Options
Do you ever pick up a few coins when you are abroad? Beware ...
DMWJR
Posts: 6,024 ✭✭✭✭✭
I find this story incredible ... When abroad, I have been known to pick up a coin or two even though I don't regularly collect foreign or ancient coins.
Miss. woman tried to smuggle 256 coins, Macedonian authorities say
10:37 PM, Oct 22, 2012
http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20121023/NEWS/310220030/Miss-woman-tried-smuggle-256-coins-Macedonian-authorities-say
Miss. woman tried to smuggle 256 coins, Macedonian authorities say
Macedonian authorities say they seized 256 coins, two lead seals, two pendants and a ceramic vessel from Meridian nurse practitioner and medical missionary Candi Dunlap, detained in a Skopje, Macedonia, jail since Sept. 28 on charges she attempted to smuggle historical artifacts out of the country.
The coins are described as “priceless” in a Saturday story carried on the website of the Macedonian International News Agency. “On the black market, such coins may easily fetch millions,” the story at the website www.macedoniaonline.eu says.
Mission trip members say the coins were given to Dunlap as a gift by a Macedonian citizen, and that she had no idea of their worth or that they were not to be transported. She was arrested as the medical mission team from Meridian’s Fifteenth Avenue Baptist Church was departing the country to return home.
“Today at the Skopje Alexander the Great airport, the customs officers prevented an attempt for illicit export of a significant quantity of archaeological objects,” a Sept. 28 post on the Macedonian Customs website says.
“The X-ray control of the personal luggage of an American citizen, who was to depart to Vienna, resulted in detection of objects, supposed to be of archaeological worth,” the website says. “The Airport Service called customs officers for control of the baggage. The detailed customs control resulted in detection of 262 artifacts wrapped in paper and concealed in the bottom of a rucksack. …”
The confiscated items also include a stoup, which appears to be a small clay pot. Photographs of the confiscated coins and other items are on the Macedonian Customs website. “The found objects will be handed to expertise to the Cultural Heritage Protection Office,” the website’s translation to English says.
The Macedonian Customs report can be viewed www.tinyurl.com/customsreport.
A judge was supposed to rule Friday on Dunlap’s fate after holding a trial Oct. 15, but the judge on Friday said she was delaying her ruling until Wednesday.
The Macedonian Customs site did not describe or name any of the coins. Photos of the coins on the Customs website are too small to see any inscriptions or designs on the coins.
The Macedonian International News Agency’s report, headlined “Americans frequently caught smuggling antiquities out of Macedonia,” implies Dunlap is guilty of a crime, rather than innocent until proven guilty. It misspells her name as Dunlop.
“Mrs. Dunlop is awaiting trial on Wednesday. If she does not confess where she obtained or who gave her the coins, she may stay in Macedonia for an extended period,” the story on the website says.
Two Americans who previously were detained for trying to take valuables out of the country “quickly confessed their guilt, while Mrs. Dunlop maintained the coins were simply a gift from an unnamed Macedonian citizen,” the Macedonian news story says. “Although Macedonians are famous for their hospitality, there are hardly any Macedonians who give up national treasures worth in the millions as a ‘gift.’ ”
Dunlap is a staff member at Oktibbeha County Hospital in Starkville. Her friends have created a “Prayers for Candi” Facebook page to post updates on her status, and her husband Marc Dunlap remains in Macedonia, where he has hired an attorney. He has not been allowed to visit his wife in jail but was able to communicate with her and sit near her during her Oct. 15 trial.
Her friends and supporters around the country are keeping a constant prayer vigil.
“We are all so blessed to have another day of freedom, another day to go to work, shop, eat out and play with our children,” her Facebook page said Monday. “A freedom that Candi does not have at this moment. … As you go about your day today, please take a moment to say a prayer for Candi and for Marc and to lift them up to our Savior, who has complete control of this situation.”
The offices of 3rd District Rep. Gregg Harper and Sen. Thad Cochran have been keeping tabs on her detainment and conditions under which she is being held. Representatives of the U.S. Embassy in Macedonia have been able to visit Candi Dunlap to ensure she is being treated fairly and that her prison conditions are adequate. Marc Dunlap also has been able to deliver food and clothing for his wife to her jail cell.
A petition drive asking for her release was begun Saturday on the website www.whitehouse.gov. “We petition the Obama administration to help free humanitarian Candi Dunlap from Macedonian jail,” it reads.
“Please get involved and make the president aware,” the site says. As of Monday afternoon, it had gathered more than 600 electronic signatures, with a site goal of 25,000 by Nov. 18.
Miss. woman tried to smuggle 256 coins, Macedonian authorities say
10:37 PM, Oct 22, 2012
http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20121023/NEWS/310220030/Miss-woman-tried-smuggle-256-coins-Macedonian-authorities-say
Miss. woman tried to smuggle 256 coins, Macedonian authorities say
Macedonian authorities say they seized 256 coins, two lead seals, two pendants and a ceramic vessel from Meridian nurse practitioner and medical missionary Candi Dunlap, detained in a Skopje, Macedonia, jail since Sept. 28 on charges she attempted to smuggle historical artifacts out of the country.
The coins are described as “priceless” in a Saturday story carried on the website of the Macedonian International News Agency. “On the black market, such coins may easily fetch millions,” the story at the website www.macedoniaonline.eu says.
Mission trip members say the coins were given to Dunlap as a gift by a Macedonian citizen, and that she had no idea of their worth or that they were not to be transported. She was arrested as the medical mission team from Meridian’s Fifteenth Avenue Baptist Church was departing the country to return home.
“Today at the Skopje Alexander the Great airport, the customs officers prevented an attempt for illicit export of a significant quantity of archaeological objects,” a Sept. 28 post on the Macedonian Customs website says.
“The X-ray control of the personal luggage of an American citizen, who was to depart to Vienna, resulted in detection of objects, supposed to be of archaeological worth,” the website says. “The Airport Service called customs officers for control of the baggage. The detailed customs control resulted in detection of 262 artifacts wrapped in paper and concealed in the bottom of a rucksack. …”
The confiscated items also include a stoup, which appears to be a small clay pot. Photographs of the confiscated coins and other items are on the Macedonian Customs website. “The found objects will be handed to expertise to the Cultural Heritage Protection Office,” the website’s translation to English says.
The Macedonian Customs report can be viewed www.tinyurl.com/customsreport.
A judge was supposed to rule Friday on Dunlap’s fate after holding a trial Oct. 15, but the judge on Friday said she was delaying her ruling until Wednesday.
The Macedonian Customs site did not describe or name any of the coins. Photos of the coins on the Customs website are too small to see any inscriptions or designs on the coins.
The Macedonian International News Agency’s report, headlined “Americans frequently caught smuggling antiquities out of Macedonia,” implies Dunlap is guilty of a crime, rather than innocent until proven guilty. It misspells her name as Dunlop.
“Mrs. Dunlop is awaiting trial on Wednesday. If she does not confess where she obtained or who gave her the coins, she may stay in Macedonia for an extended period,” the story on the website says.
Two Americans who previously were detained for trying to take valuables out of the country “quickly confessed their guilt, while Mrs. Dunlop maintained the coins were simply a gift from an unnamed Macedonian citizen,” the Macedonian news story says. “Although Macedonians are famous for their hospitality, there are hardly any Macedonians who give up national treasures worth in the millions as a ‘gift.’ ”
Dunlap is a staff member at Oktibbeha County Hospital in Starkville. Her friends have created a “Prayers for Candi” Facebook page to post updates on her status, and her husband Marc Dunlap remains in Macedonia, where he has hired an attorney. He has not been allowed to visit his wife in jail but was able to communicate with her and sit near her during her Oct. 15 trial.
Her friends and supporters around the country are keeping a constant prayer vigil.
“We are all so blessed to have another day of freedom, another day to go to work, shop, eat out and play with our children,” her Facebook page said Monday. “A freedom that Candi does not have at this moment. … As you go about your day today, please take a moment to say a prayer for Candi and for Marc and to lift them up to our Savior, who has complete control of this situation.”
The offices of 3rd District Rep. Gregg Harper and Sen. Thad Cochran have been keeping tabs on her detainment and conditions under which she is being held. Representatives of the U.S. Embassy in Macedonia have been able to visit Candi Dunlap to ensure she is being treated fairly and that her prison conditions are adequate. Marc Dunlap also has been able to deliver food and clothing for his wife to her jail cell.
A petition drive asking for her release was begun Saturday on the website www.whitehouse.gov. “We petition the Obama administration to help free humanitarian Candi Dunlap from Macedonian jail,” it reads.
“Please get involved and make the president aware,” the site says. As of Monday afternoon, it had gathered more than 600 electronic signatures, with a site goal of 25,000 by Nov. 18.
Doug
0
Comments
seems this lady knew what she was doing and had hoped to get the coins back to the US and sell them, gee odd how greed will trip one up
graded coins for sale at link below
**https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipOutxztCrLF3f6gx-pluXusTHQUz3G-5s6AEoEF **
Authorized dealer for PCGS, PCGS Currency, NGC, NCS, PMG, CAC. Member of the PNG, ANA. Member dealer of CoinPlex and CCE/FACTS as "CH5"
<< <i>Apples and Orchards >>
Indeed. This is far from a case of "oh I got these coins from some guy and I really didn't know better!" The woman is playing dumb in all this. Her current story/situation isn't believable, but could still be much better than the truth. I think there is a good chance she knew exactly what she was into when she tried to leave the country with those items. She may just have been a mule, but she knew.
<< <i>Why won't she simply give up the name of who gave them to her ? I wonder how many previous trips she'd been. >>
Exactly. If it were an "honest mistake" she'd have given up the person right off the bat.