Sword Sunday # 50 - 2020 is turning out to be an interesting year to find things

When we talk about old swords in the modern day, we also need to understand the circumstances in which they were found, and that includes political, legal, and contextual. While this article isn't about swords, per se, it does inform us about how absolutely insane 2020 is in nearly all aspects of life, including when we talk about swords. 

In England, there has been a law in effect since 1997 that defines certain things founds in the ground as possible "treasure". For a country that has roots back to the height of the Roman empire, even simple things like tool handles, metal blades, and minted coins can be invaluable, not only for their raw monetary value, but for the historical information they provide as well. Anything found that is, or looks to be over 300 years old is required to be reported. Each county has an office who's job it is to review finds, and assess if they are national, and/or histrionically significant. Items found to have that value are taken into custody of the state (the government of the UK), and usually turned over to a museum or research institute. 

Currently, the law in question is being looked at for expansion, after several significant finds were deemed to not meet the age and value specifications that had been set, and critically important items were lost to the private market, and in many cases locked away from researchers eyes.

Still, even with what it does cover, the offices are hardly inactive.

In 2017, 1,267 pieces went through the process in which a committee determines whether an item should be considered a treasure, up from 79 pieces in 1997. - From the article by Jenny Gross

By those metrics, the committee in question would have reviewed about 3 items per day. 

2020, however, is another animal entirely. Even with a strong aversion to instituting a lock-down, England has resorted to that several times now, and, like much of the industrialized world, also seen an explosive surge in work-from-home employment situations. 

The end result to all of this? 

Well, sociologists will no doubt debate and evaluate the full effects well into the 2030s, but one thing that is also happening a lot more is a surge in home gardening, and yard improvements. 

And that means digging.

And that can get interesting in a country with a cultural history dating back over 2000 years.

One spectacular example was where gardeners in Hampshire found 63 gold coins minted during the reign of Henry VIII, 4 inscribed with the names of his wives. 

Another discovery in Milton Keynes were a stash of apartheid era South African Gold coins.Their presence alone on the island nation hints at an interesting story. 

As of the beginning of December, over 47,000 items (including some swords) have been reported to the authorities in England, a rate of over 120 finds a day, forty two times the previous rate of reporting. 

Whatever comes of COVID, and the consequences there in, one of the byproducts of the event (and the likely continued lock-downs into 2021), will probably include an improved gimps into the nation's long, and diverse history. 

His Lordship Ivo Blackhawk
Kingdom of Ansteorra
"Long Live the King!"