Wednesday, 3 June 2009
American Numismatic Association and the Supply of Ancient Coins
One of the candidates in the upcoming elections for the Board of Governors of the American Numismatic Association, Dr Scott Rottinghaus has been canvassing for votes on the Moneta-L forum on the grounds that he is the first candidate in any time with “a primary focus on ancient coins”. He says he is “ very interested in making the ANA more relevant to collectors of ancient coins, and in preserving our ability to collect and trade ancient coins”. The latter of course refers to efforts being made to curb the sales in the US of illegally excavated and illegally exported material. I think it would be helpful to the 90% of US collectors of ancient coins who are not affiliated to the ACCG to see a public statement of the standpoint Dr Rottinghaus has on the recent attempted illegal import of coins by the ACCG through Baltimore Airport in April. The ANA has a code of ethics of a sort created in the 1960s before the current internet-based market in looted material began to develop which obliges its members "to neither buy nor sell numismatic items of which the ownership is questionable". It is not stipulated what is meant by this, whether just stolen from another collector or collection, or whether removed from a country which has state ownership of certain categories of archaeological material without documentation showing proper process being followed. The ANA dealers’ code of ethics obliges its members "to abide by all local, state and federal laws in all numismatic matters and to assist in the prosecution of violators of the law in this respect" . Again it is not stipulated whether “all laws” in “all numismatic matters” includes assuring that purchased goods come with documentation of legal excavation and legal export from the source countries. The test of this would be to ask how many dealers have been expelled from the ANA for selling ancient coins freshly dug up from (for example) the Balkans for which they cannot show a valid export licence.
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3 comments:
"The ANA has a code of ethics....."to neither buy nor sell numismatic items of which the ownership is questionable". It is not stipulated what is meant by this, whether just stolen from another collector or collection, or whether removed from a country which has state ownership of certain categories of archaeological material without documentation showing proper process being followed."
Fascinating. But you have omitted a third and overwhelmingly dominant aspect of legitimate ownership that needs establishing by an ethical dealer.
In England and Wales, apart from a small minority of Treasure Act items, the ownership of freshly dug items is very clear: they all beyond to the landowner. Consequently, it is lazy thinking to assume that if an item is being offered by a British detectorist or British supplier then that individual now owns the item.
Clearly, in order to be sure he is not buying or selling numismatic items of questionable ownership every ANA dealer must obtain documentation confirming that it is being sold with the knowledge and consent of the ACTUAL owner - whose identity is bound to be known if all is above board.
Thus, buying (or selling) an item without the landowner's name and address being supplied at the same time would evidently contravene the ANA code of ethics. It involves trading in items for which not a shred of (easily obtainable) proof of legitimate ownership has been supplied - and logic dictates that an unknown but entirely avoidable percentage of them are stolen goods, plain and simple.
So, to our plea - "to be ethical, please quote a PAS reference number" perhaps we could add "and to be licit, please quote the export documentation AND proof of legitimate ownership."
Careful, have you done your twenty years? If not or Mr Hooker (he of the "Hooker papers") will be finding a quote about you too from "The House at Pooh Corner": http://paul-barford.blogspot.com/2009/06/hooker-quotes-aa-milne.html
I've been around lawyers a lot longer than twenty years and know that if they don't have a case they revert to Plan B - try to discredit the witness!
I've NEVER seen a witness called a bear with a small brain though, that's definitely a first!
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