Can Coin Collectors Make Change?
Three organizations that represent coin collectors and dealers have joined to sue the U.S. State Department in federal court in Washington. Collectors were very put out this summer when State approved a request by Cyprus to ban the import of ancient coins from that island. Italy has made a similar request. Now the collectors want to compel the department to provide documents that would shed light on its decision making.
This is a suit that American museum professionals who have anything to do with ancient art, not just coins, will be watching closely. They've been unhappy for a long time with the willingness — sometimes it looks to them like the eagerness — of the U.S. government to side with nations that claim almost all antiquities found on their soil as part of their "cultural heritage" and that ask the State Department to ban all import of that material. For three years China has sought an import ban — without success so far — on practically every kind of Chinese art and artifact from prehistoric times to the early 20th century. That sweeping request in particular has Asian art curators and collectors worried.
Artworld professionals suspect that the U.S. is too quick to sacrifice the interests of American museums to help secure the cooperation of foreign nations in matters like drug trafficking and the war on terror. If that's true, the coin collector suit won't transform policy overnight. But it could force the government to open up a bit on how policy is made, and for American museums that alone would be a useful step.
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1
A copy of the complaint as filed is available at http://accg.us/issues/news/complaint.pdf
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2
For more on the FOIA aspect of this, see http://thefoiablog.typepad.com.
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3
There is no overall "ban". The Cyprus MOA which all the recent fuss is about states:
"Note that, beginning July 16, 2007, coins of Cypriot types are a subcategory of archaeological objects that may enter the U.S. if they have an export permit issued by the Government of Cyprus or verifiable documentation that they left Cyprus prior to the effective date of the restriction".So if these coins have been legally exported, then there is no "ban" and no problem.
But this raises the question, what kind of "rights" are US coin collectors wanting to claim? To buy ILLEGALLY exported objects? To buy items without bothering whether or not they can be shown to be legally exported? Surely the times when US collections are filled with other people's stolen heritage should be coming to an end shouldn't they?
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4
I recently made this point about the case:
What is the real issue?
I hope that nobody will lose sight of the issue of the looting of archaeological sites on the island of Cyprus - for that was the purpose of the US restrictions on coins. I close with the words of Andreas Kakouris, Cyprus's ambassador to Washington:Coins constitute an inseparable part of our own cultural heritage, and the pillage they are subjected to is the same as other archaeological material.
For a fuller discussion see:
http://lootingmatters.blogspot.com/2007/11/coins-and-cyprus-why-is-accg-filing.html -
5
While this may seem like a "fuss" to some, it is to others a very serious battle for the personal rights of American citizens. The law suit is not about Cyprus, and not about coins, it is about the U.S. State Department and the way that it interacts with the American people. The court will judge the merit of this complaint in relation to federal sunshine laws. The rest is just hyperbole.
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6
Hi!
I work for a website for collectors of all kinds and thought you might like to check out some pretty interesting coin collections:
http://www.collectorsquest.com/featured-week/Coins.htmlHave Fun!
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