Data collected by the Department of Portable Antiquities and Treasure at the British Museum shows there have been four treasure finds in Greater Manchester in the past five years, with the most recent in 2021. The figures show the number of reported treasure finds for 2021 and provisional figures for 2022 within England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The amount of buried treasure discovered across the nations reached a new high last year with some 1,378 finds in 2022, marking the ninth consecutive year that the 1,000 mark has been exceeded. Of these, 96 per cent of treasure finds were discovered by metal detecting, 3 per cent were archaeological finds and one per cent were chance finds or were found via mud larking. The South East of England held onto its title as the country’s buried treasure hotspot with 349 finds last year, accounting for 25 per cent of all treasure finds.

Source: The Times November 12, 2023 11:17 UTC