ANTI-COLLECTING LAWS - PLEASE READ NOW

Greetings,

I am not sure how many of you have been following the stories in the
Celator:

http://www.celator.com/cws/Sep03LookingGlass.pdf

on Import Restrictions on old coins and paper money. You should also go
to this web site which is devoted to the subject and read as much as you
can from it:

http://www.accg.us

Bottom line is the US Congress passed a law which president Bush signed
but has not yet been implemented that will make it illegal to
import any thing (but coins, stamps, books, banknotes esp) over 100
years old THOUGHT to come from Iraq. So any ancient or world coin over
100 years old, suspected of coming from Iraq is illegal to import.

But it does not stop there, a similar bill is in the works for
Afghanistan and may pass if coin collectors fail to unite to put a stop
to this.

But it does not end there, the government of China (Mainland, Communist,
not Taiwan) is asking for import restrictions on coins even LESS than
100 years old. They say we are stealing their cultural patrimony, never
mind they are making pirate copies of western made movies, CDs, software.

But it gets even stickier, Italy wants us to put import restrictions on
coins (and medals I imagine for all practical purposes) over 100 years
old. We (the USA) did sign a bilateral agreement on antiquities but
exempting coins because coin collectors said "NO WAY!" back during the
Clinton administration. The fall out would be that any Roman coin, or
Italian coin or banknote 100 years old or older would be non-importable,
i.e., ILLEGAL to import. This would likely affect collectors of Papal
State coins and Catholic Medals making it ILLEGAL for American Catholics
(I'm Lutheran so I'm not saying this for any personal gain here) to
collect a lot of older Papal coins and medals.

But there is more, there is a reliable rumour going around that in the
name of the "war on terror" similar bills to the Iraq (PASSED INTO LAW)
and Afghan (IN COMMITTEE AS WE SPEAK) with the countries of Iran, Syria,
Lebannon are also in the works. This would make it impossible to collect
any old coin or banknote originating out of the Middle East except ones
less than 100 years old.

The country of Turkey also pressed the USA for import restrictions in
the late 1990s simultaneously with Italy. WE said no then but what will
the USA say in the present climate?

Unless you want your hobby legislated out of existence or you desire to
collect nothing but Euros and 50 State Quarters or every new Proof set
the US, Canadian or Pobjoy Mint cranks out, the time to act is now.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Go to this link and only send one fax with the ACCG faxwizard, it is
free to use but only use it once (it's not free to run, just to use) and
just follow the steps, several sample letters are constructed for you to
send or you can "build your own" fax.

US Citizens click he

http://www.vcoins.com/fax

Coin/Banknote Collectors From Other Nations Click He

http://www.accg.us/issues/news/fax

The clock is ticking... tick, tick, tick, don't wait, do it now!

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED:

"I don't have time"

Come on, it will take 5 minutes.

"Are you asking for money?"

We'd appreciate it to ofset costs but NO, you don't have to pay to do this.

"I don't want to join anything."

You don't have to join the ACCG to do this but the more the merrier, we
would be glad to have you.

"Does anybody make money off of this?"

We have no paid staff, we are all volunteers in the ACCG, we
occasionally retain an attourny or consultant but we have no part time
or full time employees, the ACCG is a non-profit org fighting to keep
the collecting of ancient (and as a practical matter older world) coins
legal.

"I collect/sell only American coins."

Do you want the US government to tell you who you can't sell a Barber
half, Morgan Dollar, Seated Liberty Quarter, etc to? What makes you
think the AIA will stop at with Ancient and older non-US coins, buddy
you are next after they finish us, IF we let them.

"Do you support illegal activity such as looting?"

NO, read our code of ethics:
http://www.accg.us/issues/ethics/

MORE INFO:

http://www.accg.us

http://www.unidroit.org/english/conv...property-e.htm
^^^BE SURE to scroll to the bottom and read the Annex section^^^

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/001...7/118783eo.pdf
^^^LONG, opposing point of view^^^

Best Wishes,

Jim McGarigle
Polymath Numismatics
ANA, ANS, ACCG
http://profiles.yahoo.com/polymath66m
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/polymath66/

I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world. - Socrates