Questions on changes to USPS International Shipping and Customs Policies

Hi guys,

Earlier this year, I received this announcement from CNG on changes to the USPS international shipping and customs declaration policies:

"Due to changes being made by the United States Postal Service (USPS), we will no longer be able to send shipments abroad by registered mail with no value declared. The USPS has discontinued international registered mail and the customs forms we have been using for the last 30 years. All shipments must now be processed electronically, and a verifiable declaration of value will now be required.

As a result, all international shipments will be sent in an International Priority Envelope or Box, using original invoicing for the value on the customs form. The tracking and time of shipment will improve, however we believe that this may also help customs offices track and charge import fees on our packages. Due to our limited staffing, it is our policy to only use original invoicing amounts for the valuation of any package."

Correct me if I am wrong, but does that mean that: (1) I will have to pay from now on USPS customs fees? and (2) that the value of the package will be placed on the shipping cover for all to see (and potentially steal)? Aside from the danger of theft, what will happen to my coins once they reach USPS? Will they hold the parcel until I settle the customs fee? And how can I pay the customs fee whilst abroad, do they have a bank account?

I would be grateful for any help with this matter. I used to use Aramex's shipping forwarding service for the shipping of my coins, but I stopped as they all of a sudden started considering ancient coins "unacceptable materials) in spite of me having shipped with them my coins numerous times in the past, thats why I am forced to use USPS.

 

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If there is a customs fee yes it will have to be paid, generally there isn't though. The value will be on the package which is pretty standard for international shipments and not something I would be overly concerned about as you will have to sign for anything of value anyway.

 

As far as I know ther are no US customs duties on coins. Since you are asking about international mail I will assume you are outside the US. You may still have to pay import customs duties to your country, You may have to pay a VAT tax if it is applicable, and if you are importing Ancients and your country is a signer of the 1970 US Cultural Heritage agreement, depending on where your coins are from they may be confiscated and repatriated to their country of origin.

 

For the OP--

You should probably contact CNG to clarify, but I interpret that as the USPS is stopping the international registered service.

That service happened to not have a value required for the USPS per se but I know I've filled out the customs declaration form by hand, and that was visible on the package and I could have put 'zero' or a negligible value (as I've been asked to do by overseas people).

Instead there will be International Priority. With the change the old paperwork won't be used and the new paperwork will use what they describe, including using the invoiced value as the declared value. I suspect they mean mail from a business entity like CNG, I can't see how that would apply if I happen to send a package to a friend of mine in Europe for example.

Also, I am pretty sure the customs they are referring to is the incoming nation's customs. There shouldn't be customs on outgoing items (maybe an exporter tax??? but this isn't something I've heard of people talking about). The few times I sold to overseas people any customs issues were on the receiving end, not my shipping end. Perhaps there is a change there? CNG should know .

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@Conder101 Regarding US customs fees--I recently got a package from Asia and ended up having to pay a customs fee to the US.

It was shipped via FedEx and I was told because it was over a certain declared value it had to go through the 'formal import' process. Fedex contacted me, paid the fee for me as my agent (and charged me $7 for the service). I have NO IDEA how an incoming custom's fee would have been handled or how I would have been notified if FedEx hadn't been involved, though google-fu seems to imply the USPS can do it too.

The only thing I found online about it was it was a miniscule percentage (around .38 PERCENT) of the total, with a minimum 'merchandise processing fee' of $25, which is what the fee was. Anyway, it looks like anything under $2500 won't likely be charged any kind of customs fee by the US...assuming it's not product for resale. Google-fu was confusing overall as to all this, but as far as I could tell this is what it was. https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/334/~/user-fee---merchandise-processing-fees

It was the only time I've ever paid a fee like that, but only twice had anything over the $2500 trigger point. I don't remember paying it for an order from the British Mint, so perhaps the paperwork was done differently.

Oh well, either paying or not paying it one time was possibly wrong, or maybe it was a difference in being Asia vs. GB, or an auction win vs. purchase from a government mint, or something else. I certainly wasn't going to quibble about it considering all the other costs while the coin was in transit! I wanted the coin with me, not sent back to the auction house .

 

This was for coins? I checked the customs website and coins do not have customs duties. It sounds like you were charged the Merchandise processing fee, not customs duties

 

It is for ancient coins. They need to have proof they were imported into the USA before a certain date. Greece and Turkey claim they are stolen from their countries. Would not surprise me if Egypt did it too. They had an article within the last 2 weeks in Coin World.

 

Probably so...all I know is I had to pay $25 to allow the coin into the country or have it get sent back to the auction house. Whatever the fee was called, I had to pay it to allow the coin to enter the country.

OT diversion:
Funny, it's the second Albanian coin I've bought from that auction house...I wonder who in Japan was collecting these?

 

Our local USPS suddenly started refusing to accept ancient coins for international shipment. Period. They cite some post office regulation. We've had to go down to UPS twice now, in order to get the coins out of the country. Prior to this, USPS shipped our coins to a dozen different countries using their online label and customs form and there was no problem. Anyone else getting the cold shoulder from them?

 

Since some ancient coins can be confiscated if you don't have the appropriate documentation, they are probably just banning all ancients so they don't have to try and keep up with which coins it applies to and having to be able to recognize which ones can be shipped and which can't. It save headaches if something does get confiscated somewhere. Be glad UPS still does it, in the future that may change. May also just be your local Post Office. Try a different one and see if you get the same cold shoulder. Might also see if the post office that is turning you down can cite the specific regulation and then research it. It may just be the local post office in mis-interpreting the regulation. That happens a LOT.

 

Sounds like sage advice. I'll try it!

 

Thank you for your feedback and recommendations guys! I guess I will stick with USPS from now on. My express courier won't ship it, and I cannot find any other shipping forwarding agency that will. I just hope that the Seller will be able to handle and sort out any USPS-related hurdles.

 

I think Conder101 was right. The personnel at my local post office don't understand the USPS rules. I've continued to ship ancient coins internationally and declared them as "Roman artifacts". However, each time the USPS website generates a customs form for a country I'm sending coins to, I read the fine print. These countries are not prohibiting the entry of ancient coins, they are careful to spell out that they won't accept coins with negotiable value, which ancient coins do not have, but modern coins do. So my post office is correct in that someone trying to ship liberty dollars probably can't get around the negotiable clause, but ancient coins, no problem.

 

The problem isn't the negotiable value clause, what you have to watch out for is the cultural heritage regulations, and it isn't a USPS problem it is a customs problem.

These types of coins can be confiscated and repatriated to their country of origin if you don't have export licenses that prove they were removed from their home countries ten years before they were put on the list (basically 2001)

a. Pre-monetary media of exchange including “arrow money,” bells, and bracelets. Approximate date: 13th century B.C. through 6th century B.C.

b. Thracian and Hellenistic coins struck in gold, silver, and bronze by city-states and kingdoms that operated in the territory of the modern Bulgarian state. This designation includes official coinages of Greek-using city-states and kingdoms, Sycthian and Celtic coinage, and local imitations of official issues. Also included are Greek coins from nearby regions that are found in Bulgaria. Approximate date: 6th century BC through the 1st century B.C.

c. Roman provincial coins – Locally produced coins usually struck in bronze or copper at mints in the territory of the modern state of Bulgaria. May also be silver, silver plate, or gold. Approximate date: 1st century BC through the 4th century A.D.

d. Coinage of the First and Second Bulgarian Empires and Byzantine Empire – Struck in gold, silver, and bronze by Bulgarian and Byzantine emperors at mints within the modern state of Bulgaria. Approximate date: 4th century A.D. through A.D. 1396.

e. Ottoman coins – Struck at mints within the modern state of Bulgaria. Approximate date: A.D. 1396 through A.D. 1750.

F. Coins of Italian Types—A type catalogue of listed currency and coins can be found in N.K. Rutter et al. (eds.), Historia Numorum: Italy (London, 2001). Others appear in G.F. Hill Coins of Ancient Sicily (Westminster, 1903).

1. Lumps of bronze (Aes Rude)— Irregular lumps of bronze used as an early medium of exchange in Italy from the 9th century B.C.

2. Bronze bars (Ramo Secco and Aes Signatum)—Cast bronze bars (whole or cut) used as a media of exchange in central Italy and Etruria from the 5th century B.C.

3. Cast coins (Aes Grave)—Cast bronze coins of Rome, Etruscan, and Italian cities from the 4th century B.C.

4. Struck coins—Struck coins of the Roman Republic and Etruscan cities produced in gold, silver, and bronze from the 3rd century B.C. to c. 211 B.C., including the ‘‘Romano-Campanian’’ coinage.

5. Struck colonial coinage—Struck bronze coins of Roman republican and early imperial colonies and municipia in Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia from the 3rd century B.C. to c. A.D. 37.

6. Coins of the Greek cities—Coins of the Greek cities in the southern Italian peninsula and in Sicily (Magna Graecia), cast or struck in gold, silver, and bronze, from the late 6th century B.C. to c. 200 B.C.

Any ancient coin from cyprus

There are also restrictions on some ancient Chinese coins but I have been unable to locate the date range.

These coins may be seized if imported into the US, and may also be seized by any signatory of the 1970 unesco convention on the “means of prohibiting and preventing the illicit import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural property upon importation into those countries.

Since most of these coins have been traded for many years, most of them don't have export licenses or other documentation to prove they have been out of the home countries before the cut off date.

 

Also the U.S. Treasury has certain coins that are considered non-importable because it is illegal to do business with that country. Some are Cuba, North Korea and others I cannot remember off the top of my head.