For those of you thinking about bidding on an ancient or medieval coin or artifact manufactured in an area that now resides within the modern states of the Ukraine or Russia, let this be a cautionary tale: @chrisild posted this story on the Chat area of the forum, but it is the type of story that would be more appreciated here. FedEx refused to deliver a 700-800 year old silver ingot because auction house and seller could not provide the name and address of the maker of the ingot from 8 centuries ago, to make sure he is not a Russian oligarch listed in the sanctions against Russia. Never mind the fact that the modern state of Russia, as we know it today, did not exist. You know, got to make sure Putin did not make this ingot 8 centuries ago. Read the exchange between FedEx and the people trying to get this delivered. Pretty funny. http://www.coinsweekly.com/en/page/4?&id=5224
Apparently the FedEx employees are victims of the US public education system and have no knowledge or interest in history or logic for that matter. I am too but have read one or two books alono the way. People this stupid and hard headed really bother me.
AN unfortunate event...personally I wouldn't buy from Russia, especially. On the flipside, there are rumors that the oligarchs are driving up the prices in top of the line auctions for ancient coins. Gotta park that money somewhere and convert it from one asset type to another.
Mainland China no, but from Hong Kong it is legal and safe to buy. They have some of the biggest auctions there each year (varying from ancient China to modern worldwide). Stacks Bowers conducts many auctions there.
I just had a similar go-around with FedEx over an unrelated matter. I would ask a question and they would give a stock answer. I'd ask another way, they point me to a website. I finally asked for a supervisor. Weeks later they said they would be glad to ship my article which I shipped using another carrier a month before. It was like the old "Who's on First" script.