Metal Detecting in Russia

Before the Federal Law turned the hobby of metal detecting into an unlawful activity, there was nothing like treasure hunting in Russia - the largest country in the world, which spans 11 time zones! Over 1000 years of eventful history, 160 different ethnic groups and indigenous peoples representing diverse cultural and historical heritages, vast historical areas which are now unpopulated (77% of the population live in the European part (spanning only three time zones) of the country) and contain uncountable ghost towns, villages and other "hot" treasure hunting spots, availability of detailed historical maps dated back to the early 1600s, incredible diversity of coin and relic finds, absence of the "posted" signs and the "no trespassing" laws - all that used to make the process of metal detecting in Russia truly enjoyable and exciting.

Despite the harsh law imposed on Russian detectorists, coin shooting, cache hunting and relic hunting have remained the most participated types of metal detecting activities in the country since 2013. Military relic hunting, especially its branch - WWII relic hunting, always stood out of all due to existence of thousands of battlefield sites in the Western Russia which had experienced countless wars and military conflicts since the 9th century. Of course, the World War II, known as "the Great Patriotic War" in Russian, was the biggest military event that left tons of "iron reminders" in the fields and forests of the Western Russia.

The underwater WWII relic hunting in the Western Russia had been also very popular because a lot of weaponry was dumped into the lakes, ponds, rivers, drains and canals during and after the war, to be found in pristine, well preserved condition many years later. Any other underwater metal detecting activities did not become popular in Russia due to the country's northern geographic location and, therefore, its cold climate which renders the Baltic Sea and the Pacific ocean beaches unsuitable for masses of tourists. Not to mention an extensive coastline of over 20,000 miles along the Arctic Ocean, which has a polar climate. The only exception could be a few popular resorts on the Black Sea, but they are off limits for detectorists. And unfortunately no huge agglomerations of treasure shipwrecks are located near the coastline.

Two other metal detecting activities that had not gained popularity in Russia are the meteorite hunting and gold nugget detecting. Meteorite hunting is normally conducted in arid areas which provide ideal conditions for preservation and detection of iron and stony-iron meteorites. Russia does not have arid lands, and the humid continental climate is prevalent in all parts of the country except for the tundra with a subarctic climate, and a few areas along the Lower Volga river and Caspian Sea coast possessing a semi-arid climate. Although meteorites fall all over Russia like anywhere else in the world, the small-sized ones quickly decompose in moist soil and become undetectable. However, the relatively large meteorites can be found with a metal detector at sites of the known strewn fields located even in the heavily forested areas.

Since the Eastern Russia, known as Siberia, makes the country 4th among the world's leading gold producers, one would think that the gold nugget hunting and gold prospecting are the widespread activities in Russia. But this is not so because the Federal Law 'On Precious Metals and Gems' prohibited artisanal gold mining and gold prospecting way back in 1954. But of course, there are teams of gold nugget hunters operating illegally in remote, hard-to-reach areas located on the eastern slope of the Ural Mountains, and in Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Magadan, Amur and Chukotka regions (the latter has a neighbor - Alaska, just across the Bering straight). However, even if the individual entrepreneurs only detect gold in tailings of the former large-scale gold mining, they still have to face tough challenges such as extreme remoteness of the gold-bearing areas to which one can get only via a helicopter, being constantly exposed to dangerous wildlife, absence of cellular phone communication, harsh living conditions in outdoors, etc. Adventures of Indiana Jones are really nothing compared to searching for gold in Siberia.

Actually, metal detecting in European Russia also might be adventurous as there are various dangerous wild animals such as bears, wolves, wolverines and bobcats wandering through the wilderness in remote areas. A picture showing fresh tracks of a bear across the hunt site in Vologda region can attest to that.

My stories, of course, reflect only a tiny fraction of what metal detecting in Russia was like. Nevertheless, it might be interesting for you to read about coins and artifacts I found there, and the search techniques I used. I hope that my stories will give you some new ideas and tips for successful metal detecting in your local area.

On July 23rd, 2013, the Russian parliament enacted Bill N245-FZ prohibiting metal detection of anything older than 100 years old in Russia. The bill is called "On Introduction of Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation Concerning the Suppression of Illegal Activities in the Field of Archeology". Now any Russian detectorist may face a 6-year jail term or $200,000.00 fine for digging up a coin or even the rusted iron object if it is dated to the pre-Soviet era. Seemingly this bill was created to strengthen existing laws against the so-called "black diggers" - treasure hunters that unlawfully search for the highly valuable artifacts at historic, architectural, archaeological and cultural sites, structures and ancient mounds which are officially registered and protected by Federal laws, and always off limits to detectorists.

Making up just a small percentage of all Russian detectorists, the black diggers absolutely disregard any law and continue their criminal activities no matter what. Unfortunately, by "putting everybody in the same boat", this new Law turned the law abiding detectorists into its hostages... I do not think there is an English version of this bill on the Internet. However, if you think that this news is not true, here is a link to a website of the Russian newspaper ("Rossijskaya Gazeta") which officially publishes all Russian laws upon their enactment: http://www.rg.ru/2013/07/26/arch-dok.html. Unfortunately that webpage does not include an English version, so if you wish to read the Bill N245-FZ, the webpage can be easily translated into English via any online translator.

According to this law, in order to conduct the search for objects that are older than 100 years old - defined as "archaeological objects" in this bill, one must be a certified archaeologist who is officially granted a special license called an "Open List". The Open List can be granted only to "citizens of Russia who possess scientific and practical knowledge that is necessary for conducting archaeological field works and preparing scientific reports on the completed field work...".

Anybody else is NOT qualified to get the Open List and, therefore, not allowed to search for the "archaeological objects" by any means including simple digging with a shovel and, of course, metal detecting since a metal detector is defined by the bill as "Special Technical Means". This category also includes georadars (ground penetrating radars (GPRs)), magnetometers and "other electronic devices that are capable to establish the presence of archaeological objects in the ground". Even if an old coin is accidentally eyeballed in the dirt of the plowed field, picking it up is unlawful.

So if one finds a so-called "archaeological object" during the cultivation of one's private vegetable patch, this object must be submitted to the local municipal authorities no later than five days from the day of discovery. If not, and the finder is caught with possession of this object, he or she will face a huge fine of 500,000 Roubles (over $8,000) or in the amount of the salary of the convicted finder for a period of up to two years, or a 3-year imprisonment, and confiscation of a tool or instrument, in this case a backhoe or a shovel, used for the object retrieval. How more idiotic can this be?!

The preposterousness of this law is especially reflected in a declaration about the "cultural layer" also called "dark earth" - an upper layer of the soil-stratigraphical layer (a vertical section through the soil). The cultural layer shows the relative positions of the human artifacts; thus, reflecting former presence of humans and the chronology of successive levels of occupation. The law proclaims that "if the cultural layer on land or underwater is 100 years old or older, it is archaeological." And, by the way, in this law, the term "cultural layer" applies to the farm fields that have been plowed for ages! (I am not kidding you)

This declaration makes the entire country (both private and public lands), except, of course, areas where no human activity took place, an archaeological site so that no one can dig up or recover any coins or relics without the Open List. The off-limits areas also include streams, brooks, creeks, rivers, ponds, lakes, and seas! If one purposefully conducts the search and recovers the "archaeological objects", he or she becomes a subject to severe prosecution. In the worst case, the prison sentence for digging "old" coins may be longer than the 5-year jail sentence given for homicide.

Claimed to be the law to "protect the cultural heritage and values", this federal law on the contrary does more harm than good. First, this law deprives a few generations of hobby enthusiasts, and will deprive the upcoming generations, of their right to freely pursue the hobby of metal detecting and learning their cultural heritage and values by means of this hobby. The hobby truly inspires enthusiasts not only to study both local and national history, but also learn numismatics, cartography, types of artifacts and methods for their cleaning and preservation, etc. Nothing to say about how the hobby kept thousands of youngsters from being enslaved by computer games, and adults from drinking alcohol and turning into "couch potatoes".

Secondly, now many coins and artifacts that still remain in the ground will not be spared from getting destroyed by plough action, fertilizers, weathering and natural decomposition in the fields. Russian archaeologists do not conduct any search in the farm fields not only because there is "nothing interesting" for them there, but also because there are only 600 certified archaeologists in the entire country!!! And even some of these guys now admit that the Russian archaeological community is currently in such a poor state of affairs due to the lack of funding and manpower, that without help of metaldetectorists who regularly had informed the scientists of new archaeological sites and discoveries, and supplied the archaeologists with rare artifacts to be described in scientific papers and dissertations, the post-Soviet archaeology may just fall apart as well...

And finally, those who introduced this bill to the Russian legislature had nothing to do with archaeology. They knew that this law would not be enforced throughout the country because there is a shortage of police manpower even in big cities, nothing to say about the immense countryside. They should also know that any adventurous activity or life style had been always welcomed in the Russian society, especially when "the forbidden fruit is sweet". As the citizens' right to possess, sell, or buy a metal detector was not restricted by the new bill, the metal detector sales in Russia considerably increased in the first year following the enactment of this law. And, yes, the hobby was given a huge boost by negative publicity. "Every cloud has a silver lining" or "if it weren't for bad luck, they'd have no luck at all"?

The Russian detectorists found ways to circumvent the harsh law. Many of them stopped detecting out in the open just in case and began searching for treasures in remote areas, or simply switched to night hunting. They also "went underground" on the Internet, i.e. they disappeared from the metal detecting forums and blogs which themselves became semi-dormant later on. As a result, many pictures of finds also disappeared from the public forums and social media networks, and all the coin and artifact online auctions gradually died out. Before July 23rd of 2013, the Russian archaeologists not only could use the forums to learn what and where had been found in the country, but also could acquire the most outstanding, historically valuable artifacts through the online auctions. After this law was enacted, the archaeologists lost such opportunities, and likely will be kept in the dark forever.

As soon as the transparent online auctions disappeared from the Internet, the entire turnover of metal detecting finds available for sale moved into the so-called "gray" zone - probably something like the black market of valuable coins and artifacts, which widely operated in the Soviet Union in the 20th century. Apparently some big players in the gray zone now acquired the best opportunities after all. By enacting the Bill N245-FZ intended to "preserve the cultural heritage and values", the Russian legislature actually achieved the opposite. And the Russian archaeologists, instead of being the prime beneficiaries of this law, suffered the biggest loss. As for those detectorists who does not want to break the new law, they can still enjoy the hobby if they remain within the statutory boundaries. A little room is still left for legitimate metal detecting as detecting targets under 100 years by age is not prohibited (yet).