I was looking at my coins and I noticed my Agrippa, Æ As. Agrippa. Struck under Caligula, 37-41 AD. M AGRIPPA L F COS III, head left wearing rostral crown / S-C, Neptune standing facing, head left, naked except for cloak draped behind him & over both arms, holding small dolphin in right hand & vertical trident in left. RIC 58 size 22mm I bought in 2016 on eBay from a dealer in Czechoslovakia, when it arrived on the outside of the envelope had pocket watch written on it, another envelope inside contained a tea light candle. I was ticked off, then finally I took the candle apart and underneath the candle was the coin wrapped up in foil, before i decided to take the candle apart it just about went in the trash. today i can not figure out why he shipped it that way. So if you get a strange shipment check before tossing!
Could be that he thought it was less likely to be "appropriated" if disguised, when it was x-rayed or scanned by the postal or shipping service.
There are fine lines between theft prevention, customs evasion and illicit trafficking. Proper declaration with tracking and insurance is the way to go.
Once bought a few medieval Hungarian coins from a seller in Hungary. Package had a CD of 1970s Muzak Greatest Hits; coins were wrapped in foil and taped in between the CD holder and the outer casing. The CD was a CD-R; I didn't even check if it actually had music on it - it definitely wasn't going anywhere near my computer!
Depends where the coin is being shipped from. If your transaction is legitimate it's sometimes best to give them as little information as possible. A coin might best be described as a souvenir or collectible. I call that being careful. Bruce
Best way to send rare coins across international borders is in a padded envelope as normal mail. This prevents theft/ customs fees. Wrapping the protective coin cardboard with foil/ makes success 100 percent. Writing "Gold coin" + "value" is asking for it to go MIA.
My international shipments tend to arrive in flat, padded envelopes and listed as “antique” or “numismatic collectible” or even “old coin”. I can understand the shippers trepidation with listing too much detail on customs forms.
