"CPAC, Lost Fools Must Honour Common Sense and Basic Human Rights"

This is a real curio. Let us hope that it is preserved in the Library of Congress archive of the internet as a real piece of US "cultural" heritage, the epitome of attitudes in a certain segment of US society at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century. Pure Glennbeckism from a coin dealer called Scott Semans who deals in Asian and world coins as well as numismatic books. This is a message posted to the Collectors Universe world coin collecting forum that he attached to the top of a standard version of the ACCG appeal (the emphasis is added by me):

Threat to Our Ancient Coin Collecting Hobby
[...] this is an issue that should concern not only every coin collector, but any world citizen who believes in the right to own property, and the rule of law. Does that sound grandiose? The question being considered by a secretive, unelected panel in Washington DC is whether coins, which have passed freely from hand to hand for centuries according to the intent of their issuers, have morphed into something that radical archaeologists and nationalistic politicians call "cultural property," which you are not fit to own. And the practical question this biased and unaccountable committee will decide in two weeks is whether U.S. Customs will be mandated to seize virtually all older coins they think are of Italian origin, with no practical recourse. Why then should you send a fax to these lost fools begging them to honor common sense and basic human rights? Because they are being sued, and if they continue to ignore input they are required to consider, it will hurt them. Your fax (using the link below) is one tiny nail in the coffin of Archaeological Retentionism, the doctrine that only archaeologists should handle objects of past cultures, and only with permission of those governments now in control of ancient lands.

This is just hyper-weird. It looks like a parody, but it is not, this is how these collectors are thinking and talking amongst themselves. Let us note again, what is under discussion is whether the USA should respect the fact that Italy issues export licences for the items that leave Italy legally. That in itself is by no means any kind of threat to the hobby of ancient coin collecting no more than any kind of trade in artworks and antiquities which has been going on smoothly for over a decade despite the existence of the MOU. What it primarily threatens is the ease with which any importer can bring illegally exported items from Italy into the country. This is not about "the right to own property", but it might as well be about the "right" to buy stolen cultural property. Therefore since we are talking about ancient artefacts which have left Italy without an export licence, then it not a question that one is "not fit to own" them at all, it is a measure to help ensure that the Italian material on the US market has been legally exported.

Like most coincollectors, Mr Semans aparently has a fixation on "property rights", the "right to own" whatever one wants. He says a fax to the CPAC would help fight "Archaeological Retentionism, the doctrine that only archaeologists should handle objects of past cultures, and only with permission of those governments now in control of ancient lands". Wow. Creepy stuff. We have trained surgeons so when you fall and break your leg you can either get the blacksmith or your dad to set the bones, or you can go to a hospital. Same with toothache, a bit of string and slam the door, or the trained person in the white coat? So basically when it comes to the exploration of archaeological sites, I find it difficult to comprehend why artefact collectors profess an interest in the past, but see no difference between a bloke with a crowbar and an archaeologist with a laser theodolite and notebook. Well I do, because I know all they are really interested in is getting their hands on the little round flat metal geegaws with the pictures and writing on them to either flog off and make a bit of cash on, or to hoard away, fondle and gloat over. No archaeologists are not saying that nobody should own archaeological finds. What they are saying is that people who collect (and people who sell) should not, driven by greed and could-not-carelessness, be contributing to the problems we have preserving the archaeological record by buying looted material, or material that they cannot verify is not looted. That is all, that is not archaeological "retentionism" but it is "preservationism". Why would people genuinely "passionately interested in the past" not want to join in the effort to try and preserve the archaeological record?

Now I really do not know where this "secretive, unelected panel in Washington DC" phrase comes from. it sounds like something straight from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Referring to them as "biased and unaccountable committee" one would think that the antiquities/art trade is not represented on it at all. But it is, its 11 members are appointed by the President of the United States:

"“two members represent the interests of museums; three members are expert in the fields of archaeology, anthropology, ethnology, or related areas; three members are expert in the international sale of archaeological, ethnological, or other cultural property; and three members represent the interests of the general public.” (Quoted from the CPAC website)"

Mr Semans should know that. What he has written suggests that Mr Semans actually does not realise either that the CPAC only advises, the decisions are not taken, nor the MOU formulated by this Committee. I see no justification for the remark that the committee are a bunch of "lost fools ". I hope, since the collectors each seem to need a template so desperately, nobody puts that in their fax to the State Department.

Now it is not just "radical archaeologists and nationalistic politicians" who call cultural property "cultural property". Native Americans still (have some, and here, US Interpol. The USA even has registered cultural property on the Moon. There is also a "cultural property Observer" who is far from being either a politician or archaeologist. There is a US Cultural Property Research Institute, again run by neither archaeologists or politicians, but lawyers. Mr Semans has I think got quite the wrong end of the stick here, just churning out buzzwords without any real thought on how they relate to each other and the real world. Ancient coins are of course cultural property, just the same as a knife or rattle are Native American cultural property.

U.S. Customs will not by the MOU "be mandated to seize virtually all older coins they think are of Italian origin". What they will be looking for are items not accompanied by the documentation that will be laid down by law. If a dealer wants to risk trying to import illegally exported coins from Italy, that is their look-out.

Now this bit is really rich:

Why then should you send a fax to these lost fools begging them to honor common sense and basic human rights? Because they are being sued, and if they continue to ignore input they are required to consider, it will hurt them.

It will "hurt" them? Mr Semans obviously does not know who actually his fellow coin dealers are suing. Its Uncle Tom Cobbly and All - but not the CPAC! I do not think even the ACCG has accused them of "continuing to ignore input" - on the contrary. I suggest Mr Semans reads more carefully what the ACCG gripe with the State Department is.

Now actually it is the other way round. Because they are being sued over Cyprus and China, if the coins go into the revised MOU as archaeological material (and I hope they will), then it will be done in such a way, by the letter of the book, that there will be no possbility of ACCG or any other radical anti-preservation group being able to challenge it. They'd better, I have a beer on it. The US State Department would have to be real nincompoops to mess this one up.

Now why would collectors of artefacts like coins ("only passionately interested in learning about the past") want to put "one tiny nail" in the archaeological coffin?


Some of the comments at the beginning of the thread on the forum where I found this are interesting and suggests some cogent thinking exists in some parts of the coin collecting world. One guy writes:
"Ah yes, the ACCG. The primary reason I no longer collect ancient coins".

Another: "Perhaps I'm slow or just missing something, but how does this affect all collectors? Someone who has no old Italian coins, is not sending any coins internationally or never even selling a coin, where is the impact? I'm not saying that I don't care about this subject, I just want to clarify the hyperbole". But then after that message we see the same old coiney ranting, no different from Mr Semans' original message.