"Go Forth and Be Creative": The Penultimate Push

By the evening of the 12th May there were still only 26 comments on the CPAC docket for the Egypt MOU. Obviously this was not very comfortable for the folks taking money tpo represent the dealers in the face of increased pressure on the USA to so something about antiquity smuggling. So, I imagine there was a bit of a flurry of activity on the forums, "Save Our Man's Job" perhaps the topic was called, and I bet it called on coin collectors to urge, if nothing else, that ancient coins would be exempt from inclusion on the designated list, and to select a few arguments from the lists already circulating.  So how much thinking for themselves did those cpoin collectors employ? Let's see:

exempt ancient coins from this resolution.-  Butch Cook,.

exempt ancient coins - Carey Linker,

Please exempt Ancient Coins - Jim Bulmer,

ancient coins should be exempt - Bo Cribbs,

It is important that ancient Egyptian coins be exempt - David Fanning,

Exempt ancient coins - Robert  Crutchley (that's the entire extent of his comment), 

EXEMPT ANCIENT COINS! - Ed Whitmore,

Please exempt ancient Egyptian Coins - John Parsons,

Exempt Ancient Coins ! - Chip Vaughn,

For all of the articulate reasons posted by Mr. Hixenbaugh below, ancient coins need to be exempt from the proposal - Anonymous, Anonymous,

Exempt Ancient Coins - Michael Moriarty,

"Exempt Ancient Coins" Moses Wildermuth (note quotation marks),

that exempts ancient coins -Brian D. Wagoner,

Exempt Ancient Coins! - Susi Seiler,

Please exempt ancient coins -  Linda Hagopian,

exempt coins - Scott Rottinghaus,

Please exclude Ptolemaic and Roman coins,  Nicholas Molinari,

Ancient Coins […] should be excluded -  Ed Flinn,

Please exempt ancient coins - William Anonymous,

Exempt Ancient coins Please exepmt Egyptian ancient coins - Ales Lokar,

exempt ancient coins - Ranc Paul

Please strongly consider exempting ancient coins from the ban -  Wachtel, Thomas

Ancient coins should be exempted -  John McIntosh,

Ancient coins of Egyptian origins as a category should be exempted - Clifford Mishler,

Exempt ancient coins - David Pomeroy,

"Exempt Ancient Coins" - Peter Haworth (note again the quotation marks),

Please keep ancient coins off the list - Matthew Richter,

I strongly urge the elimination of ancient coins - Michael Davis,

The exemption of ancients coins  - Kim Westfall,

exempt ancient coins - Javier Ruiz,

Ancient coins should be EXEMPTED from these regulations! - Edward Kendall,

exempt ancient coins - Dennis Rider,

an exemption for coins - Almyr Bump,

Exempt ancient coins - Jacob Ulvila,

Please exempt ancient coins Coin collectors are just mild mannered hobbyists.- Gaye Thomas ,

Ancient coins should be exempted - Hank Sadowski,

Please exempt ancient coins - David Murrey,

Please exempt ancient coins - Robert Kohn,

Please exempt ancient coins- (Little ambassadors of Egyptian history) from the restrictions - William Hainsworth,

an exemption for coins should be made - Jon LaFalce,

Ancient coins should be exempt from any restrictive legislation - Kenneth Bressett,

the exemption of ancient coins Robert Gage,

Then what are we to make of these three texts?

"The only legitimate sources for ancient Egyptian artwork in the US are legally held old collections both here and abroad. The market for all antiquities is a secondary market, that is to say, all objects appearing on the market are coming from previous owners rather than from recent excavation. Auction houses, dealers, institutions, and private collectors shun freshly excavated and illicitly exported material. Objects lacking provenance are universally looked upon as bad investments. Objects with well documented provenance have achieved the highest results at auction while pieces with of similar style and quality lacking firmly documented provenance often sell for a fraction of the price or go unsold.   Posted 05/06/2014, docket DOS-2014-0008-0029 Submitter: Randall Hixenbaugh,

"The only legitimate sources for ancient Egyptian artwork in the US are legally held old collections both here and abroad. The market for all antiquities is a secondary market, that is to say, all objects appearing on the market are coming from previous owners rather than from recent excavation. Auction houses, dealers, institutions, and private collectors shun freshly excavated and illicitly exported material. Objects lacking provenance are universally looked upon as bad investments. Objects with well documented provenance have achieved the highest results at auction while pieces with of similar style and quality lacking firmly documented provenance often sell for a fraction of the price or go unsold". Anonymous, Anonymous

"The only legitimate sources for ancient Egyptian Coins and antiquities in the US are legally held old collections both here and abroad. The market for all antiquities is a secondary market, that is to say, all objects appearing on the market are coming from previous owners rather than from recent excavation. Auction houses, dealers, institutions, and private collectors shun freshly excavated and illicitly exported material. Objects lacking provenance are universally looked upon as bad investments. Objects with well documented provenance have achieved the highest results at auction while pieces with of similar style and quality lacking firmly documented provenance often sell for a fraction of the price or go unsold.... Public comment , Posted 05/13/2014, docket DOS-2014-0008-0081 Submitter: A., Siamak [in the latter case it's the entire content of the comment, read like that, it is an endorsement of regulation, rather than opposition to it - is that what the cut-and-paste "author" intended?]

This one seems confused about which country this MOU is about and which list he's supposed to be quoting from, not even Peter Tompa this time has tried to claim private possession of artefacts is promoted in Egypt. It was in the case of the last three countries he tried that one:

Restricting the ownership of ancient coins from Egypt by US citizens makes no sense to me because Egypt does not restrict their own citizens from owning the same coins. Please do not pass this measure. (Posted 05/13/2014, docket DOS-2014-0008-0056
Submitter: Fritsch, Robert).