Pirates Gonna be Pirates

The moderator of the Yahoo so-called 'ethical collectors forum' is boasting on the forum that he has personally just brought what he was told were genuine ancient coins out of Lebanon, I am sure he got all the paperwork required

Thu Nov 17, 2016 2:33 am (PST) . Posted by: "tuppennyblue" tuppennyblue I bought these at Baalbek. I know one is an Alexander drachma, but can anyone identify the other for me? I know little about coins so presume they are genuine? Tim

One wonders what else this collector and small-time dealer has bought on his trip and taken back to England. Ethics only for show? Let us see if his admission that he's purchased and thus presumably brought back 'a few other small items which I am sure are authentic', elicits any comment or discussion from all those "ethical" collectors (who-are-not-really-are-they?). Don't hold your breath.  Another forum member notes:

When I visited Baalbek, the "official"; guide indicated that although the state was consfiscating all ancient coins found on the site, they released a number of them to be sold to collectors. He pointed out at a shop nearby where such coins could be bought. When I visited the shop, the keeper being told that I was a collector, asked to go in the back of the shop where he showed me some coins.

Perhaps this is where Peter Tompa gets his ideas from, the coins 'released' are in fact only fakes. Of course if they really were officially released items, there would no reason for surreptitious 'back of the shop' deals. Let collectors doing 'back of the shop deals' with foreign sellers be the first to go under scrutiny.

TAKE A GOOD LOOK at this behaviour, for these are precisely the sort of people that want archaeological heritage professionals to treat them with respect and consider 'partners' in the heritage debate. Take a good look and decide what you think about that as a real possibility. Shame on all such collectors.