Peter Tompa's latest literary production surmises that the timing of what he calls "the controversial decision to impose [US] import restrictions on coins of Cypriot type" might have been due to Nicholas Burns, then Undersecretary of State, having been awarded by the "National Coordinated Effort of Hellenes" in May 2007, just weeks before the decision was publicised, and he then interfered with the Cyprus ruling as some kind of an odd gesture of gratitude for this. Fellow conspiracy theorists may find evidence supporting such a scenario in that Mr Burns has been seen flying about in a Black Helicopter. After having given the matter some thought and doing some research on the Internet, I have come up with an alternative theory of my own to explain this event. My theory is that maybe it never occurred to the folk in the State Department that ancient coins were not ancient coins and therefore archaeological finds?
See also David Gill here with a cross link to a story on this blog
and Jim McGarigle Polymath Numismatics here
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3 comments:
Mildly amusing, but you have neglected to note the PSEKA/CAARI markings on the choppers. See my blog for the latest details.
Sincerely,
Peter Tompa
http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2008/08/pseka-international-coordinating.html
More 'shock-horror' straw-clutching pseudo-revelations.
"So let's try to connect the dots"...
"While one must admit that all this is based on an educated guess, it would seem to be a probable scenario"... and the ACCG intend building a case on THAT? Pathetic. Maybe simply the State department like the rest of the educated world regard ancient coins as just one category of archaeological finds. Period. End of story. Accept it guys and just get the export licences for the next four years like the legitimate businessmen you want us to accept you as.
More black helicopter sightings from US coin collectors:
http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2008/08/clay-constantinou-of-patton-boggs.html
There is apparently in the United States a group of “small businesses of the numismatic trade and collectors who just want to help preserve, study and display coins of Cypriot type ” (but without going through the formalities of first documenting that they were legally exported). They are however allegedly being victimized as a result of “high powered lobbying”.
Mr Tompa warns this “does little to advance Cyprus' greater interests in ensuring a just reunification of the Island ”. Apparently the ACCG considers that without the support of ancient coin collectors, the island may have to stay divided. One may expect in the next few weeks news that concerned islanders have sent a delegation to negotiate with US ancient coin collectors.
Meanwhile revelations that somebody who was present at the Cyprus MOU signing ceremony may have rubbed shoulders with somebody else who was there and who signed a contract with a third group who do not seem to have been represented there is taken as the next coincidence which the coin collectors suspect might give support to yet another wonderfully inventive conspiracy theory. I think if this goes on much longer the ACCG eggheads will have to fashion themselves some of these (http://www.stopabductions.com/) so that the other side cannot learn their next thoughts.
How many of the 50 000 ancient coin collectors in the US actually believe these conspiracy theories? Their sole purpose is to explain away what these collectors do not want to admit, ancient coins ARE archaeological finds. Why can legitimate traders and collectors not admit that, get the export documentation in order, and carry on collecting? Its not as if Cypriot coins form a large part of the US ancient coin market (not a single one is in the ACCG “benefit auction”, very few are listed in Wildwinds, on V-Coins or any other “archive” of current and recent sales).
I’m sorry, but its becoming increasingly difficult to treat this whole sorry business seriously, and I would like to know how much of the US coin-collecting milieu has been caught up in this mass hysteria and how many have turned their back on it as the aberrations of an attention- seeking few.
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