eBay is now banning Cuban coins

I tried to relist a Cuban coin today and got this message:

Listings for stamps, coins or paper money from Cuba are not permitted. eBay’s policy prohibits the sale of most items that originate from Cuba due to sanctions enforced by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). If you list such an item in violation of this policy, we will remove the item and may prohibit you from further use of our services.
More information on the specific items covered by the sanctions related to Cuba can be found here:
http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/pages/cuba.aspx
eBay’s policy on Embargoed Goods and Prohibited Countries can be found here:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/embargo.html



I checked on the coins message board on eBay and other people were reporting this too. I've sold Cuban coins for months without any problems. Is this the most ridiculous thing or what?

 

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These are the countries on the eBay embargo list. I wonder if coins from the others are banned now? I don't have any to sell or I'd check.

• Burma (Myanmar)
  
  
• Cuba
  
  
• Iran
  
  
• North Korea
  
  
• Sudan
  
  
• Syria
  
  

 

Awwwww I guess Martian coins will be next on thier list.

 

Is it possible that this has something to do with North Korea?

Chris

 

So do these banned countries apply to only their modern coinage? As an example, its one thing to ban coins from Iran from 1979 on, or Cuba from 1960 on, but quite another to ban ALL. For Iran, that would go back 2500 years.

 

Was it called Iran 2500 years ago?

Chris (too)

 

The coin I was listing was from 1920. It seems to just scan for the keyword "Cuba." I took all mentions of Cuba out and relisted in the general "other" category, but it will be a lot harder to sell if no one can find it by keyword search.

 

They have always called their homeland eran, aryan, or iran. Others have called their country differently, but not themselves.

 

This doesn't make sense for many reasons. The embargo has been in place since the 1960s - did eBay just learn about it? Also, it is meant to keep Cuba from exporting things to the U.S. Obviously collectible coins are different from cigars. eBay has probably been around for 15 years now. I don't understand why this is suddenly an issue.

 

I have coins from all those countries.

What a silly policy. I'm glad other parts of the internet are not so short sighted and I can buy those lovely ABC peso elsewhere.

 

darn it. I like cuban star coins too. :scratch:

 

1592 items in World Coins/Cuba category, with newest listed items from 10 hours ago. Also there is a seller in my watch list with a lot of Iran and Syria coins, no changes there, his lots are up. This is weird, unless this is a new policy from yesterday and it haven't been fully deployed yet.

 

Guess I'll have to buy all my Cuban coins, along with any replicas "to make my collection more perfect", on Aliexpress. They don't ban anything.

 

Dumb policy - I might as well get them elsewhere. Combining with higher fees, having a list of what you can't sell etc, ebay might as well start boxing themselves in.

 

List your coins from Quba, and if challenged, tell eBay that's a little island in the Florida Straits occupied by anti-Castro Qubans who provide food and water and repairs to escaping rafters (do they still do that?). They also get a coupon for Mel Fisher's Treasure Museum in Key West.

 

Let me shed some light on this...as my neighbor works for the U.S. State Department. Now back in 2004 my neighbor was sent to Cuba for 4 years as a duty station as a diplomat. The U.S. has no embassy in Cuba nor does Cuba here in the U.S. There is what is called the U.S. interest section in Cuba in the Swiss embassy ,as there is a Cuban interest section in the Swiss embassy in Washington D.C.
My neighbor invited my wife and I to visit them in Cuba. Now I was so excited to visit Cuba because I have traveled all thought the Caribbean from my college days to present... making land fall on just about ever island and country there other than Cuba.
Now what happen next is just how things work in the world of politics and relations between Cuba and the United States.
My friend invited us and we did our part to get all the ducks in a row to visit them in Havana. He did the paper work got us a state dept. license to make the trip. The wife and I filled out all the paper work and purchased Money orders to pay for the visa's . The next step was an interview at the Swiss embassy in Washington D.C. with the Cuban interest section.
We scheduled a interview sent in our paper work and payment for the visa's
A few days later we receive the money orders back from the Cubans stating that the amount was not the correct amount to pay for our visa's.
The letter was only two sentences long in Spanish of course....Now at this time we had our Vacation time scheduled off and ready to wrap this process up.. .. My friend and wife only contact to me was from the Swiss embassy in Havana as there is no Internet service in Cuba in private homes.
The Cubans believed I was CIA and were making it hard for my wife and I to obtain a visa. Unable to get in contact with our friends in Havana we decided to book a cruise so we would not waste our time off in case the trip fell thought. We had already purchased air fare to Miami as we were to fly to Miami and then from there to Havana. The cost of the 90 mile flight is $450.00 usd paid in cash at the air port.
We booked a cruise paid cash for it as again we did not want to loose our time off. Later my friend worked out all the issues and got us clearance to make the Cuba trip.
Since we had booked the cruise and paid in full we were locked into that trip, never making it to Cuba.
It seems this is a game played by both the Cubans and the U.S. for many decades now! A kind of tit for tat game of politics. I do know at different time both governments try to strong arm the other for what ever reasons. My neighbor has told us at different times the State Dept. comes down on buying and selling Cuban items{ IE Cigars, Rum , coffee or just goods in general} When we received our license we were told we could only bring back $100 USD worth of goods from Cuba.
I know my friend has told me even him and his wife have had items taken from them in US customs that most times would of just passed thru no questions asked. He also told me a story of a trip he and another couple made back to Miami for a little R&R ....and his friend had a bucket of KFC trying to bring it back into Cuba and had done so before. ....but was relieved of the chicken at the Cuban Customs.
So now for some reason at this time the U.S. State dept has decided to put a stronger restrictions against the buying and selling of Cuban goods on E bay. I have seen this done before traveling in and out of the country customs being asked about goods as cigars rum etc..... I do know that there are several issues that both governments are now in a dead lock over...one being a man from Maryland whom has been held in Cuba over a spy charge. When in fact he was on a mission for the Jewish community in Cuba. I also have a Dentist friend whom has made many trips to Cuba and held for bringing in Bibles and larger sums of cash for his Baptist mission.
One must also understand in Cuba there are no credit cards "Nada" Cash is king or you trade one item for another. IE I have a pig you need a pig ....I need two gallons of petrol.....for my pig.
With out getting political I just like to say it's time for both Cuba and the U.S. to grow up and get over it! Both countries could benefit on an open door policy.

 

That's very odd. I guess I'm glad I found this one on eBay and it arrived last week. :scratch: