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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Drusus, post: 514406, member: 6370&quot;]well, apparently Germany has much the same laws pertaining to search and seizure and innocent until proven guilty as the US, according to the author they are just over stepping authority...the police officer involved in this...according to the author...fancies himself a friend of archeology and has overstepped his bounds in his zeal.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>In the US, the government can seize your property if they have reason to believe you are guilty of a crime. They do it to people all the time. As just one example...If a person is a suspected drug dealer and they feel they have enough evidence to arrest you for that crime. They will seize all your property...they do not have to wait until you are proven guilty to do so.</p><p>With hope enough attention will be put on these actions that they will put a stop to this and make it right with the people they have harassed.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Like the author said...he collects medals. He buys these medals from all different sources. If ANY of these medals are more than 100 years old...he will be forced to show where he got the medals. He is like me...After a certain amount of time I do not keep the documentation showing where I bought the coin or medal...thus if they chose...they could raid his home and take all his medals that are more than 100 years old and he would be unable to offer the required documentation for them...</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Still some of the more radical archeologists seem to think Germany is not doing enough. When they signed on to comply with the the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, they required lists from other nations of what is considered protected cultural property. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Radical authoritarian archeologist who look to outlaw collecting antiquities believe requiring this list will make the law ineffective as it will not cover everything...or everything that might be uncovered in the future.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>It may seem hard to believe...but there are archeologist so stuck in some bizarre elitist world where only they should have the right to have access to ANY antiquities....they are so blinded by this that they will destroy antiquities deemed unimportant to a dig site instead of releasing it to the public. The reason being is releasing such things will promote private ownership of antiquities so they destroy things like old common pottery or oil lamps that are found in droves. If they find 2000 common Constantine coins...coins that would never been displayed at a museum...coins where thousands of identical copies can be found in the same horde....they will box them up and put them in storage instead of releasing them for sale...again...they simply do not want people to own antiquities however small and common. Its this entitled elitist view that causes some countries, at their request, to outlaw the ownership and sale of ANYTHING found in the country however small...</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>then the archeologist can wag his finger and say &#039;you should only collect antiquities that have a full provenance&#039;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Knowing full well that the draconian laws they have helped put in place leave little to no antiquities to enter the market...thus making all collectors criminals...Most stop short calling us all criminals...they take a more elitist view and say &#039;you just dont realize what collecting is causing&#039; as if collectors are, on the whole, somewhat stupid and are just not aware of the consequences.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I take a different view. I believe they are unaware of the damage they are causing by taking such an antagonistic stance towards collectors. The most fair laws towards this are in Britain where they allow people to metal detect, they require you to report finds, then they offer you compensation if you find something that interests them, if not, you can keep it. People there DO report finds because of this. Otherwise you are labeling people criminals for even TRYING to find antiquities in the ground. Thus people will not admit they found it and will melt them down for the gold or silver...or sell them.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Metal detectorist do a lot of good and could be a friend to archeologists. They FIND these sites...they uncover things that could be damaged by farming and lost forever...</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>If these people would just release the thousands upon thousands of antiquities that will never see the light of day to collectors then we would all be better off...coin fondlers will have coins to fondle and they will have provenance and we take good care of coins on the whole. Archeologist will be able to study the site but simply will not be entitled to all that is found....this is simply unacceptable to many.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Its all very sad that a few people can screw up so badly and make the situation so much worse the way they do. Just another example of smart people doing stupid things.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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