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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Valentinian, post: 2878935, member: 44316&quot;]For thousand-dollar coins that might be feasible. But I recently bought a batch of 245 coins (all legible, but obviously not very nice) for $550. There is no way anyone would attach and keep pedigrees to $2 coins. Besides, I argued above that pedigrees hardly matter, and certainly not as much as some people claim, and not for the reasons they claim. I argue this as&nbsp; numismatic scholar with many academic publications and many years spent reading articles with a quantitative side. I agree that finding and recording hoards is important, but I wrote above how to get that to happen, and opposing collecting or requiring pedigrees is not the way. </p><p><br /></p><p>Most numismatic Ph.D. theses with a quantitative side (and that is most theses) rely on analyzing coins using photos taken from dealer&#039;s catalogs (and, now, on-line sources). Restricted trade in coins would mean fewer data points for scholarship. </p><p><br /></p><p>I admit the other side of this issue <b>asserts</b> that requiring old pedigrees would help with the &quot;problem.&quot; They don&#039;t have evidence, or a valid reasoned argument, to support that claim. What it can do is make trading in coins harder, which will have unintended consequences. That would lead to fewer dealers and collectors and fewer people interested in antiquity (collecting gets you interested in antiquity), resulting in fewer donors interested in supporting digs. Do archaeologists really think governments are anxious to give them enough money to dig and they don&#039;t need money from enthusiastic wealthy collector-donors? Look at the history of archaeology. Archaeology started as collecting. </p><p><br /></p><p>Now, foreign governments say to archaeologists, &quot;Support our cultural heritage crusade or kiss your digging permit goodbye.&quot; No wonder they have lined up against collecting. Many actually believe collecting is negative, but I think they have not thought this through. Collecting is a positive for scholarship and our knowledge of antiquity.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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