Customs and duties for coins imported into US

I have tried looking in official website of cbp seeing a lot of contradicting information what are customs and duty fees one has to pay to procure and import coins from abroad. Are gold coins only items exempt from duties? Reason i am asking is i was thinking about buying coins directly from European sellers and skipping the middle men.

 

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I have never paid duties for coins, but I simply do not know if I was lucky or what. I have had $2,000 plus packages come from Germany.

 

To the best of my knowledge there are no customs duties for any coins imported into the US. There are restrictions on ancient coins from some countries unless you can provide positive documentation that they were exported from those countries before a certain date. If you can't provide the documentation they will be confiscated and eventually returned to the governments of those countries as "stolen cultural heritage.".

 

Especially true for Eastern European and ex-Soviet bloc countries, where the coins are often dug up and cleaned, but being sold as all original.

 

Considering that they only seem to sell the problem coins to international buyers, and keep the good ones within the country or for themselves... seems like they have the same ideas as we do about what constitutes an original/acceptable coin. The difference is their ideas about doing business.

 

The US and China have agreed upon a MOU (Memorandum Of Understanding) in which US customers is not supposed to let any Tang or pre Tang coins into the county. This means customs should stop any Chinese coins cast pre AD907 from coming into the US. I've never had a problem with coins from China being confiscated or having to pay import duties. I don't see how a custom official would have the time, training, or desire to try and distinguish a Tang coin from a N. Song. Its really the Chinese dealer taking most of the risk, as it is illegal under Chinese law for him to export such coins. Seems no one cares on either end.

 

No I meant that US sellers who sell internationally seem to do it in the same way as selling domestically. The countries in question seem to assume we have no idea about what an original coin is.

 

How about Customs issues for the individual personally carrying such things across international borders. If one were carrying bullion or coins out of certain countries and into others on their person or in their luggage, some countries forbade export of bullion, does one declare on U.S. Customs forms what they are bringing in themselves when traveling, does anyone have any experience to cite? Certain countries consider the transportation of bullion out of their countries 'smuggling', but I don't know how it applies to each country and any tolerances allowed to the individual. I've searched for a comprehensive list of different nations' Customs regulations, but have the same issue with turning up conflicting information. It's always been something I was curious about and would appreciate thoughts on if anyone has a clear answer.

 

I know some auction reps who used to hand carry coins will no longer do so. This is just from Europe to the US, so maybe something changed. The rep used to do this regularly for me, but now requires the packages mailed from Europe. I didn't ask what changed, since I did not want to put the man on the spot and have him tell me what he used to do was illegal somehow.

Chris

 

Europe's budget crisis is what changed. Their customs have become extra strict, both for shipping items in and taking items out. They now want to make sure they collect every possible euro off of tariffs that they can.
As an eBay seller of foreign coins, I can attest to that most bitterly. =/

 

But why would it affect items from Europe destined for USA, tariffs or customs should not be imposed on products leaving the nation?

 

It does not. Won't comment any more on those theories regarding how cleaned coins are "common" in "Europe", but the part about customs (duty and/or import tax) sure applies one way only, not EU > US. But if you are a dealer in the US and make part of your money selling coins to Europe, you may indeed be affected.

Christian

 

The EU passed a measure in June 2007 requiring that anything carried by a passenger over 10,000 euro in value coming in or going out has to be declared to the revenue and customs board. I would assume this applies to the types of coins a European dealer would actually "hand carry" to the US.

 

I only had to pay a fee once. I won a gold nugget from a contest through the Perth Mint. I had to pay around $32 in fees. FedEx paid them and I had to reimburse FedEx

 

^ Yeah it looks like you have to customs fee for any item being shipped into USA unless it is declared as a gift?

 

Last I remember you had to declare items in excess of $600 or something when I came into the US from a foreign country. Anyone else remember filling out those green slips?

 

You are referring to when you are crossing the border? I thought you don't have to declare gold (silver too?) unless it exceeds 10k.