Collectors' Voices Need to be Heard Once Again!

Collectors' Voices Need to be Heard Once Again! The State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and its Cultural Heritage Center have announced a comment period for a proposed extension of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Cyprus. Readers will know that the Cyprus MOU was the beginning of the pestilential practice of including ancient coins in the Restricted List. Artifacts on that List may not be imported into the USA, unless accompanied by a valid export permit from the nation with whom the MOU was negotiated. Although the vast majority of public comments recorded have been squarely against import restrictions, the State Department and U.S. Customs have imposed import restrictions on coins anyway, most recently on ancient coins from Bulgaria. They should not be allowed to get away with this. Our silence would just allow the State Department bureaucrats and their allies in the archaeological establishment to claim that collectors have acquiesced to broad restrictions on their ability to import common ancient coins that are widely available worldwide. And, once they get that idea, there is no way to foresee what else they will attempt. Make your voice heard, opposing renewal of this pernicious and unfair agreement.