Do you remember that Dupondius of Domitian that I wrote about some months ago? Well, it’s currently winging its way across ‘The Pond’ as a gift to a treasure hunting friend in Florida. If you ever send coins like this by post, anywhere and especially overseas, it helps to mark the envelope….’Numismatic Specimen’ rather than ‘roman coin’ thus helping to deflect the attention of prying eyes....and in some cases alert authorities to the attempted export of an item which requires an export licence to be legally exported. No mention is made here (in the interests of demonstrating 'best practice') of proof of the existence of an export licence being included in or accompanying this particular shipment. We trust that the recipient 'treasure hunting friend in Florida' would not wish to be the recipient - still less owner - of an illegally exported archaeological artefact from England. Should the export licence not arrive with this 'numismatic specimen', we trust that - as any truly law abiding citizen would do - the unwitting recipient of any illegally-exported artefact would turn the item in to ICE and inform them of the identity of the exporter. Will they?
Marking packages containing dugup artefacts with a non-transparent vague description is believed to be common practice among artefact dealers to avoid the legality of transfer of ownership being challenged by the authorities of both exporting as well as importing countries (there is a lot of this about). Gentle reader, remember if you care about losses to the world's cultural heritage through illegal activity and come across information about something like this, you do not have to stand by helplessly like a British archaeologist 'partnering' artefact hunting:
The public, government and private institutions often aid HSI in identifying, investigating and prosecuting illicitly trafficked cultural property. If you have information about the illicit trade of cultural property or art, call the HSI Tip Line, 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or report tips online.This is perhaps the coin type that was exported, a VIRTVTI AVGVSTI dupondius:
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| Timeline Auctions via Wildwinds (for illustration purposes only) |
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4 comments:
"Do you remember that Dupondius of Domitian that I wrote about some months ago? Well, it’s currently winging its way across ‘The Pond’ as a gift to a treasure hunting friend in Florida. If you ever send coins like this by post, anywhere and especially overseas, it helps to mark the envelope….’Numismatic Specimen’ rather than ‘roman coin’ thus helping to deflect the attention of prying eyes."
These are my words written elsewhere for public consumption. You allege:-
"We trust that the recipient 'treasure hunting friend in Florida' would not wish to be the recipient - still less owner - of an illegally exported archaeological artefact from England where every stop is pulled out to help the responsible artefact hunter. Should the export licence not arrive with this 'numismatic specimen', we trust that - as any truly law abiding citizen would do - the unwitting recipient of an illegally-exported artefact would turn the coin in to ICE and inform them of the identity of the exporter."
I obtained the requisite Export Licence from the Arts Council. The Export Licence number is PAE/0054817 and on their advice enclosed the licence and marked the package accordingly.
Please publish a withdrawal and here the matter will end.
John Howland
Then if that is what you did to stop 'prying eyes' holding up the transit from one country to another, why did you not say so straight out when offering 'advice' to readers how best to export items of cultural property like the coin in question?
Instead, the attention-seeking 'advice' you offered was merely to misdescribe the contents of the package in a manner which is used by other antiquities exporters to deflect the attention of border officials from the fact that the actual contents would require certain procedures being followed - and might prompt them to stop the package to check. As we know, many artefacts leave the EU without any such documentation - that is what the ACCG are going to court over (the 'right' to do that).
Was it following 'advice from the Arts Council' which led you to describe the contents of the package in the manner you describe? That would surprise me.
Please note the conditional word "should" in the above quote. I think you must have missed it in your first reading.
It may well be that having the export licence allows the item to leave the uk but would it legitimise it's import to another country? Surely there is no implied import consent for import by having the export licence.
If there is no intent to deceive, why not just label 'Numismatic specimen -a Roman Coin -full documentation enclosed'. In which case why not comment ' For you Paul an apology, in future I will ensure that declarations are full and frank as I intended no deception, john h '
Metal detectorists tend not to think things through too well. As befits their general nature, they think with their fists rather than their heads, the guy is now sending me threatening emails. It is par for the course in this pseudo-partnership which the PAS has dragged us into. Rather pathetic really. The sooner we get this lot out of the EU the better.
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