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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Blake Davis, post: 24499282, member: 91820&quot;]Or let’s say someone in New York City bought a piece of property and found a letter belong to Peter Styvescent (sp?) or an Indian artifact from a long gone tribe and sold it to a foreigner. Would we be outraged? Of course not.&nbsp; Or demand that it belonged to the American government?&nbsp; How about a gun belonging to Billy the Kid?&nbsp; Or a letter signed by Lincoln?&nbsp; Does our government have the right to that?&nbsp; Of course not. That would be unAmerican. </p><p><br /></p><p>But if some poor schlub finds an aureus in Greece that was struck thousands of years ago under the Roman Republic, the fools in the US government start screaming about Greek cultural property based on some inane UNESCO treaty and impose criminal penalties in order to enforce Greek law, even though Greece has no inherent rights to the coin other than it happened to be found on Greek soil - private property to be sure - but the guy who found it doesn’t get a dime since the Greek government claims anything ancient based on some bizarre concept of “cultural heritage” whatever that is. And the US government and US Customs actually waste resources that could be used to interdict the poison killing hundreds of thousands of American young people to support this craziness!</p><p><br /></p><p>I guess the Germans will start claiming all the Nazi artifacts being bought and sold including concentration camp artifacts because it is their cultural heritage.&nbsp; The idea is so absurd that it is mind boggling that anyone could claim it with a straight face.&nbsp; I guess I should return the Japanese sniper rifle to Japan that my uncle brought back after the war - after all it is part of the Japanese cultural heritage.</p><p><br /></p><p>I feel bad for Mr. Beale - he has not committed anything that should be called a crime and he is being prosecuted by people that should be doing something worthwhile like stopping the trade in poison that is destroying the lives of millions of Americans.</p><p><br /></p><p>But as I said arresting a measly coin dealer for a non- existent crime is much easier than going after the drug cartels.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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