My impressions may be anecdotal and inaccurate, but it seems to me that I have received multiple international coin packages with their contents undervalued. For example, a 300 Euro coin might be shipped in an envelope with a declared value of 30 Euros. Is undervaluing done primarily to minimize the risk of someone in the postal chain slipping an expensive item into his or her pocket? Or does undervaluing affect insurance costs or import fees? I’ve never paid import fees, so I don’t even know how this works. Am I right to see undervaluing as a common practice?
I would ask you this, are you sure they are being undervalued ? Put another way, what makes you think the coin is worth 300 euros ?
If your impressions are "anecdotal and inaccurate" then so are mine. I have noticed the same thing. I think the reasons for it are also as you have stated. First, undervaluing the coin will affect the fees paid such as taxes (at least it has in my case where the coins are shipped out of country to Canada). Also, some will undervalue because there is less chance of the item being stolen. Under-declaring does open one up for an ethics check, but it is also understandable if done to avoid theft. One dealer I have dealt with deals with it in the following manner if the coin is of high value. The coin and the invoice are shipped separately. The value of the coin is under-declared in the envelope in which the coin ships, and the real value is listed on the separate invoice mailed separately. It is not wise to declare "Roman Gold coin" on a declaration form. As an aside, a few weeks ago I received an envelope from Frank Robinson, the same type of envelope he ships coins in. The envelope was sliced at the end and the contents removed. Luckily, this time the envelope only contained the auction list and not any coins from his auctions. Next time I might not be so lucky. I do not mind paying the appropriate taxes on my coins, it is part of the cost. However, if declaring in full means an increased chance of theft, I would rather that the full amount not be listed. It does pose an ethical dilemma however.
I had some complaints exporting especially from customers in Canada and the UK because I put a higher value than they paid. Not much, but what I felt was a reasonable insurance replacement. In those countries you have to pay a percentage of the declared value. Oops. I did a partial refund in both instances and now only declare what was paid.
I have seen coins that I bought at a reasonable market price be sent to me valued at a fraction of the paid amount. The price I paid was consistent with what I saw the coins going for in various sales contexts.
I had a coin shipped to me from the Netherlands in which the declared amount was 5 euros whereas the cost was around 40 euros. In another case, a coin shipped from Canada had no declared value. Since it took three weeks to arrive (shipped from Toronto) I was pretty sure the coin was lost, however it did show up eventually. In the case of uncleaned coins, I bought a hoard for $400 and the full amount was declared in British pounds on the exterior of the package.
Well, in the context of Gavin's question, the value of the coin means what he paid for it. I don't think it is a philosophical question
It makes both of those cheaper. There could be problems with the insurance if they find out it was undervalued, but most import fees are based off of the value with the greater the value the higher the fee
I live in the U.S. I have sold a coin to an international buyer only once. Because I had received coins regularly undervalued, I didn't quite know what to do on the CN22 customs declaration form. I didn't want to be unethical and undervalue the coin (sold for $145), but I didn't know if, for example, a higher import fee structure kicked in at a certain price point, like at $100. I didn't want the buyer to have to pay some big fee on a fairly modest purchase. I think I ended up valuing it at just under $100. So what are most European import fees like? 1% of the value? 10%? Some flat fee rate, like $5 / $100 of value?
Its been long time since I have used paper forms, but most procedures and regulations are still current since I have. As I recall there is an international exemption for taxes around $1400 or so (dont quote me on that!!!). The biggest difference between now now and then: in the old days customs forms were placed inside the package. Now they are printed on the label and on the outside of the package. This means that regardless of the value and tax status the value must be visible to anyone and everyone who looks at the package. This of course means that the package is vulnerable to theft base on what we declare. Many dealers will declare the value much less than the actual invoice amount, not because the are trying to avoid tax issues (there are none under the threshold, as per various countries regulations) but because the are trying to reduce the possibility of theft of the contents. I have seen many major auction houses declare the contents as '$0', but others as actual. I cant and wont advise anyone as to what they should do.
Throughout my career I have been faced with the same type of dilemma. How do you value ANYTHING??? 1) What happens if you WAY overpaid for a Coin. You Paid $1000 for a $100 coin? (Use any currency denomination). What Duties should you pay??? How should it be valued... You resell it for $100: do you value it at your $1000 paid price, so that you can show overpaid inventories??? 2) Some samples / prototypes sent to and from companies overseas... some are IRREPLACEABLE prototypes. How do you value that? Millions $? Thousands? 3) Product that you produced are shipped overseas as samples: are they valued at material costs? Fully loaded costs? Wholesale? Full Retail? 4) We can get bizarre: I built product using parts from a source factory overseas. Then I turned around and sent the COMPLETED product BACK to that factory overseas for them them to resell in THEIR markets. (yeah, I get all the value-added equations, etc. in valuing for customs. HOWEVER, there are an incredible amount of costing variables that are "unfairly" tariffed by customs. The complexity comes when you have SEVERAL sourced parts, reworked or value added, then sent out to several countries for THEIR morkets. What are the ethical and correct costs for customs duties? I FEEL that I know most of the answers for my own listed questions above, as I have dealt with them virtually daily. However, those answers may not be the same for other people and/or other situations. It seems case-by-case, and keeping within ethical business practaces and precedences that have been created. I have always erred on the side of caution. And, I have learned through GOOD experience, that wearing the "white-hat" in any dealings (personal or bidness), will ALWAYS be best in the end! (Yeah, with experiences in major law-suits.)
According to US Customs website https://www.cbp.gov/trade/basic-import-export/internet-purchases "Giving misleading or inaccurate information about the nature of the item and its value is illegal. And it is the importer - YOU - who could face legal action and fines for this violation!" It would be extremely awkward to face legal action because someone I barely know wanted to save me ten or twenty dollars.
in Canada the last time I bought something from fed ex,( a few years ago) I got charged about -35ish US dollars on a purchase that was around$65 dollars.. Canada post is usually better.. Supposedly everything over 20 dollars is supposed to have import fees, but Canada post rarely charges for things under $200 I hear..
And it's important to realize that rule applies to over-valued as well as under-valued. That's a part of what I was going to discuss further once I had an answer to my original question. But my primary point in asking the question was this. Over the years I have seen way, way, too many people who not only thought but were absolutely convinced that a coin was worth X dollars when in reality it was only worth some fraction of that. And I'm pretty sure that applies to ancient coins as well as it does to US Coins, world coins, modern, medieval, any and all coins. People are people even if the coins are not. By the same token I'm not trying to imply that the OP fit into that category, but rather that that category of people most certainly does exist. And because that category of people exist, it becomes an item of greater importance because import/export, customs, taxes, etc etc is involved with international transactions. It's a simple fact that these things matter, perhaps a great deal, in these scenarios. So much greater care needs to be taken so as to reflect accuracy when valuing coins. Otherwise, you may not like the consequences !
I had a 3800 euro coin (AV 80 Reales 1813 Joseph Napoleon/ Madrid Mint/ FDC/ Spain) sent from Spanish Auction firm. It was sent reg. insured/ no value/ neutral letter....arrived safe. In ten years, had 300 shipments sent that way.....all arrived in timely fashion. Imagine, now if customs get a shipment with declared value. Two scenarios/ a huge customs charge/ or its MIA.
