I always fancied having a go at this when living in the UK.You often see folks out in the country digging up tracks and lanes and finding God knows what. Here I walk the dog all over the place like up at the old Roman ruins around Rorbas and along the rivers Toss and Rhine.I have never seen anyone with a detector and think as some of these pathways are yonks old there must be stuff to find. Anyone know anything about this here? I have never seen a detector for sale or anyone using one.
I guess there are some rules somewhere that says you cant do it - however I need a hobby....

Unfortunately this hobby involved digging up the ground to retrieve the trove.

Now, while many Swiss authorities devote their lives to turning the top soil of the land, taming rivers, leveling the slightest bumps and generally neatening up what nature left untidy, I fancy a dim view would be taken of just anyone, without suitable permission and the paperwork to prove it, digging holes where they though ancient coins lay.

A hobby? Stamp collecting would be much more suitable...

ah stamp collecting - now there's a mans hobby.
you live on the edge eh AbFab

More seriously, there are always issues of whom what you find belongs to (same problem in the UK) and ancient artefacts are often claimed by the state as "national treasures".

Take up a proper Swiss hobby, like shooting

Or hornussen!

http://www.ncmd.co.uk/law.html

Here is all the info i could find in english

Click on the link to Switzerland

I believe that remains of ancient cultures should only dug up by prober archaeologists. If you just randomly dig up things, everywhere you suspect metal, you actually destroy the archaeologically evidence that might be there. Even more important than the artefacts are the exact circumstances of their finding. Without a profound knowledge of archaeology one is simply not able to do this.

Kind of appropriate to refer to archaeology in thread dug up from the grave...

That's "funny" how governments have the right to take property of everything, including something thousand years old, something that was private, etc...

PS: I care for the historical and archaeological side of the finding, but government only care for value... Well someone needs to pay for their expense, isn't?

I don't think that is true. Most of the stuff ends up in museums and schools. It's the individuals who only care about the value. They also don't care too much about whether they are causing damage to a site or not.