What bothers me are the sections on required written permission for digging and a limit of $200 on relic sold in three months or it is a felony. You could not sell something worth over $200 nor dig anywhere without written permission. Legally.
The other thing which bothers me are unseen consequences. Will we have to provide written permission for selling relics when we do? What would happen then with a nice find? What if a land owner gets charged and convicted for giving written permission to a relic hunter and it gets in the newspapers? Are they responsible for damage done to a site?
This bill like others in different states has 4 goals
1) give the state archaeologist as much power as possible.
2) outlaw detecting on any state land
3) partially control sites and detecting on private land
4) establish requirements to make hobby detecting harder.
Here is a link to find out about the bill. The info is there but you have to click on who you want. Enter HB2078 to get info and status on the bill. Click on the delegate name if you want to get email, phone, address, and more.
There are also maps to determine what your district is. You can send messages to other districts if you like.
Once you find out about the bill please send a message and let us know if you discover something new.
Be nice we want friends not enemies.
I've never dealt with this sort of thing before. We might get it changed but I expect it may get passed in some form.
All bills seem confusing to me and this is no exception. When taken literaly sections of this bill seem to directly interfer with our hobby.
The woman who sponsored the bill is from down in Alexandria and this is her last term in office. Alexandria City I recall has many restrictions outlawing detecting even on private property but also tries actively to keep detectorists off any site they can, even those being destroyed.
If you read the bill great emphasis was placed on graves and human remains. Why is this important?. No one I know digs graves, which is illegal anyway. But then so is tresspass and stealing relics etc from someone else's property. I don't think we need a law to make something illegal even more illegal. All it does is make detecting more difficult. Read the bill.
The notion of written permission and selling relics is no good at all. They may have a few bad apples they are trying to get at but they will hurt us all in the process.
The bill is also to create a state archaeologist and establish his powers. It would help to limit these in some fashion or make him more responsible to others. As it appears now he can establish state archaeological sites on private property and control digging there.
It also makes digging on any state land illegal.
Joe
