Is it illegal to import Russian coins into the US? (Customs trouble)

I recently purchased $5k worth of coin lots from the German auctioneer Kuenker. The vast majority of the coins were ancient ones, but I randomly (and apparently stupidly) decided to bid on a couple of Russian roubles from the 1800s. Kuenker listed each individual lot on their customs form and Fedex flagged the shipment during customs as having coins from Russia. Now they're asking me whether I want to A) purchase a "surety bond", B) have the package transferred to another customs broker or C) have the package returned to the sender. I'm inclined to purchase the surety bond as I think the price is $50, though I honestly have no idea what the consequences of doing that will be.

Any advice here? Is the U.S. government going to come after me if I try to complete the import of these coins?

 

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I heard Russian gold (coins included) was prohibited since mid 2022, but I have never heard of normal coinage being subject to the same rule.

 

It’s customs so it’s probably the 5 grand that’s the holdup. Customs are weird.

 

I would have to request Option:

D) Just send me my damn coins!

 

2 definitions:

How do surety bonds work?


How does a surety bond work? At its simplest, a surety bond requires the surety to pay a set amount of money to the obligee if a principal fails to perform a contractual obligation. Obligees are frequently government agencies, but commercial and professional parties can also use surety bonds.Aug 15, 2022

In finance, a surety, surety bond or guaranty involves a promise by one party to assume responsibility for the debt obligation of a borrower if that borrower defaults.

I think it is protecting the middle guy. If you keep the purchase, you should get it back I believe, If you refuse it or returns it, he keeps it for his troubles to return it.

taken from the internet, so be careful. Jim

 

Get your money back. the more words they talk, the more they are holding your coins and money. no the us dont care about 5k till later, your lucky if you see your money at this point.

 

I did end up trying to purchase the surety bond, only for Fedex to tell me they needed the name and address and zip code of the "manufacturer" of those coins. Both I and the Kuenker shipping department tried to tell the Fedex associate that these were coins produced in 1800s Russia and that no address was available for the manufacturer.

But the associate didn't care to listen/understand that these were antique items, and rejected our answers and sent the package back to Germany (at my expense), where it's now apparently been stuck in customs for the past two weeks. I've asked Kuenker how they intend to get this package to me, and they suggested sending it through Fedex again. But they said they will still need to include the full invoice list on the customs form, which will include the word "Russia" and I'm sure the package will end up getting flagged again. Very frustrating!

 

Customs can really jam you up if they want to. I had an English coin from a London dealer hung up for a while. I finally got it, but they nicked me another $50 for something. I thought that antiques, which this one was, since it was minted in the 1400s, were not subject to those taxes.

When I ordered a group of three gold British sovereigns for King Charles from the Royal Mint, there were no problems at all. I guess the government agencies have things set up so so that their customers don't have problems.

 

I don't know about coins from Russia but I bought jewellery for my Mom from India and China and I received them no problem.

 

If they send it again.
Can you put down something like unrepairable cufflinks.
Custom manufactured or just put Smithfield?

How about putting Prussia instead of Russia?

 

Call it as it is historically and officially recognized for the 19th century:

Imperial Russia.
Russian Empire.
Tsarist Empire.

Manufacture locations for silver Rubles:
Suzun.
Georgia.
Poland.
And....some of the debased pieces... Turkey and France.

I know some stuff.

No rubles in 19th century...only Thaler.

I know some other stuff, too.

 

What difference does a day make the problem I see...Kuenker listed each individual lot on their customs form.
TMI

 

The auction house should be able to simply write collectible coins (preface with gold or silver if that is the case) on the customs form along with the value. They can include an invoice behind the customs form too. In my experience, customs cares only about what’s generally in the package and the value. If it’s worth more than a certain amount, they’ll want to collect duty. When customs wants duty, I’ve gotten an email from the carrier asking if I want them to pay it and then bill my account (and add a service fee, of course). If you don’t have an account with the carrier, they’ll want a credit card number to charge you.

If necessary, the auction house can reword the invoice to avoid “Russia”. They can simply list coins by lot numbers or list by mint city without mentioning the country or just as “East European”. All sorts of ways to be creative. If "Russia" is toxic but doesn't appear in the paperwork, few customs agents will have the motivation to investigate the descriptions that are there to see if the coins are Russian.

Cal

 

I tried, I really tried, but, I can't understand your premise. God knows I am sorry, though

 

I suggested something along these lines to Kuenker, so we'll see what happens.

Yeah, I may be incorrect but I believe that most of the other European auction houses I've purchased from (Roma, Naville, Leu, Noonan's, and others) do not provide a fully itemized list on their customs forms.

 

Don't itemize coins on a customs list! Customs agents do not know how to interpret it correctly and it will only confuse them into doing something stupid. The word "coins" really gets people's attention since they think you're trying to get around restrictions for transferring money. For purposes of customs these are collectibles and they do not need to be concerned about what the collectibles are.

 

It's funny how drugs are free flowing across the southern border but a Russian coin from the 1800s in a mixed lot of ancients!? That sets off alarms and panic. Thank goodness there was a government worker on duty to nip that in the bud before there was harm.

 

In this case the package didn't even make it to US customs. Fedex, acting as the customs broker, preemptively decided that they needed manufacturer's info on the coin because of the word "Russian" before they even sent it for customs processing. And when the shipper wasn't able to provide that, they sent the package back to Germany.

 

Maybe you can ask European NGC office in Munich, how they declare the coins.
I'm in Europe and my NGC dealer told me that if i ever want to slab Russian gold coins, i need to give him some invoice to prove that the coin was in European Union before 1st July 2022. Then if my dealer submits the coins to NGC office, he will give the invoice (or copy of the invoice) with the coin to NGC and then the NGC takes care of customs declarations and so on.
Also, (i dont know if it would work, but worth trying i think), if you are NGC client, then maybe you can ask Künker to send the coin to European NGC on behalf of you and then NGC will later send the slabed coin to you.