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Welcome to the National Council for Metal Detecting

Promoting, Protecting and Encouraging Metal Detecting for over 40 years.

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Welcome to the NCMD

At the NCMD we love metal detecting! For over 40 years we have promoted, protected, and encouraged metal detecting for our members and the wider Metal Detecting Community.

We are formally recognised by the UK Government and play a vital role in representing members on the creation of any changes to legislation that may affect our great hobby.

Our introduction video is a great way to get to know us and learn what we are about.

Getting started with metal detecting

About us

Who we are and why we do it.

Why join?

Benefits of joining the NCMD

Detecting advice

Get advice and guidance on metal detecting

News

Catch up on our latest news

Major finds help

Our Major Finds Excavation Fund can help you with important finds

FAQ

Our FAQs can help with additional questions/advice

NCMD merchandise products

The NCMD Merchandise Shop

The NCMD Merchandise shop is where you can buy branded items such as caps, tshirts, hoodies and mugs.

You can also buy Gift Vouchers, great for those struggling to buy something for that metal detectorist in their life. The voucher gets sent straight to the recipient and they can use it to purchase anything from the merchandise shop.

Please Note: Vouchers cannot be used to purchase NCMD Membership.

Shop Merchandise

The NCMD app

Our free mobile app is a great tool for NCMD members to log the position of find spots, take pictures, as well as adding key notes about the find. This makes it easier if it’s a reportable find, as you can look back on the information when talking with the FLO (Finds Liaison Officer).

You can also backup and save your finds data to a secure server, which only you have access to. A great option should you change/lose your phone. (The NCMD does not have access to the server.)

Members can also chat with each other through the online community forum, great for asking questions and sharing knowledge. You also have instant access to your digital membership card.

Once you have purchased NCMD membership you can download the app from Apple or Google Store via the following links.

Download on the App Store
Download on the Play Store

Latest news

Find of the Month

NCMD Member, Paul M, entered this very interesting Roman Bird statue into last months Finds Competition. Potentially a religious artefact which may have been a staff terminal or finial. While it wasn’t the overall winner in last month’s Finds Competition, it created a very interesting conversation between the judges. One judge said this reminded them of an old story told by grandparents about the Crow and the Pitcher. On further investigation it was amazing to see that this was a

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13 May 2026 No Comments

March 2026 Finds Competition Winners

Congratulations to the winners of March’s Find Competition. There were some fabulous entries again, which makes it a very tough choice every month for the judges. Winning Finds below, along with a selection of other entries the judges thought worthy of a mention. Well done everyone! There’s still time to enter April’s competition which is open until midnight on 30th. So get your finds in and you could be a our next winner. Enter via the Members area of the

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22 April 2026 No Comments

Planning Review Proposal

For some years, the NCMD has been pushing for a metal detecting survey to become part of the planning process. With the technology we now have in place, we could ensure that all land that is earmarked for construction could have a detecting survey carried out by our members. This would ensure that artefacts and treasure items are retrieved and saved for posterity rather than being buried under concrete and lost forever as is currently the case. During our recent

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16 April 2026 No Comments

PAS FEBRUARY UPDATE

Extracts from the report. The shortest month of the year saw a steady number of finds for recording and Treasure for reporting with the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Thank you to all of the finders for coming forward with their discoveries in February. This is a broad overview of the Scheme’s work on finds recording and treasure processing in the past month, with a few additional highlights. As usual there were many more activities going on around the country. There were

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28 March 2026 No Comments

February 2026 Finds Competition Winners

Congratulations to the winners of February’s Find Competition. Yet another tough round of judging, all of the entries were fabulous as always. Winning finds below along with a selection of other entries the judges thought worthy of a mention. Well done everyone! There’s still time to enter March’s competition which is open until 31st. So get your finds in and you could be a our next winner. Enter via the Members area of the website or through the NCMD mobile

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18 March 2026 No Comments

Self Recording – What is it?

You may have heard of self recording and wondered what it was, or even how you could become a self recorder yourself. We featured Emma Youell in our last Digging Deep, talking about why she does it and how she got involved. How did you become a self-recorder?When I first became a detectorist in 2014, I found some Roman and hammered coins. I was told to take them to the FLO, and they could record them onto the Portable Antiquities

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26 February 2026 No Comments