The Treasure Act explained
A few years ago a new set of rules explaining what to do if you find something really old and special was introduced in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This set of rules was called The Treasure Act, 1996 because it had been written a year before it was made law. Scotland has different rules and you can see these at www.treasuretrovescotland.co.uk.
Treasure doesn’t mean the same in the language that lawyers use as it does in ordinary language. It is not the same thing as a Pirate’s treasure. In law, Treasure just means that the thing found has to be made of at least one tenth silver or gold and be more than 300 years old. Archaeologists call all these things ‘finds’.
Really old finds that are more than 2100 years old (called Prehistoric because they were made before people wrote history books) do not have to be made of gold or silver to count as Treasure. Any metal objects, even ones that are made of bronze (these objects are sometimes called copper alloy by archaeologists) can be Treasure.
Coins as well as objects can be Treasure. If the finds are a group of coins (a hoard) then they have a special set of treasure rules. They are Treasure if there are two or more gold or silver coins or 10 or more copper alloy coins.
If you find any of these Treasure finds, you have to tell either a Finds Liaison Officer (FLO), or a special type of judge called a Coroner. A FLO is a friendly archaeologist who looks at finds like these all of the time and can tell you what you’ve found and if they think that it really is Treasure. There is probably a FLO at one of your local museums. You can find a list of FLOs in the contacts section of this website.
If you do find Treasure, you will need to get someone over 18 to help you tell the FLO or Coroner and help fill in the form. The form says who found it (YOU!) and where and when it was found. Your Treasure will then be sent away to be checked by an expert. After this, your local museum will be given the chance to buy your find so that other people can see it and learn from it. You may even be given a reward for reporting it!
