug in Britain, start with:

• Pre-1816 British coins, hammered and early milled.
• Victorian penny values, the commonest milled copper find.
• I think I found a rare coin, a triage checklist for any find.
• How to clean a coin, which mostly explains why you should not.

Do not clean a ground find beyond a rinse in distilled water. Corrosion products can be stabilised by a conservator; scrubbing destroys surface detail and, on a treasure find, can reduce the reward.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Treasure Act 1996, legislation.gov.uk.
• The Treasure (Designation) (Amendment) Order 2023, legislation.gov.uk.
• Portable Antiquities Scheme: Treasure, including the Code of Practice and FLO contacts.
• Treasure Act 1996 Code of Practice, Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
• Treasure Trove in Scotland, Crown Office and National Museums Scotland.