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<p>[QUOTE="ancientnut, post: 2157454, member: 73212"]These have become, and will continue to be, very frustrating and limiting for collectors. Many dealers who represent buyers in European auctions will not bid on coins without pedigrees that comply with import restrictions. A recent example, which affected me personally, is this coin which was offered in NAC 84 last Wednesday:</p><p><a href="http://www.sixbid.com/browse.html?auction=1933&category=40015&lot=1681122" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.sixbid.com/browse.html?auction=1933&category=40015&lot=1681122" rel="nofollow">http://www.sixbid.com/browse.html?auction=1933&category=40015&lot=1681122</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Described as being “Of the highest rarity, the finer of only three specimens known”, the description included this fascinating story:</p><p><br /></p><p>The umbelliferous [aromatic herb of the parsley family] plant silphium must have been the most celebrated, and most profitable, export of Cyrene, for it is the perennial emblem of its coinage. It reputedly was a gift of the healing god Apollo and had a wide range of medical applications. The herbalist Dioscorides (III.94) lists a great many of them, ranging from relief for a tooth ache to a remedy for menstrual problems and epilepsy. Being such a valued product, its harvest was carefully regulated, similarly to how the Athenians enforced strict laws concerning the stewardship of olive trees in Attica. Even with such controls in place, demand for silphium was so great that it appears to have become extinct by about the 1st Century A.D. Perhaps the best known use of silphium was as a method of birth control, to which this obverse may bear reference. It shows a silphium fruit behind the eponymous city nymph Cyrene, seated, and extending her right hand toward a full silphium plant as she places her left hand in her lap. It has been suggested that the conspicuous placement of her left hand in this composition alludes to the value of silphium juice for the prevention of pregnancy.</p><p><br /></p><p>The coin sold for CHF 32,500 and I was willing to go to 35,000 or more. Even though there are no import restrictions on ancient coins of North Africa, I could not bid on it, because...no pedigree! If an MOU affecting these coins is signed in the future, the owner could encounter legal problems when trying to sell it. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie79" alt=":rage:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="ancientnut, post: 2157454, member: 73212"]These have become, and will continue to be, very frustrating and limiting for collectors. Many dealers who represent buyers in European auctions will not bid on coins without pedigrees that comply with import restrictions. A recent example, which affected me personally, is this coin which was offered in NAC 84 last Wednesday: [url]http://www.sixbid.com/browse.html?auction=1933&category=40015&lot=1681122[/url] Described as being “Of the highest rarity, the finer of only three specimens known”, the description included this fascinating story: The umbelliferous [aromatic herb of the parsley family] plant silphium must have been the most celebrated, and most profitable, export of Cyrene, for it is the perennial emblem of its coinage. It reputedly was a gift of the healing god Apollo and had a wide range of medical applications. The herbalist Dioscorides (III.94) lists a great many of them, ranging from relief for a tooth ache to a remedy for menstrual problems and epilepsy. Being such a valued product, its harvest was carefully regulated, similarly to how the Athenians enforced strict laws concerning the stewardship of olive trees in Attica. Even with such controls in place, demand for silphium was so great that it appears to have become extinct by about the 1st Century A.D. Perhaps the best known use of silphium was as a method of birth control, to which this obverse may bear reference. It shows a silphium fruit behind the eponymous city nymph Cyrene, seated, and extending her right hand toward a full silphium plant as she places her left hand in her lap. It has been suggested that the conspicuous placement of her left hand in this composition alludes to the value of silphium juice for the prevention of pregnancy. The coin sold for CHF 32,500 and I was willing to go to 35,000 or more. Even though there are no import restrictions on ancient coins of North Africa, I could not bid on it, because...no pedigree! If an MOU affecting these coins is signed in the future, the owner could encounter legal problems when trying to sell it. :rage:[/QUOTE]
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