retired_ks reddy

I have. Some bones and teeth I refer to as 'Ahmed the jihadi'.

retired_chinioti22

I used to collect stamps, and by that I mean people used to give me stamps.

retired_monica90

Records.

My_Evo

You'll either have to pay a fortune, or find your own.
None of the day-to-day stuff tends to pop up on the market, just really nice things.

Most countries protect "antiquities", while fossils are still fair game around the world (bar a few exceptions).

retired_ks reddy

Hey Dave, how come you hate your work so much now? You used to love it, no?

retired_princesspouty

You'll either have to pay a fortune, or find your own.
None of the day-to-day stuff tends to pop up on the market, just really nice things.

Most countries protect "antiquities", while fossils are still fair game around the world (bar a few exceptions). </BLOCKQUOTE>
Well, paying a fortune is out of the question... so how much are metal detectors these days?

A related question: if I found something really important, or valuable - what happens? I mean, a museum or similar would want the artefact - so would they claim it off me as an artefact of national importance, or would they have to compensate me?

I don't know how I manage to go off on tangents like this all the time... things just pop in my head though!

allygator

I collect computer parts and other related junk... Not so much collect but horde

retired_princesspouty

My boss is always buying sh!t off ebay going back years. He proudly showed me this massive graphics card he'd bought... totally useless, but it keeps him happy.

My_Evo

In England, whatever you find is the property of the landowner, unless he's waived that right or unless the object is declared treasure.
Nothing can just be taken off you, unless you effectively stole it in the first place.

My_Evo

I love the general field in which I work, I just hate the specific place I work these days.
Recently there have been a series of spirit-crushingly poor, gutless and embarassing decisions, and they've sapped all the fun out of it. Local Authorities are always bad, Bolton just happens to be bad even by those standards.

In fact, f*** it, I'm just going to tell you exactly what happened.

We worked for months and months negotiating the finer details with the British Museum to allow us to loan The Warren Cup as the star object for an exhibition.
Now, the cup is a rare Roman piece of silver, and happens to be decorated with two scenes of homosexual love-making. In both cases, it's an older man with a youth, probably around 14. This was an acceptable part of Roman society, and we were going to use it to discuss how standards change and how morality evolves.

Then, at the last minute, just before all the agreements were in place, some slimy little backstabber who had an issue with it went telling-tales and ended up getting the leader of the council believing that we were somehow going to be seen as endorsing paedophilia.
I wanted to argue our case, explain the context, as did my manager. Unfortunately, our senior bosses wouldn't let us as they didn't want to get on the wrong side of anyone in the council. They just bent over and took it (ironic really...).
To make matters worse, they then implied it was our fault, because we hadn't sought council opinion first which wasn't true, and frankly shouldn't be something we have to do. We're employed to make these calls, they're not.

So we bow to petty-minded censorship, allow one of our own "team" to stab us in the back, and I'm told it's all my fault.
To hell with the lot of them. I'm out of here the first chance I get.