Rod Blunt - Identification team member

Rod's speciality is coins. He first became interested in them while at secondary school, and has retained his enthusiasm ever since. During the intervening period of more than forty-five years, he has gained an in-depth knowledge of the many types of coin that have circulated in Britain since the Roman occupation. He also has a basic knowledge of many European issues. During the late 1960s, due to impending decimalisation, modern coins, which Rod was collecting at the time, became prohibitively expensive. He therefore decided to take up metal detecting as an alternative way of adding to his collection! Although it didn't quite work out that way, Rod has been practising the hobby ever since. He is a passionate supporter, who believes very strongly that metal detecting contributes significantly to our understanding of the past. Rod qualified as a chartered engineer in the early 1970s and pursued a career in engineering management. He is now semi-retired.

Gary Brun- Webmaster team

Gary is the proud father of two children, and has two horses, a dog, two cats, two rats and a mother-in-law - all in the same house on his little farm in Norway! A firm believer in recording, Gary has supported the PAS and its work throughout the detecting industry, and has used his influence to promote responsible detecting. With a fifteen-year background in event management and the hospitality industry, he has been working with Internet-based technology for many years. He was the developer of the first detecting-related phpBB2 forum, and his contribution was fundamental to the establishment and operation of most of the major detecting forums on the UK detecting scene. Gary runs one of the largest detecting forums on the Internet today, and he is also a director of a web development company and a trans-Atlantic turnkey production company.

Gordon Heritage - Webmaster team

Gordon is married with two children and has been a keen detectorist since the mid 1970's, finding many important finds. Working closely with the archaeological community, through the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, he discovered many new archaeological sites. Notable amongst these were the Wavendon Gate Roman Settlement and Shenley Wood Kiln. He was also the co-finder of the Croughton Mosaic and Villa Complex. His interest in finds tends to lean towards artefacts rather than coins, and in particular he likes finding artefacts from the Anglo-Saxon period. Gordon is a self-employed engineer and, since 1984, has run a small refrigeration business with his wife. He is also a partner of a web development company, Cybernetuk.co.uk Ltd, where he builds database-driven web sites. The experience and knowledge he has gained have proven invaluable for maintaining several large metal-detecting forums, and while building UKDFD.

Peter is married to Sarah and has a son, Philip. Peter has been detecting in the UK for the last twenty-five years, and in recent times he has been a member of the team that runs the vibrant and cutting edge detecting forum, UKDetectornet. Peter's main interests are with buckles and medieval fixtures and fittings. Among his best finds to date must be some rare Anglo-Saxon scales and a gold stater of the Durotriges. Peter also has a passion for the future direction and goals of detecting in the UK, and is an active member of the UKDN liaison team.

Nigel is married, has four children and spends most of his spare time detecting with his two boys. He started detecting in 1977 at the age of twelve, and this led to an interest in collecting ancient coins and artefacts, many of which he has found himself. Nigel loves the challenge of identifying coins and tokens placed on various forums by other metal-detecting enthusiasts.

Dean has been an enthusiastic metal detectorist for the last twenty years. During that time he has made quite a number of important finds, including the discovery of many previously unknown archaeological sites. He has carried out over fifty metal detector surveys for various archaeological departments across the UK, and has an excellent all-round knowledge relating to the hobby of metal detecting. Having always worked in the construction industry, he recently built his own house, which is where he now lives with Sarah and their five-year-old daughter Leah.

Chris has been detecting since the 1990's. His background is the print and graphic design industry, in which he ran his own business for seventeen years. He has also worked across the world as an underwater photographer. His love of photography has translated well to the photography of coins and artefacts, and proved very useful for recording purposes. Chris is married to Ann-Marie, who is not only his wife, but his detecting partner.