Coin Collectors Sue State Department

NEWS OF INTEREST TO COLLECTORS

The struggle to preserve your right to collect ancient coins began almost
the day Classical Coins opened, with the foundation of Unidroit-L [
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Unidroit-L/ ], an Internet discussion list
focusing on cultural property law. Shortly thereafter I joined the Ancient
Coin Collectors Guild [ http://accg.us/ ], in which I presently chair the
International Affairs Committee and am a member of the Board of Directors.

The United States is a signatory to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means
of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Importation and Transfer of
Ownership of Cultural Property. In 1984 Congress passed the Cultural
Property Implementation Act (CPIA) implementing provisions of this
Convention into US law. The UNESCO Convention was then, and remains, highly
controversial because its definitions of "cultural property" are so broad as
to include common items such as coins, printed books and even postage
stamps. This excessive scope was justly criticized as including virtually
everything made by the hand of man that is more than 100 years old. Strong
objections were raised against changing US traditions of individual rights
and free trade, in what was assailed as a strategy to draw the US into
enforcing export control laws of other nations. Amid much concern and
trepidation, Congress addressed how this could be done in a manner fair to
all. The solution followed American traditions that responsible decision
making required that a broad cross section of the public should be involved.

Congress established the Cultural Property Advisory Committee to advise the
President, or those to whom he delegated his authority, about requests from
other nations to restrict importation of cultural property. Impartiality and
fairness would be ensured by specifying broad and inclusive membership for
this Committee, and placing it under management of the State Department. For
the first ten years, this system worked as planned and responsible,
impartial decisions were made.

Meanwhile the conservation lobby, frustrated by rejection of the 1995
Unidroit Convention whose extreme demands prevented its adoption by any
major collecting nation, sought alternative means to achieve their goals.
They found a promising opportunity in the State Department. Congress assumed
that the State Department could be trusted to be fair and impartial in
administering the CPIA, thus no specific safeguards or oversight were
provided to ensure this. State Department staff had wide discretion in
administration of the CPIA and the Cultural Property Advisory Committee. If
the support of these officials could be gained, the conservation lobby's
objective of restricting and eventually banning private collecting could be
pursued through unpublicized administrative decisions. This proved to be a
successful strategy. The events of the next ten years are described in my
blog, http://classicalcoins.blogspot.com/ .

Matters came to a head on Friday July 13th 2007, when the State Department
imposed restrictions on importation of ancient coins "of Cypriot types"
issued before 330 a.d. This unprecedented action to include ancient coins in
extending existing import restrictions was issued without stating
justification or reasons. The State Department reversed its long standing
prior position exempting coins from such restrictions, even though all
factual and practical reasons justifying the exemption remain unchanged. All
attempts to get an explanation from the State Department as to how and why
this decision was made, including inquiries from Senators and Congressmen,
have failed.

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 disclosure of information relating to requests
from Cyprus, China and Italy because, in each case, apparent irregularities
in the way these requests were received and managed had caused significant
concerns. 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 (
http://accg.us/ ) and to contribute generously toward this worthy cause.



Dave Welsh

Classical Coins

www.classicalcoins.com