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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kirispupis, post: 7850394, member: 118780&quot;]Thinking a bit more about the Blaine WA case, I can guess what may have happened:</p><p><br /></p><p>My wife is from that part of the world (Tajikistan). There, it was common for families to have some old coins. Her family had a number of gold ones, though she thinks most were from the czars&#039; time. In her grandmother&#039;s time they were used to pay for brides. Few families do this today, though my in-laws &quot;suggested&quot; a token single gold coin, to which my parents freaked.</p><p><br /></p><p>When she came to this country, it was impossible to take them. Authorities at the airport saw on their passports that they&#039;re Jewish and moving to America, so they ordered them to strip, had them hand over all rings, and searched everywhere for anything remotely of value. My wife&#039;s parents therefore buried the coins, and someday they&#039;ll be someone else&#039;s hoard. Other artifacts, such as ancient carpets, were sold to Israeli collectors who travelled there and knew emigrants had no choice but to accept the bargain prices they offered.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, border control in Afghanistan was probably overseen by the US, so I would hope they wouldn&#039;t allow such treatment. It was therefore probably possible for him to bring the coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Families often ask each other to bring things, so he was probably taking them to some friend in Canada. There, I&#039;m guessing he was denied due to a paperwork issue that he wasn&#039;t aware of.</p><p><br /></p><p>Coming back into the US, the coins were immediately suspect. <i>Technically</i>, since Afghanistan didn&#039;t approve their move, they were looted coins. In fear of what the government could do to him, the guy gladly signed away the coins in favor of being arrested and/or hiring a lawyer that he couldn&#039;t afford.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have no idea if that&#039;s what happened, but this is one plausible version.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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