Finally: Amendment brings a number of benefits to detectorists

According to a recently published poll by the renovated PSL (Pull Someone's Leg) agency, most detectorists are willing to work exclusively under similar conditions to those in the much-vaunted UK. So ideally 100% reward for a find and legal search anywhere. Until now, the maximum reward in the Czech Republic was 10 % of the value of the treasure. Provided, of course, that it was not a discovery by a detector, but an accidental discovery. Because, as all archaeologists know, any search with a metal detector is basically a safe bet. But today, everything is fundamentally different.

It's almost beyond belief how the number of active hogs and burrowing pigs that have managed to find a variety of treasures has increased in recent years. Even a number of clever dogs and perhaps even cleverer bitches have increased the statistics of accidental finds. It is also not uncommon for an individual to stumble upon a treasure by pure chance while searching for rocks for the garden or digging up roots for the aquarium. After all, even a simple search for mushrooms has brought many a chance finder luck in the form of valuable treasure. These coincidences have, until now, been more legally acceptable than a targeted search with a detector. Now, however, fundamental changes are taking place.

As an unnamed junior Slovakian officer, originally from Slovakia, revealed to our disinformers, from todaya secret test project called MRCAS has been quietly launched by the Institute of Archaeology. What is behind the acronym, we have not been able to decipher. However, the key point is the content of the project. As we have managed to find out, it is completely in line with the amendment to Act No. §0104/2022 Coll., which heralds a number of important changes. These will be tested and then evaluated for a whole year in a secret mode in a selected (also secret) district. Apparently, they will be finally adopted:

1. Any finding by a metal detector from now on will not be taken as targeted, but explicitly as accidental. So legal. The point of this point is to save the already busy bitches and bitches.
2. Every find made with a metal detector will be assessed and if it meets the definition of a treasure (proven to have been laid), the finder will be rewarded with 100% of the value of the treasure. This is determined by the coroner on call at each funeral home.
3. The landowner will receive 10% of the value of the treasure if they can prove that their land was found in the location of the treasure by pure chance.
4. A reward of 10% is also due to the liaison officer - the archaeologist who takes possession of the find and does not sell it.
5. The state will be able to sell the find abroad itself. Firstly, to pay the finder, the archaeologist and the landowner, and secondly, to relieve the overburdened collection institutions. As we know from eyewitness accounts of anonymous detectorists, they don't even take the bronzes anymore, or they keep "losing" them.

And further: The term "amateur archaeologist" is officially recognized. By the nature of the matter and the original Latin meaning of the word, amateurs are "Lovers" - i.e. those who love the field selflessly. In contrast, professionals do archaeology purely for the money. Which is quite obvious when you look at their salary tables.

In conclusion: The amendment applies exclusively to contributors to the current PAS (Portal of Amateur Contributors). If you are not, contact your nearest archaeologist immediately and hope that your district is the one selected. If you are not from the selected district, do not despair. The previous PAS (Portal of Amateur Collaborators) project will run in parallel with the new one, and MRCAS will be finally launched exactly one year from now at midnight on April 1, 2023.

Roman Nemec

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