Hi, I was wondering what is exactly the process from discovered hoards of coins til the moment it ends up in coin dealer shops. It is suspected the way coin dealers get their resources is a bit complex with various sources (surplus from museums, passing from coin dealer to another, from private searches yet illegal, private collections, etc.), but I haven't seen much about this subject. Perhaps, it is a sensible subject as some sources of coin acquisition is either illegal or in grey zones. I have heard archaeologists with a tinge in numismatic in their specialization hate coin dealers (even more private with metal detectors) because they break the historical context of the coin hoards by not reporting their finds. Napata
I don't really know exactly how a coin passes from "dug up out of the ground where it was buried centuries ago" to "in my collection," but I can address your second point. Coins are typically not regarded as important artifacts, unless, perhaps, they're of a previously unknown type, or they're somehow otherwise out of place. At best they provide an aid to dating the site. Rest assured that the coins in your collection aren't taking any historical context away from an important archaeological discovery.
In England the laws are very reasonable. Many dealers of Roman and Celtic coins buy them metal detectorists.
Like in any business there are wholesale/bulk as well as direct to retail. People that buy more get first dip, and more one pays further he is down the line. If you watch discovery shows on these things, all sorts of entities/agents were offered first, depend really on what the discoverer was thinking at that time.
I looked into buying a 15th century groat at one point, and the listing said a mandatory export licence would be required to ship outside the UK, but that such a thing didn't cost anything and that it was almost automatic that it would be granted. Is that about your understanding of it?
