WP reports ACCG lawsuit and CPAC Hearing

For some coin collectors, federal regulations don't add up

http://tinyurl.com/28bkcgb

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...7/AR2010050705
046.html ]

By Maria Glod
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/articles/maria+glod/

They're only worth 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 across
the country say could threaten their popular and beloved hobby.

For generations, collectors have freely bought and sold coins from around
the world, including many from ancient times. But the United States in
recent years began restricting imports of some coins as part of a broader
effort to protect antiquities and combat the looting of archaeological sites
abroad.

It began with some Cypriot coins in 2007, then certain Chinese coins were
added last year. But numismatists are worried that Roman coins, the passion
of many collectors, could be next to join the list.

So the Missouri-based Ancient Coin Collectors Guild bought the 23 bronze
coins in April last year from a London dealer, solely to challenge the rules
and set off a legal showdown over requirements that people show proof of
where or when certain coins are unearthed.

In a lawsuit filed February in Maryland federal court, the collectors say
presidents John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Ronald Reagan were
ancient coin collectors. Most coins, they contend, were so widely circulated
in ancient times that it might be impossible to know when they were dug up.
Plus, they argue, the rules will do little to discourage plundering because
they apply only to U.S. collectors.

Wayne G. Sayles, a longtime collector and guild executive director, said he
agrees that some antiquities -- such as religious icons, mummies and
precious artwork -- need the government's protection and belong to the
people of the country in which they were found. But he thinks coins are
different. Most aren't high-dollar items, he says, and collectors keep,
study and protect coins that museums don't want.

"Do I think that the Liberty Bell ought to be sold to somebody in Russia?
No, it belongs here. I understand that, and I agree with that. But we're not
talking about the Liberty Bell," Sayles said.

On the flip side, there's Richard M. Leventhal, an anthropology professor at
the University of Pennsylvania. He's among those who see a coin or pottery
bowl or marble statue as pieces of one big historical puzzle. Leventhal, who
said he once was shot at by looters at an ancient Mayan site in Belize (they
missed), supports the restrictions that he thinks will hinder
metal-detector-toting thieves who destroy historic sites before
archaeologists can study them.

....

On Wednesday, Leventhal and Sayles attended a hearing before the State
Department's Cultural Property Advisory Committee on an agreement with Italy
that restricts the import of some pre-classical, classical and Imperial
Roman artifacts. Many collectors are lobbying against the addition of coins,
while many archaeologists want them on the list.

Souzana Steverding of Ancient Coins for Education told the committee that
the restrictions would hurt her group's efforts to put common ancient coins
in the hands of students. Brown University archaeology professor Susan
Alcock said they should be protected. "There may be millions of these little
suckers, but they are still important," she said.

Sebastian Heath, the Archaeological Institute of America's vice president
for professional responsibilities, said he gets frustrated when he sees
ancient coins, still caked in the dirt in which they were found, advertised
on eBay with no indication they were studied in context. "It's impossible to
recover that knowledge," he said.

It may seem like this is a clear divide between collectors and
archaeologists, until you hear from Alan M. Stahl, curator of Princeton
University's extensive coin collection.

Stahl is an archaeologist who appreciates the great value of finding a coin
buried exactly where it dropped centuries ago. Coins help date sites or
provide clues to where people traveled. But he also purchases coins to grow
the university's collection, one of the oldest in the United States. And, he
said, few coins on the market have the paperwork to prove their provenance.

"It is not a simple problem, which is why I don't put myself solidly in
either camp," Stahl said.

In fact, Stahl presents the issue to students in the numismatic
methodologies class he teaches. "If there is a coin that would improve
Princeton's collection for teaching and research purposes, and the only
example does not come with provenance, should I buy it?" he asks. The
students, he said, almost always vote yes.

One recent afternoon, Michael Mehalick, an internship coordinator at
Montgomery College and a guild member who has collected coins since he was a
boy, laid out some of his prized ancient Roman coins on the kitchen counter
of his New Carrollton home. Most cost about $50 to $100.

Mehalick, a history buff who can tick off names of Roman leaders, doesn't
want sites to be looted. But he thinks the new rules would do little to
deter plundering and would make it harder for him to legally purchase coins.

"It's strange because coins have been collected for hundreds and hundreds of
years," Mehalick said. "It's a way to have a tangible piece of history that
is not too expensive. Most of the coins I have, you probably would not see
in a museum because there is not enough interest."

Posted to the list by:

Dave Welsh
Unidroit-L Listowner
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Unidroit-L