From the category archives:
They're worth only about $275, but 23 bronze coins seized by the federal government at Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport last year just might be the most important chunk of change for numismatists in years.
These well-worn coins, struck more than a thousand years ago in Cyprus and China, are at the center of a dispute over U.S. rules that collectors nationwide say ...
Full Article: Coin collectors restricted by rules - Charleston Daily Mail
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The Ancient Coin Collectors Guild has become a driving force in the ongoing effort to protect coin collectors and museums in which coins are stored from being forced to give up these items to foreign governments under the premise the coins are the cultural patrimony of the claimant nation.
There are organized archaeological groups that are against the private ownership of all such items, supporting the concept all antiquities including coins should be returned to their place of origin or discovery, but to date the United States has yet to become a ...
Full Article: ACCG Addresses Antiquities Group - NumisMaster
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The U.S. State Department has announced a date of May 6-7 for Cultural Property Advisory Committee hearings on the request for renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding with Italy.
In practical terms, the U.S. government is about to decide whether antiquities and other forms of cultural property that Italy claims as its heritage ought to be restricted from entry into the U.S. unless accompanied by Italian export permits.
There is already such an agreement in place, but ancient coins have been exempted twice before in these renewal requests that cover a 5-year window.
We have very good reason to believe that Italy and members of the archaeological community will this time seek to add coins to the list of restricted items ...
Full Article: ACCG Fax Wizard Helps Collectors Speak Out - CoinNews
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David Vagi continues his discussion of some of the most important issuers of Roman coins in the third of a five-part series.
1. Sulla, d. 78 B.C. After having already had an interesting career, Sulla came to prominence while in his 50s, during Italy’s Social War (91-89 B.C.) and the First Mithridatic War (88-84 B.C.). On one occasion Sulla invaded the capital itself to oust members of the opposing party, and soon after, in 82, he defended that same city from an assault by neighboring Samnites. His main platform was to erode the power held by wealthy families and the senate, believing...
Full Article: Ancients: Famous Romans You Can Collect, Part III - Numismatic Guaranty Corporation
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GAINESVILLE, Mo. — The Ancient Coin Collectors Guild (ACCG), a non-profit advocacy group that supports the free and independent collecting of coins from antiquity, has filed suit in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to expedite its challenge to import restrictions placed on ancient coins struck in Cyprus and China.
Back in April 2009, ACCG imported a small packet of inexpensive Chinese and Cypriot coins that were first detained and then seized in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 20, 2009.
Applicable laws require U.S. Customs to bring a forfeiture action promptly against the coins — in which the ACCG could then contest the validity of the U.S. State Department (DOS) decision to impose import restrictions.
Instead of filing the required action, however, U.S. Customs merely sat on the coins for almost 10 months, thus requiring ACCG to act ...
Full Article: Ancient Coin Collectors Guild Seeks Judicial Review - CoinNews
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A small packet of inexpensive Chinese and Cypriot coins imported from England by the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild have been seized by Customs in Baltimore, the ACCG announced Sept. 15.
The coins were imported to test the legitimacy of Department of State (DOS) imposed import restrictions via two Memoranda of Understanding (MOU). ACCG maintains that actions of DOS relating to implementation of the Cultural Property Implementation Act have been secretive, arbitrary and capricious and will contest ...
Full Article: Customs Seizes ACCG Coins - NumisMaster
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For the past five years I have read a nauseating stream of blog posts, news articles, discussion list comments and convention presentation reports that condemn the "illicit" trade in antiquities. The fact that anyone might condemn illicit activity is not in itself nauseating, but the ringing of the same bell 24/7 until the brain fogs over in biological rejection is not only nauseating but obnoxious.
It reminds me of the parent in a grocery story who repeatedly harps (in the most irritating shrill cacaphony) "Johnny, don't touch that!" over and over and ...
Full Article: The "illicit" antiquities trade - Ancient Coin Collecting
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The twitter around the cultural property nationalist blogs at the moment is that a rare tribal octadrachm of the Bisalti has been seized from an auction firm in Switzerland. One of these bloggers even uses the episode to disparage, by linkage and innuendo, the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild (ACCG) and its allies in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation now in progress against the U.S. State Department. This is not the first such episode by any means. I have seen a lot of misguided enmity in my varied careers, but never in my memory have I seen such absolute drivel as I have over the FOIA suit. It really deserves a prize ...
Full Article: Drivel over FOIA suit - Ancient Coin Collecting
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On August 20, 2009 the Superintendent of Police at Varanisi in India announced to the press that three men were "nabbed" by local authorities for trying to sell over 7,500 "ancient silver coins weighing 68.3 Kg." During interrogation, the men told police that they had found the coins while digging at their ancestral house in Deoria District.
Visions come to mind of the ubiquitous Kushan, Mughal or even Baktrian issues which of course would immediately be labeled by some local archaeologist as "priceless treasures" destined for the illicit U.S. coin market. But wait -- there is more!...
Full Article: 7,500 Ancient Coins Seized - Three Arrested - Ancient Coin Collecting
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