EBay "does not matter": Lueke and the Coin Elves (Footnote)

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Coin elf believer Jorg Lueke's searching of ebay figures ('What can [sic] eBay tell us about the Ancient Coin Market (and what it can't)' leads him to believe that "only" 7000 lots containing ancient coins are sold by US-based dealers through eBay a month (that is still some 90 000 a year). He suggests that "90% are coins under $100, [...] 78% are under $50".

Most of the lots, not surprisingly, are Roman Imperial which is the series with the largest amount of junk coins. Since Roman Imperial junkers are ultra common and not part of any US MOUs, though some would be claimed as Italian patrimony, one wonders if they can really be considered cultural property at all. These coins certainly wouldn't be found in any museum and they are unlikely to be making any looters rich.

Mr Lueke seems to have very limited experience of real museums. The research collections of many of them do indeed contain a large number of what he dismisses as "Roman Imperial junkers". This is what many of the hoards added to museum collections through Britain's Treasure Act consist of for example.

Mr Lueke seems to consider that only items of high commercial value and which "make looters rich" can "really be considered cultural property". He either is simply ignorant of the fact, or chooses to ignore it, that the digging of a coin that he dismisses as Roman "junk" from a crucial part of the archaeological record does as much damage to the site, its stratigraphy and thus the potential historical knowledge it contains, as if the coin was worth 5000 dollars to his Minnesota dealer mates.

Thank goodness therefore that articles 1 and 13d of the 1970 UNESCO Convention leave the definition of what is and what is not cultural property up to the source country and not a bunch of greedy self-serving dealers and collectors in the "market country".