A topic of concern to all world and ancient coin collectors

swhuck

The US Cultural Property Advisory Committee of the State Department advises the President on the imposition of import restrictions on cultural artifacts. Since 1998, the coin collecting community has been able to argue successfully against the imposition of import restrictions on coins. Now, after being assured that coins would "not be on the table" with respect to the renewal of current import restrictions on a wide variety of cultural goods of potential Cypriot origin, we have learned that Cyprus has made a last minute request to add coins older than 250 years to the current restrictions.

This request is significant. If granted, it will make it very difficult, if not impossible, to import any coin on the designated list, including many Greek, Roman, Medieval or Early Modern coins of a type that circulated in Cyprus. Even worse, it would be an adverse precedent that could easily be repeated for other Greek, Roman, Medieval or Early Modern coins known to have circulated elsewhere. That would make for a fundamental change in the coin trade — one that could very well make shows like the New York International and participation in foreign auctions a thing of the past.

Due to complaints from IAPN and PNG, the major numismatic trade associations, CPAC has reopened the record for additional comment on this issue — but only for a very limited time.

Comments must be received no later than 5 PM on Monday, 6 February 2007. Please send all comments by e-mail or fax only to:

Cultural Property Advisory Committee
Cultural Heritage Center
US Department of State
E-mail: culprop@state.gov
Fax: (202) 453-8803

For more information, see the CPAC web site at: http://exchanges.state.gov/culprop/whatsnew.html

We have attached a sample letter for your convenience.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Mr. Jay I. Kislak
Chairman
Cultural Property Advisory Committee
United States Department of State
Room 334
301 4th St., SW
Washington, DC 20547


Re: Renewal of MOU with Republic of Cyprus and Possible Inclusion of Coins

Dear Mr. Kislak:

I am writing to oppose any effort to impose import restrictions on coins. Ancient coins struck on the island of Cyprus are common, with many thousands of examples known to exist. They have been collected for centuries, initially in Europe and later also in the United States, Canada and other nations with a significant European heritage. There are so many ancient Cypriot coins that they cannot all be adequately studied or preserved by academics and museums. Thus, without the dedication and efforts of collectors and dealers, both numismatic research and preservation of these interesting economic tokens from the past would be neglected.

Another important reason for opposing these restrictions is the practical difficulty of determining the origin of coins. Although Cyprus maintains that all coins from Cypriot mints belong to Cyprus, this is not valid. Under the law, only coins discovered on Cypriot soil are considered to be of Cypriot origin. Unfortunately, it is almost always impossible to determine the place of discovery of a coin by examining it.

Please ensure that American numismatists will be able to continue to collect and import Cypriot coins just as their Cypriot counterparts do. No good reason can be advanced to depart from CPAC's prior recommendation against imposing import restrictions on coins of potential Cypriot origin, particularly given the grave harm that imposing import restrictions would cause to collectors and individuals legitimately dealing in and collecting ancient coins.

Sincerely,

laurentyvan

Good post!

I've got a strong feeling that despite any initial legislation passed, ultimately things will go back to normal for numismatists.

The practice of coin collecting and its methodology is too well-established to fall permanent prey to the political "flavors du jour".

STLNATS

things will go back to normal for numismatists

I'm not sure that I agree. While somewhat apples and oranges, a number of museums are being raided on the basis of a "return of cultural items," the Getty on the one hand and the aggressive return of mummies and other artifact by Egypt being two recent cases that I'm aware of. I think that there's a lot of risk here once the camel's nose in under the tent and we may well find our supply drying up rather quickly especially in terms of ancients and medieval coins. In any case, I hope you're more right than me.