Welcome to the Portable Antiquities Scheme website

The Portable Antiquities Scheme is a DCMS funded project to encourage the voluntary recording of archaeological objects found by members of the public in England and Wales. Every year many thousands of objects are discovered, many of these by metal-detector users, but also by people whilst out walking, gardening or going about their daily work. Such discoveries offer an important source for understanding our past.

This website provides background information on the Portable Antiquities Scheme, news articles, events listings and access to our database of objects and images.

The Treasure Act

All finders of gold and silver objects, and groups of coins from the same findspot, which are over 300 years old, have a legal obligation to report such items under the Treasure Act 1996. Now prehistoric base-metal assemblages found after 1st January 2003 also qualify as Treasure. This website provides further information for finders of potential Treasure.

A tray of gold roman coins - aureii - in Coins and medals A detail from the Frome Hoard excavations A detail from the gold eagle and fish mount, Staffordshire hoard The British Museum's staff at Roman day A closeup of the Newark torc
The cheekpiece from the hoard

Staffordshire Hoard papers

The Staffordshire Hoard symposium papers have been published for all to access and the old website has been archived on our site for reference. The hoard's records are being added slowly to the database.

Numismatic guides

Learn about each numismatic study area.

A gold solidus of Honorius A gold stater of the Atrebates

Latest news

  • 484,795 records
  • 764,828 objects
  • 20,378 people involved
  • 4,125 accounts
The finder with the pieces from the hoardMedia scrum from the reverse viewThe finder with his hoardEd Vaizey with one of the braceletsEd Vaizey talkingEd Vaizey in studious modeNeil MacGregor and Ed Vaizey with curator Gareth WilliamsMaev Kennedy of the Guardian writing notesEd Vaizey with fast moving briefing notesPress photographer in actionflickr's logo

Latest tweets

  • On 02.01.12 @ 20:02:54, findsorguk said: If you're interested in archaeology, perhaps you could help out Lorna Richardson with her PhD research on Social... http://t.co/A6vbfCRJ
  • On 02.01.12 @ 10:02:07, findsorguk said: Hertfordshire Police are appealing for information on the theft of Anglo-Saxon coins from St Albans Museum:... http://t.co/7gpkVIn2
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