What's New at Classical Coins - September 11, 2008

It has been seven months since we last sent out a newsletter about recent
developments at Classical Coins. There's a lot to report.

Since the last newsletter -
* Many coins have been added to our online inventory
* Significant developments occurred in the Cultural Property War
* More online discussion lists were added on Cultural Property Law
* A major brush fire in Goleta shut us down
* Opening of our Classical Creations division

*****Coins Added*****

With this issue of "What's New" listing of 48 new ancient coins to the
Classical Coins website, www.classicalcoins.com , is announced. To quickly
review these new listings, visit http://www.classicalcoins.com/new.html .
This group includes Greek silver and bronze coins, Roman Provincial coins,
and a selection of Roman Republic and Imperial issues. The majority are from
the Robert Bernobich collection. We have acquired many nice coins recently,
and will present them in instalments. The next (hopefully soon)will feature
another eclectic mix of attractive Greek, Roman and Persian coins.

We have continued to give particular attention to acquiring high quality
late Roman bronze issues. These became abundant fifteen years ago when metal
detectors began to be used in nations formerly ruled by defunct
authoritarian regimes. The days of abundance are ending due to exhaustion of
finds and efforts to suppress illicit metal detecting, which led to abuses
involving rapacious excavation of archaeological sites. We desire to
continue offering high quality late Roman bronze coins to collectors at
favorable prices, even though availability of these coins will soon revert
to the relative scarcity that prevailed before 1990.

Classical Coins follows strict ethical standards in acquiring coins,
including examination of export permits for coins shipped from nations
controlling their export, although that is not required under US law.
Collectors may be confident that anything acquired from Classical Coins is
"archaeology safe" within the limits of precautions that can reasonably be
taken.
Many collectors don't realize that there is much more to Classical Coins
than what appears on our New Listings and Premier Coins pages. We encourage
you to explore the entire site, where many hundreds of other attractive
coins await your perusal. We have been so busy that previous listings have
not been repriced to the current market, and quite a few real bargains
remain to be found. If a coin you are searching for is not listed, that does
not mean that we don't have it. We always have a large inventory of coins
and numismatic literature not yet listed for sale, and will gladly help
customers fill want lists, or locate difficult to find coins. For
assistance, telephone us at 805-562-8619 or send an email to
.

Don't forget to visit our VCoins store, located at
http://www.vcoins.com/ancient/classicalcoins/store , where you will find a
different stock of fine ancient coins to which many interesting additions
have also been made.

*****The Cultural Property War*****

The war began Friday July 13th 2007, when the anticollecting lobby led by
the AIA finally got its way. After effective "behind the scenes" lobbying by
these zealots - who intend to take away your long standing right to
peacefully collect and study coins and other antiquities, to advance their
own narrow interests - the US State Department imposed restrictions on
importation of ancient coins "of Cypriot types" issued before 330 a.d. This
unprecedented action of including ancient coins in extending existing import
restrictions was announced without any justification or reasons, reversing a
long standing policy of exempting coins from import restrictions. All
attempts to get an explanation as to how and why this decision was made,
including official inquiries from Senators and Congressmen, failed. This
"stonewalling" by the State Department left organizations defending
collectors' rights no alternative to legal action, to compel full public
disclosure as required by US law.

On November 15, 2007 the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild, the International
Association of Professional Numismatists and the Professional Numismatists
Guild jointly filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the
State Department. This seeks to compel disclosure of information relating to
requests from Cyprus, China and Italy because in each case, irregularities
in the way these requests were received and managed has caused significant
concerns. The lawsuit is proceeding. and preliminary discovery documents
have been filed. Further details can be found at
http://accg.us/issues/news/foia-suit-filed-against-dos .

The Ancient Coin Collectors Guild is the only organization actively
defending the rights of collectors against the steady and insidious
encroachment of legislation and regulations aimed at restricting and perhaps
eventually banning private collecting. This is an expensive process, both in
terms of the time donated by our volunteer staff and the funds required to
pursue legal action. I urge every reader to join the ACCG and to contribute
generously toward this worthy cause.

*****More Online Discussion Lists*****

To better focus discussions, I created two new discussion lists. These are
the lists I now moderate:

UNIDROIT-L http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Unidroit-L/ Focus:
1995 UNIDROIT Convention, news
UNESCO-L http://groups.yahoo.com/group/unesco-l/
Focus: 1970 UNESCO Convention
RENFREW-L http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RENFREW-L/ Focus:
Renfrew's hypothesis on looting
eFakes-L http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eFakes-L/
Focus: Online antiquities and collectibles fraud

You may also wish to visit my blog: http://classicalcoins.blogspot.com/ .
Much of its content relates to cultural property law.

*****The Goleta Gap Fire*****

On July 1 a brush fire broke out in the mountains above Goleta. Within two
days it became a major threat, raging for more than a month and burning
10,000 acres. More than 2400 men and dozens of aircraft were brought in to
fight this inferno, whose flames rose hundreds of feet into the dense,
choking smoke. Thousands of homeowners had to be evacuated, but no homes
were lost and only a few outbuildings and abandoned vehicles were burned.

Our office was never in danger, but its operations were disrupted by
continual power outages, toxic smoke and heavy ash fall, so that we were
forced to shut down for two weeks. That created an administrative backlog
that still has not been completely eliminated.

*****Classical Creations*****

Classical Coins now has an outstanding new division, dedicated to designing
and offering fine jewelry creations with unique themes, including items
featuring ancient coins. Eventually coin jewelry will become a major focus,
to be presented on the Classical Coins website, but for now everything is
offered at the Classical Creations online sto
http://www.trocadero.com/stores/classicalcreations/ .

Dave Welsh
Classical Coins