Fuzzy Understanding of Isolated Minds

Peter Tompa really does not (want to) understand the comments that I made when I said coin collectors are becoming (and largely through his own loud and misdirected efforts) more and more isolated in their intransigence towards cleaning up the antiquities market.  He does however admit (for he could hardly deny it) that "far more proponents than opponents appeared at the CPAC meeeting".  But then he tries to explain it away:

proponents were largely academics who most likely are being reimbursed in some fashion for their travel to Washington, D.C.  Most "coineys" simply don't have the time or the funding to attend.

But the comment was not about how many coineys turned up to attempt to defend the indefensible, it is how many papyrologists, scarab, amulet and shabti collectors, collectors of sarcophagi and broken off mummy feet who did not turn up to defend smuggling of artefacts without any paperwork. You cannot tell me that somebody who can first hunt down and then spend tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars on a trophy item to stand in the hallway is a person who has "no time and money", yet a few hundred coin collectors represented by Mr Tompa and Mr Sayles were and are on their own.  

Tompa explains away the fact that no "Cultural Property Observer" observations have appeared on the CPAC meeting, although two other accounts have already appeared. He feebly says "as is the case with other "coineys" sometimes other work must take precedence". Yet he was not there in a private capacity, he was there representing the IAPN, and as such, he owes its members (who are paying for his lobbying) a proper account of what he did there on their behalf.

Yes, collectors and dealers are well and truly isolated, have isolated themselves, from the rest of the collecting community. They gaily represent the worst tendencies in the milieu and it would seem that for the most part the rest of the artefact collecting community (embarrassing BFF English metal detectorists excepted) want to have very little to do with them these days. The ACCG has done little than turn collectors of ancient coins in the public eye into some bizarre and disreputable caricature.