Mike Bonser

Numismatist Mike Bonser died on March 1st after a long battle against illness. He made a huge contribution to Early Medieval numismatics. Slightly more controversial was his collaboration with artefact hunters to "get the object recorded". Driven by his artefact-centric approach he was concerned to "bridge the divide between detectorists and academics, ensuring that finds from productive sites were disclosed and facilitating the establishment of the PAS". Here is the text of a citation by the  British Numismatic Society  at the time they awarded Michael Bonser with a Jeffrey North Medal for Services to British Numismatics at its November 2008 meeting:

Since the early 1980s, when metal detecting was still a new development, Mike has played a leading role in liaising with local clubs and gathering data on new finds. He recorded no fewer than 70 Anglo-Saxon and Norman coins in the first year alone, and published his findings first in Treasure Hunting and later The Searcher. In 1984 (with Dr Mark Blackburn) he published the first of three important articles on these finds in the BNJ, which later developed into Coin Register. Mike has continued to take an instrumental part in recording new coin finds, and over his 25 years of activity has recorded well over 2,000 coin finds and provided a critical link between the worlds of detectorists and professional academics.

I corresponded with him several years ago about some Anglo-Saxon coins which he had handled from metal detecting activity on a site I was working on. He was apparently unconcerned that the coins he'd recorded had come from the metal-detecting of a scheduled site. He refused to reveal the names of the finders, no investigation could be carried out, the individuals concerned were never charged, and the remote site continued to be looted. 

Note that while finds were "disclosed", the Blackburn and Bonser record does not always contain any decent findspot information.
 

Photo; Mike Bonser