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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Drusus, post: 577554, member: 6370&quot;]the UK has fair laws, other laws are draconian and thus do little to stop looting as they offer no incentive for a person to report the find, reporting a find will always result in your find being taken from you regardless of how rare or how common the find is. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The only way is for archeologist and museums to realize this and to break out of the mind set that they are the only people entitled to handle antiquities...keep what they are going to use and display, and offer the rest for sale to private collectors...otherwise there will be no change, finds will not be reported, and valuable information will be lost. Its hard to sympathize with an archeologist who would rather store thousands of coins in the basement of a museum, or worse, destroy what they do not feel is valuable enough to keep, simply to keep it out of the hands of collector, so as not to encourage the habit of collecting antiquities.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Most collectors would be more than happy to wait for archeologists to complete their study and then buy the coins when all has been recorded and they are no longer serving a purpose. What collector wouldn&#039;t want to know exactly where their coin was found and what exact hoard it came from? </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>In the end, if you own an ancient coin, odds are they came from a hoard like one of these...however it got to the market...no questions asked. The fact is that laws in many European and middle eastern countries are so draconian that you cant even sell the cheapest LRB found in their soil...so unless all your coins come from old collections, you most likely have bought a coin from an unreported hoard. They have left little recourse for those who wish to collect ancient coins.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The UK has very fair laws. You find something, you report it, and if the government deems it is not important...you keep it and do as you please...I have seen this work as people WILL report finds...far more than in the Balkans where just LOOKING for antiquities is forbidden. ALL antiquities in some countries are considered &#039;important cultural property&#039;...and all places where a coin is found is deemed an archeological site...period. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>But of course, its best not to knowingly buy a coin from a country who refuses to allow a single ancient coin found in its soil to be sold <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> and the burden of proof as to where each coin came from is on them <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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