The American Numismatic Association Warns Import Restrictions Damage Mission

The highly esteemed American Numismatic Association explains how import restrictions on coins that focus on place of minting in ancient times rather than modern find spots have damaged its educational mission.

since the 1990s, nations such as Italy, Cyprus and China have successfully placed restrictions on an ever-increasing range of artifacts, including ancient coins. The American Numismatic Association first became involved in the MOU process when Cyprus attempted to place such items on its restricted list. To protect the rights of American collectors, the ANA has worked with the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild and other organizations to send representatives to CPAC meetings and to address the attempts of Italy, Greece and other nations to restrict the import of ancient coins into the United States. [...] The ANA fully supports the idea of protecting cultural property, but has consistently argued that ancient coins should not be included in MOUs for a number of reasons. First, coins are among the most common and durable of artifacts (with a few notable exceptions), and therefore the information they contain is in no danger of being lost to historians or archaeologists in the way unique or rare objects would be if not preserved in cultural institutions. Additionally, there is no shortage of coins in museums in nations that have ancient specimens as part of their history, particularly Europe, the Middle East and China.

Let us all hope that the excellent Trump nce again expresses hope that one of the effects of the shakeup of the system promised by the Trump Administration will consist of an effective cost benefit analysis of such restrictions and their impact on various stake holders.