Metal Detectors in France

[battle of loos]

good morning,

Currently, there are legal appeals at national and European level because France does not restore the European directives on the subject (the right to use a metal detector).
The sale of detectors is authorized but its use is prohibited even at home without the approval of the competent authorities.

Link related to the association:
https://www.helloasso.com/associations/federation-francaise-de-detection-de-metaux

Currently, there is a "witch" hunt.
It is the game of "not seen not taken" but which is expensive.
seizure of equipment + vehicle + visit to your home = court + fine see prison.

The state monitors sales sites, forums, collection presentation sites.

michel

Edited 8 March , 2023 by battle of loos

[healdav]

51 minutes ago, battle of loos said:

good morning,

Currently, there are legal appeals at national and European level because France does not restore the European directives on the subject (the right to use a metal detector).
The sale of detectors is authorized but its use is prohibited even at home without the approval of the competent authorities.

Link related to the association:
https://www.helloasso.com/associations/federation-francaise-de-detection-de-metaux

Currently, there is a "witch" hunt.
It is the game of "not seen not taken" but which is expensive.
seizure of equipment + vehicle + visit to your home = court + fine see prison.

The state monitors sales sites, forums, collection presentation sites.

michel

Given that certain metal detectorists go to the battlefields with the express intention of digging up battle remains, both human and equipment and then sell them on the open market, both human and equipment, I sympathise entirely with the French. Walk across the Verdun battlefield and you will find all sorts of holes dug to find things.

Probably not detectorists, but they have had to put armoured glass in the windows at the back of the Ossuary at Verdun as people broke the ordinary glass and stole bones, especially skulls. There is, apparently, a ready market for this sort of thing. I and you may think this pretty sick, but goes on all the time.

Apart from anything else, ammunition that is dug up is still live and can explode very easily. Even disturbing it can potentially set it off. Explosives can and does become very unstable over time.

I back the French on this.

 

On 26/04/2005 at 09:20, terryewalker said:

In my professional opinion and former Bomb disposal, anyone who picks up or removes UXB's needs his head tested. How many on here know what is and what to look for when it comes to 18 pdr and 4.5 inch shells, Used by the British.

The reason why I ask is because some, well most 18 pdr and 4.5 inch shells were filled with phosgene and mustard.

I agree entirely. But there are a lot of people out there who need their heads testing, especially if they think they can make money out of it.

[chaz]

going back 3 or 4 years we regularly travelled across Gommecourt, passing Gommecourt cemetery and Owl Trench etc. in the field on the left we saw a couple of men with metal detectors going over the land. bearing in mind we have seen many live shells in the area in my opinion, probably not  a good idea.

[Kaiden johnson]

Can someone explain to Me how I can exactly support this group? https://www.helloasso.com/associations/federation-francaise-de-detection-de-metaux

I can’t exactly speak or read French so I can’t understand much of what’s on the site 

[Michelle Young]

Google translate is your friend….

[geraint]

Having done a fair amount of archaeological digging as a volunteer -in Wales - not in France. I can honestly say that detectors are excellent in sieving through the soil spoil. It's incredible what they find, despite the attention given by professional archaeologists during the dig. Detectorists also find random sites that turn out to be true archaeological treasures. 

France and Flanders is slightly different due to the amount of ironwork fired, shot, and built with in just four years. I cannot condemn locals who go out digging and profiting. If people want to buy this macabre stuff, then power to their elbows! I find it equally odd that people who call themselves "experts" go out and buy bayonnetts, helmets and other kit insignia and medals stuff associated with the Great War on Ebay and other sites .The hundreds of aeolins and wind turbines, expanded industrial zones and general buildings have desecrated Great war sites, and no-one gives a flying fig about that, I've got three of my family buried in France, only one with a known grave, and I don't think that they care very much if their remains are dug up and tossed at random here and there according to whim. They didn't really have an option when they were alive in France in 1914-18 and tossed here and there according to the whim of their commanders.

[chaz]

Geriant

this brings to mind the problem the Germans have with their dead in Russia. (or its states).. there was an article a few years ago about the ID tags and soldiers paraphernalia being dug up by the locals and being sold on ebay thus robbing the exhumation teams the chance of identifying the bodies and thus the families the chance to bury their kin.

sorry about the subtitles over writing the English