Artefacts found during archaeological fieldwork are the objects most favoured by academic research. Private collections on the other hand, of which many exist and which may contain large numbers of artefacts, are mostly disregarded. These overlooked objects are often retrieved by people looking for artefacts in agrarian fields or in construction yards. Their private collections carry considerable value for archaeological and heritage research, but have never been systematically documented. They are therefore hardly known within professional circles in the Netherlands. The central aim of PAN (Portable Antiquities of the Netherlands) is to document and publish archaeological finds in private ownership online, particularly metal artefacts found by metal detector users. PAN makes information about these objects and their find locations available for a variety of stakeholders, significantly increasing the amount of archaeological artefacts that can be used for research and for the creation of object distribution maps in the Netherlands, which are an important research tool for archaeologists.