Coin Collectors Challenge Import Restrictions

The ACCG has launched phase two of a coordinated plan to challenge import
restrictions on ancient coins.

http://tinyurl.com/pjzmsg

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.

As mandated, U.S. Customs detained these coins being imported from the
United Kingdom. The ACCG now plans to use this detention as a vehicle to
strike down the unprecedented regulations banning importation of whole
classes of ancient coins, The collectors' group claims that, among other
abnormalities, the decision process for these agreements was orchestrated
contrary to the spirit and intent of governing law. Moreover, they claim
that the State Department misled Congress and the public about its decision
not to follow the recommendations of its own Cultural Property Advisory
Committee (CPAC) - a group of experts charged with advising the president on
how best to balance the goals of protecting cultural heritage against the
needs of a legitimate trade in cultural artifacts.

Washington attorney Peter K. Tompa, of the law firm Bailey & Ehrenberg PLLC,
will represent the ACCG in this matter, According to Tompa, "Research and
discovery to date in a separate ongoing Freedom of Information Act case
strongly suggests that State Department bureaucrats acted improperly by
adding coins to import restrictions on Chinese cultural goods without any
formal request from PRC officials. Even more troubling, is their July 2007
decision to impose import restrictions on coins of Cypriot type, which
appears to have been adopted contrary to the recommendations of CPAC."

The ACCG ( http://accg.us ) is a non-profit organization promoting the free
and independent collecting of coins from antiquity. It advocates protection
of cultural resources through programs like the United Kingdom's Treasure
Act and Portable Antiquities Scheme that recognize public participation.

Posted to the list by:
Dave Welsh
Unidroit-L Listowner
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Unidroit-L

"Dave Welsh" wrote in message
...

The ACCG has launched phase two of a coordinated plan to challenge import
restrictions on ancient coins.

http://tinyurl.com/pjzmsg


Hello

Here is a much safer web link to go to to check out
the restrictions on importing Chinese Coins.

http://www.accg.us/issues/news/coin-...t-restrictions

...