Ancient Coin Collectors Like Porn Network: "Closed, Members Only"

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A few days ago several readers anxious to check up on the true context of things I was writing about asked me why they could not access the Moneta-L ancient coin collecting forum from the links in my blog. I replied that I did not know, since Moneta-L has an open access format, and being a group member I had no problem with access, so I could see all the old posts. There had been no announcement made that the archives had been closed, so these difficulties which my readers were having were inexplicable.

I therefore wrote (a perfectly civil letter) to Kevin Barry, a moderator of the group with whom I had previously had some friendly exchanges and seemed like a reasonable bloke. I asked what the problem with access to the archives is and whether this was a technical glitch. I received no reply. Last night therefore I contacted two other group moderators with the same request for information. I received no reply from either of them. Instead I find this morning that my own access to the group and its archives has been blocked. This was after I had already been asked earlier not to make any more posts there - a request I honoured, keeping my replies to items discussed there here, off-list. Now I am prevented from seeing any new or old posts. Presumably that is to prevent me from being able to keep up to date with further developments in the "Culture Property War" the collectors of ancient coins (or rather the dealers that supply them) have unilaterally declared on the rest of the world.

Let it also be noted that I have as yet received no notification from the moderators [Messers Robert Kokotailo (http://www.calgarycoin.com/); Kevin Barry (http://www.bitsofhistory.com); Thom Bray (http://www.romancoin.com); Dave Garstang (http://www.garstang.us/DavesCoins.html)] that my account is blocked, let alone any explanation of why. What, gentlemen have you to hide by not doing me the courtesy of even answering my request for information and a statement on current group policy but instead reacting in this manner?


Obviously, one can only conclude that the dealers who run that group now feel that the public should not see what goes on in their discussions of ancient coin collecting, furthermore that archaeologists who blog about responsible antiquities collecting should not see what happens in that group. That says volumes about the collectors of ancient coins (or is it just the dealers that supply them?).

If coin collecting (if antiquities collecting in general), are all that its advocates claim, there should be no need for such secrecy. Antiquities are not kiddie porn that they cannot be discussed out in the open, are they? The Moneta-L forum is supposed to be the visiting card of ancient coin collecting. Instead it is a door shut in the face of the main stakeholder of the heritage these people want to accumulate in their own hands, the general public. It is a door shut in the face of policy makers also, who may want to know just what is being hidden there from whom.

This is typical, the metal detectorists in the UK have always done this, but one by one the forums where the collecting of portable antiquities is discussed are shutting their doors to external scrutiny. An iron curtain is coming down between "Internationalist" collectors and the public who have a right to know what they are doing. Only those individuals approved by the gatekeepers can look behind the curtain and see what is happening, swap information and opinions. It is interesting that it is precisely Moneta-L that is going this way, this is the response to open discussion from the very community that is shouting loudest about "transparency" and "accountability" as being fundamental to "collectors' rights". It seems this is to be unillateral, while collectors and dealers are doing everything to hide their own doings behind a veil of secrecy. We saw how the ACCG pounced on dissident collectors who questioned the wisdom of the measures they were forcing on collecting over illegal exports, now this. This is hypocrisy of the highest order.

I challenge the ACCG to issue a full statement on behalf of the coin collectors whose interests they claim to represent about the issue of transparency in the coin collecting milieu. I think the public and lawmakers have the right to know whether the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild support this kind of censorship of information and suppression of free speech about collecting of ancient artefacts and educational outreach about coins and the effects of looting. Does the Guild think the public should be included in or excluded from the discussions about the future of the antiquity collecting hobby? They will not of course, its members do not read this blog, do they?

What was once the hobby of kings is now democratised and in the hands of the sort of people who cannot even do the courtesy of acknowledging a letter, let alone provide articulate answers to justifiable criticism. Instead they rely on secrecy when not indulging in their name calling and insults. Shame on you.

Some porn on numismatic items which Monetans want to swap information about in secret. These ones from Thasos could be showing ancient abusive non-consentual sex between species. Some of it even seems from the pictures to be same sex stuff. is it images like these that Monetans want to keep hidden from tender eyes? I suspect that is not their only motive for closing their discussion list to outsiders...

[meta tags: illicit antiquities, looted antiquities, coin collecting, ancient coins, porn ring, secret organizations, elitist organizations, cultural property policy, transparency, smuggling, accountability, public policy, censorship, Collectors' rights, illegal immigrants]