We don’ need no Edukashun, we’re ancient coin collectors

A few days ago Dave Welsh posted a link to my blog over on the Moneta-L numismophillic discussion forum, suggesting “Barford insults” coin collectors. So in reply for the last few days the avocational numismophillic erudites gathered over there have enjoyed a little teenage-boy-style web-frenzy of insulting me in return, not discussing what I said, mind, just good old from-behind-the monitor abuse.

I thought I’d discuss some of these posts here over the next few days, as these knee-jerk comments are highly revealing of the mentality behind the collecting. They reveal, I think it can be shown, that the “only passionately interested in the past” type arguments used by the pro-collecting lobby are only part of the story.

Here is a guy called Charley (sic) Rhodes, who I assume is the same as this gentleman: “ACE supporter and ACCG member, Charley Rhodes in New Mexico, who is – wait for it – a rocket scientist!” Well, let us see how a rocket scientist understands the issues, which hardly seem “rocket science” to me…

If a collector knows that a coin being sold is stolen - as in taken from a museum or known collection then the collector should act notifying authorities. But to assume that the coin being purchased has been looted just because there is no paperwork is lunacy and it is even more idiotic to expect the buyer to do anything about provenance. As someone noted earlier, the burden of proof is on the accuser not the accused. If a buyer suspects a coin(s) has(have) been looted and it bothers him, don't buy the coin(s) - it is a simple choice - no ethics involved. If not bothered buy the coin and enjoy it as it was intended. Likewise with dealers - they can ask their sources and if the sources prefer not to answer - again buy or not based on ones own preference. The source/seller will go elsewhere to get a sale and thus nothing changes one way or another. The coins, looted or not are still on the market and will be sold. There is no ethics involved - collecting and looting are not the same or in anyway equivalent - it is just a ploy by the Barfords of the world to discredit an time honored and educational endeavor - which reaches and educates far more people than a Barford.

Five points about this tangle of typical collecting mantras, leaving aside the personal tone:

1) can a collector offered an ancient coin or group of them on the US market without paperwork “assume” these days it was NOT looted? Ancient coins are not dug out of North American soil. I think given what we know about the current scale of the imports of illegally excavated stuff into North America, to “assume” otherwise in the total absence of documentary evidence to the contrary can be classed simply as self-deception.

2) I would say, given that increasing scrutiny is revealing increasing amounts of material of illegal, or potentially illegal origin on the market, that if collectors of portable antiquities wish to show the public that their hobby is a legitimate way to use archaeological evidence, then it is not actually on the “accuser” that the burden of proof wholly lies any more. Collectors are already accused, and are now standing public trial. Its now up to them to prove their innocence. Hurling insults at their accusers will get them nowhere in court or the sympathy of onlookers.

3) We note again the typical US-coin-collector notion of what is “stolen”. Obviously something stolen from a foreign community is regarded by them as not really stolen if its Bound for the USA. I guess if somebody steals the park railings in a national park in the US and sells them for scrap, its not “stealing” because its government property (“who says? the government, who paid for them? I did, so I’m having them”).

4) Charley says: “If a buyer suspects a coin(s) has(have) been looted and it bothers him, don't buy the coin(s) - it is a simple choice - no ethics involved.” Hmm. Surely that is the very basis of ethical collecting and an ethical trade. But let us note that word “suspects” ("Cf with point 2 Your Honour"), yes Charley, even if there is a suspicion, if the dealer is unable to provide documentation supporting their assurances, the ethical collector (of anything) does not buy. Not rocket science is it?

5) Just to make up the measure of the mantra-quotient we see Charley has added: "discredit an (sic) time honored and educational endeavor". I think coin collecting, and the trade in ancient coins and portable antiquities in particular has done quite enough to discredit itself. All its critics are doing is highlighting and putting into context facts which are fully visible out there on the Internet and in publications. It is they that discredit the hobby ("endeavour"? ). "Time honoured" is an argument frequently used in the numismophillic milieu to justify their "right" to continue to buy what they all know were black market goods for ever and ever. We all of course know that a few centuries ago they did a lot of things differently from now, that is no argument for not doing them differently in the twenty-first century.

Educational? What actually are a minority group learning about through patronising the black market in looted metal objects from archaeological sites? I think one can read books about Caesar Augustus Flatulanus or Henryk the Bandy-Legged rather than collecting in a back room in Alamagordo examples of their coins looted from an ancient site on another continent. The ripping of these pieces of archaeological evidence from the ground renders impossible the use of the evidence of that site to tell us of the lives or ordinary people in the times of Caesar Augustus and Henryk the Bandy-Legged. One can read about Caesar and Henryk in the history books; the lives of the people who do not get into history books can only be reached through archaeology. The coineys in fact perpetuate an elite-centred and thus warped vision of "history" at the expense of the ability to create a more holistic vision of the past. Such a vision of history is entirely anachronistic, even in the realms of traditional historiography.