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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Carausius, post: 2971884, member: 76440&quot;]Elkins may have collected when he was a kid, but he is now one of the loudest voices in the anticollector sector of academia.&nbsp; His vocal opposition is ironic, considering he recently wrote a book that could ONLY appeal to coin collectors. Frankly, I read a chapter and didn&#039;t find it particularly deep or insightful.&nbsp; I don&#039;t find his views on collecting particularly deep or insightful either - just more of the same drivel that&#039;s pushed by others of that ilk.</p><p><br /></p><p>I generally encourage readers of this stuff to consider the motivations of the authors.&nbsp; In the case of archaeologists, follow the money - archaeologists benefit from government imposed monopolies on excavating artifacts and, with their vocal support, they want to curry favor from source countries that issue dig permits.&nbsp; They have very real financial motivation to take the source countries&#039; side in the debate.&nbsp; Don&#039;t assume they have moral superiority when they argue that coin dealers&#039; motivation is greed. </p><p><br /></p><p>Also, don&#039;t conflate ethics with law.&nbsp; Laws and government actions are not necessarily ethical.&nbsp; I don&#039;t consider laws declaring all historical artifacts to be property of the state as necessarily ethical or moral, particularly when those artifacts are found on private property.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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