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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Tejas, post: 8208995, member: 84905&quot;]I think the author of the post has good intentions, but is a victim of false assumptions:</p><p>1. <u>He assumes that preventing people from showing off their coins (and collecting coins) will end looting.</u>&nbsp; <b>That is wrong. Instead, free and transparent trade is in fact a very potent measure against looting! </b>Prohibition will drive collecting into illegality. This increases the price of coins and hence the potential profit margin for looters. Higher profits encourages more risk taking by the looters and more looting. Hence, looter will loot more and try to access better guarded (more significant) sites.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>2. He assumes that ancient coins are best kept in museum collections. </u></p><p><b>That is also wrong. Instead, Coin collectors do academia and the wider public a great service! </b></p><p>First, many coin collectors (and indeed people on this forum) know more about their specific fields of collecting than any museum curator ever will. Coin trade and collectors make coins public through catalogs and many collectors do their own research, thus generating knowledge that would otherwise be lost or never uncovered. </p><p>Second, collectors have a natural love for their object of collecting. Hence, they are likely to care for their coins better (or at least as well) as museums will do. </p><p>Third, safe storage, identification and description is expensive. My coins are kept in the vaults of a central bank. If my coins were in the hands of a public museum, then tax payers would have to pay for proper storage.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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