i didn't realize there was a fight to prevent Ancient coin collecting. if I wanted to collect Cracker Jacks who could stop me except the Cracker Jack people? Dave
Here's my impression of what's going on. I'm not a legal expert. @Sallent could write this better. Any of my fellow forum members are welcome to correct me or add to my definition: "These actions are a result of the looting of artifacts from the museums in Baghdad during the Iraq War to be sold on the black market. It's a byproduct of the attempt by the cultural preservationists (who I hold no hostility toward) to restore and prevent the trafficking of stolen art and archeological treasures. Unfortunately ancient coins tend to fall under the category of ancient treasures. We need to be cognizant of the pedigree of our coins and not purchase from dealers who we may suspect of unscrupulousness." The VCOINS Code of Ethics should be observed!
The US has signed agreements with several countries now restricting the rights of collectors within the US with respect to the import of certain types of ancient coinage, for instance early Roman and Italian coins and certain types of Greek coins. Most recently an agreement was signed restricting the importation of all Egyptian coins up to those minted under the Roman emperor Diocletian. These agreements are drafted and approved by an unelected group known as CPAC who have shown a complete disregard for the voices of private collectors and instead seem to be completely on the side of the militant anti-collecting faction of the archaeological lobby. This is why we need the ACCG. They are our biggest voice in this fight and the opposition has shown that their goal is to eliminate or heavily restrict private collecting of ancient coins.
This movement started in source countries, many of which have draconian laws against their citizens trading cultural artifacts. In these countries, even an innocent farmer who ploughs-up an artifact in his/her field must turn it over to the government for no compensation. In effect, these countries don't recognize private ownership of cultural artifacts, and they offer no incentive for their citizens to come forward with finds. Of course, enforcing these laws takes money and manpower. These source countries can't afford to enforce these draconian laws within their own borders. Instead, they ask the U.S. State Department, via Memoranda of Understanding, to broadly ban import of all items of "cultural significance", even ancient coins which were minted in the millions and are regularly found in tbe thousands. The U.S. complies with these requests, probably for favors (i.e. military bases); and the archaeological lobby fights in favor of them largely, I'm convinced, for financial reasons - access to excavation permits, control of what comes out of the ground (bragging rights) and paychecks to dig. That's what we're up against, and we need a unified voice or we'll be ignored. The ACCG provides this voice.
As an example of how this sort of thing should be handled, take a look at the PAS system in the UK. Most finds are recorded and then allowed to enter private collections or the market while the most important finds are purchased from the finders and landowners by the state. Because of this, amateurs have little reason not to report finds and there are a steady stream of finds entering the market with recorded find spots and even more importantly, details of hoards and finds are regularly recorded and published and accordingly the UK government is not asking the US or other countries to enforce their laws. This used to be the case in places like Italy but is not any more because of possible legal repercussions. These militant archaeological types, and I stress that this is a tiny number, would rather this information be lost for good than work with collectors. Whereas in the 90s and earlier one often saw hoard reports of hoards found "in commerce" or otherwise not strictly from organized excavations, and much of our knowledge of the dating of some types comes from these types of reports(look up the Mesagne hoard), this is very rarely the case anymore.
