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
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
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
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
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
One can't help but raise an eyebrow when a British archaeologist comes out publicly in support of U.S. State Department (DOS) secrecy in its dealings with American citizens. Most academics in the United States, archaeologists included, have favored transparent government.
But, hot on the heels of Obama administration guidance that transparency is the new order of the day, archaeologist Paul Barford has defended DOS refusal to comply with the Freedom of Information Act and in effect condoned the department's long standing penchant for secrecy...
Full Article: Archaeologist Defends State Secrecy - Ancient Coin Collecting
A newly formed Ancient Coin Collectors Guild Museum Fund has been established to help provide funding to small museums in England and Wales that wish to purchase local finds of ancient coins offered to them in accordance with provisions of the Treasure Act.
Many small museums have inadequate find purchasing budgets and although there are schemes such the Headley Trust which might award a portion of the price for purchases of ₤500 or more, amounts lower than this must be entirely raised by the local museum.
If the museum fails to raise the money, the coins might be purchased by a larger museum and leave the area where they were found. Local museums will place such finds on display to be enjoyed by the local population...
Full Article: ACCG to Assist Museums in England and Wales
Having spent more than a little time in the journalistic field, I very personally and intimately understand the difficulties of feeding accurate and useful information to the public. Those who package the "news" often are forced to rely on contributions from freelancers or from well meaning but ill equipped volunteers.
Sometimes, information fed to a publisher serves a commercial or personal agenda, and that is an inescapable part of the flow. Sometimes, the information is simply not accurate and that can become problematic for both the reader who is misinformed or the publisher whose credibility is weakened...
Full Article: Getting it right - Ancient Coin Collecting
As a British Airways jetliner touched down in Baltimore on April 15th , many U.S. citizens were busy writing last minute checks to the IRS. In the face of mounting global crises, they could hardly have anticipated that some of their tax dollars would be used by the U.S. State Department (DOS) to wage an ideological war against coin collectors.
Part of the cargo of BA 229/16 that day was a small packet of 23 very common, inexpensive, Cypriot and Chinese coins being imported by a collector advocacy group, the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild (ACCG). The entry of these coins, forbidden by DOS under bilateral agreements with Cyprus and China, marked the launch of a test case to determine whether the State Department has banned their importation properly under a 1983 law dealing with the protection of cultural property...
Full Article: Coin Collectors to Challenge State Department on Import Restrictions
