April Tomfoolery from Oxfordshire Museum "Service" - What About the SITE?

A really regrettable feature of the social media use of British archaeologists and museums is the continual dumbdown that is basically their only content and contribution to public understanding of archaeology and how it operates. This one from the Oxfordshire Museum Service is not in any way untypical:

@OxMuseumService 19 g.
#FindsFriday This is an exciting #Roman hoard we were able to acquire through the treasure process. The report on the @findsorguk database lists all the emperors on each coin. For fun you can try to match them up using the record

That would be about the level of the kindeergarten were it mnot for the fact that the photos of the PAS database were apparently taken through thick smoke with a 1960s box camera by the light of nineteen glow-worms. Probably some of the most pathetically bad artefact photos taken by anyone with an archaeology degree in the UK. But fortunately they are numbered, and you can match them up with one of the two duplicate tables of the coins in that "record" by the numbers. So what's the point?

But instead of thinking about playful and condescending ways to allow a patronuised public to "engage with the past" gatekept by these curators, they'd have done better to look at the spelling of their "record" - words like "vacinity", "colection", "mouring", "cornucopiae"(when even their muddy photos shows that the coin reverse shows one of them), "rostral" (recte rostrum) etc..

This is a very poor piece of public (-funded) scholarship, I can't see why Oxfordshire Museum Service draw attention to it (ah, but "Treasure" eh?). There is however another issue here, the value of this "record" as archaeological evidence about the site from which this stuff was ripped by artefact hunters.

COIN HOARD
Unique ID: BERK-C9A338
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow status: Awaiting validation Find awaiting validation

A collection of 25 silver Roman denarii (15 incomplete, 10 complete), two silver ingots and a bag of possibly lead alloy slag, all from the same area. Found by two individuals mostly between 29th March 2017 and 29th April 2017 while a couple of other coins were found in November 2017.

Finder 1: 9 complete denarii, 9 fragmentary denarii, 2 silver ingots* and 1 bag of lead alloy slag**.

Finder 2: 2 complete denarii, 5 fragmentary denarii

The earliest coin dates from AD 103 and the latest AD 144. Therefore the coins must have been buried c. AD 144. 10 of the coins are of Trajan, 6/7 of Domitian, 5 of Hadrian, 2 of Antomninus Pius and 1 of Marcus Aurelius as Caesar. The three later coins (Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius) may not be related to this hoard? [...] **A collection of seven amorphous fragments of lead slag or casting waste found in the vacinity of the coins is unlikely to be related to the coin hoard. The slag has a combined weight of 49.9 grams. The coins in this colection are considered to be from the same findspot, albeit dispersed over 10-20 metres and damaged by modern agricultural activity. The coins are over 300 years old and are made of silver and therefore qualify as treasure. The ingots are of a different date to the coins but are over 300 years old and therefore constitute treasure in their own right. The lead alloy cannot be dated and cannot be associated with either the coins nor the ingots so are not treasure.[...] This findspot is known as 'Nuffield', grid reference and parish protected.

This is bonkers. For a start, this "record" is so muddled, it contains the same information set out in duplicate all over the place. Zero planning, zero consistency. Which British university turns out graduates who write like that? 

"The three later coins (Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius) may not be related to this hoard?"

- is that a statement or question? It can't be both, and no justification is offered for either. If PAS staff cannot deal with writing English they should get a proof reader - or hire staff that do not need one.

Why is the association of the three Antonine coins with the others questioned here? Were they found in a different part of the field? Are they in a different condition? Are the finders suspected of planting them? It is not stated. Certainly Antonine coins are found in hoards with earlier ones quite commonly, in Britain and beyond. So what's the problem?

Now what actually, chemically and physically, is "lead alloy slag"? Especially when the same (anonymous - do they know what they are talking about?) author (an FLO?) also calls it "lead slag or casting waste " [two different things]. Why (since no chemical analysis is mentioned) is it specifically "lead slag" and not waste from refining silver - since the same record suggests that the coins are in some way to be (or not to be) associated with two silver ingots? 

As for the ingots, they are not illustrated in this record (!)

*The two silver ingots probably date from the Later Early Medieval period and are therefore unilkely (sic) to relate to this hoard. They could be described as a hoard in their own right. Objects of this type are often described as Viking Hack Silver and generally dated from the mid 8th to mid 11th Centuries, AD. C.750-1050. However they could also be much later (see below).

Ingot 1 is slightly curved in plan and has a trapezoidal cross section and that (sic) has been cut both ends. The lower, largest (sic) edge has an incised line through the centre of the length, dividing the ingot into two fields. The uppermost field has a very precisely drawn six-pointed star formed of three crossed lines. The precision of this symbol suggests a later, possibly modern date for this item. It weighs 12.8 grams and measures 26.8mm long, 9.3mm wide and is 8mm high.

Ingot 2 is a trapezoidal bar, cut both ends. The thinner, upper side of the ingot has two deep diagonal incisions spaced 10.8mm (0.425 inches) apart. Between these lines on one outer edge are 7 smaller nicks broadly equidistant. As in Ingot 1, the base of the ingot (the widest side) has an incised line through the length of the middle. There are also two deeper lines almost diagonal to the bar, similar to those seen on the top of the ingot but only 7.65mm apart and confined to one side of the ingot. A symbol is located above the medial line as was seen in Ingot 1; the symbol in this instance is a triangle with a horizontal line above it, as seen in triangule (sic) sum theorum. The ingot weighs 13.7 grams and measures 27.1mm long, 8.1mm wide and is 8.1mm thick.

So it is dated by a star drawn on one face.

This is pretty typical of the issues involved with second-hand recording of loose metal detector finds. Two blokes come in with a group of objects they say were found at the same spot - will they get a Treasure reward? There are some coins, mostly shattered and not very collectable, but there are also two ingots, and some casting waste. Possible interpretations could be that:

a) this is an early medieval workshop waste, with old 'found' coins used as raw material, and a cache of these somehow had escaped melting together with two ingots. The whole lot could be associated.

b) It's two deposits an Antonine coin hoard deposited (maybe at a "special" place?) and then coincidentally (or because of the same "special nature" of he immediate area) a second deposit of silver ingots, with or without the slag/casting waste was left there.

c) the whole lot could be a modern 'plant' by the landowner or finder - or unrelated joker - to gain kudos, fun/laughs or cash from some otherwise uncollectable material made to look interesting by adding some other stuff.

Which is it? The PAS record does not contain any information that allows the reader to judge just what it is we are looking at. So from that point of view, this record is next to useless in terms of archaeology, in terms of understanding that site and the landscape of which it formed a part. More attention needs to be paid by PAS to collecting information not just about loose and floating findspots, but the context of deposition and context of discovery of the artefacts that artefact hunters hoik and report.

Treasure Act changes 30th March 2023

Treasure Act changes proposed on 30th March 2023 the proposed changes to the Treasure Act were passed by Parliament and will become law on 30th July 2023. This change adds a new class of Treasure, called ‘significant’ to the existing law. All of the other existing classes of treasure remain unchanged. Here is the legislation:

STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS

2023 No. 404

TREASURE

The Treasure (Designation) (Amendment) Order 2023

Made

30th March 2023

Coming into force

30th July 2023

The Secretary of State, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 2(1) and (2) of the Treasure Act 1996(1), makes the following Order.

In accordance with section 2(4) of that Act, a draft of this instrument has been laid before, and approved by a resolution of, each House of Parliament.

Citation, commencement, extent and application

1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Treasure (Designation) (Amendment) Order 2023 and comes into force 4 months after the day on which it is made.

(2) This Order extends to England and Wales, and Northern Ireland.

(3) The amendments made by this Order do not apply in relation to objects found before this Order comes into force.

Amendments to the Treasure (Designation) Order 2002

2.—(1) The Treasure (Designation) Order 2002(2) is amended as follows.

(2) Before the heading to article 1 (citation, commencement and application) insert—

“Part 1

Introductory provisions”.

(3) After article 2 (interpretation) insert—

“Part 2

Designation of classes of objects of outstanding historical, archaeological or cultural importance”.

(4) Omit the heading to article 3 (designation of classes of objects of outstanding historical, archaeological or cultural importance), and in that article—

(a)the existing text becomes paragraph (1);

(b)after sub-paragraph (b) insert—

“(c)any object, any part of which is metal, which satisfies paragraph (2).”; and

(c)after paragraph (1) insert—

“(2) An object satisfies this paragraph if—

(a)it provides an exceptional insight into an aspect of national or regional history, archaeology or culture by virtue of one or more of the following—

(i)its rarity as an example of its type found in the United Kingdom,

(ii)the location, region or part of the United Kingdom in which it was found, or

(iii)its connection with a particular person or event; or

(b)although it does not, on its own, provide such an insight, it is, when found, part of the same find as one or more other objects, and provides such an insight when taken together with those objects.”.

(5) After article 3 insert—

“Part 3Designation of classes of objects which are excluded from the definition of treasure

4.—(1) The following classes of objects, to the extent that they would be treasure apart from this Order, are designated pursuant to section 2(2) of the Act—

(a)any object which is subject to the faculty jurisdiction of the Church of England and found in or on land which is—

(i)also subject to the faculty jurisdiction of the Church of England, and

(ii)held or controlled by an ecclesiastical corporation, Parochial Church Council or Diocesan Board of Finance;

(b)any object found in or under a cathedral church or within its precinct.

(2) In this article—

“cathedral church” and “precinct” have the meanings given in section 32 of the Care of Cathedrals Measure 2011(3);

“Diocesan Board of Finance” and “Parochial Church Council” have the meanings given in section 3 of the Interpretation Measure 1925(4);

“ecclesiastical corporation” means any corporation in the Church of England, whether sole or aggregate, which is established for spiritual purposes.”.

Parkinson of Whitley Bay

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

30th March 2023

Academics Represent Artefact Hunting as "Citizen Science" and Looting as "Citizen Participation"

Arguments for the Finlandisation of archaeological heritage exploitation continue to be presented:

Anna Wessman, Suzie Thomas, Pieterjan Deckers, Andres S. Dobat, Stijn Heeren and Michael Lewis (2023): Hobby Metal-detecting as Citizen Science. Background, Challenges and Opportunities of Collaborative Archeological Finds Recording Schemes, Heritage and Society, DOI: 10.1080/2159032X.2022.2098654

ABSTRACT
This paper discusses five digital archeological finds recording schemes from England and Wales, Denmark, Finland, Flanders (Belgium), and the Netherlands; countries and areas where members of the public can search for archeological material, usually by metal-detecting. These schemes are a part of the European Public Finds Recording Network. The authors argue that citizen science approaches to recording discoveries made by the public present important opportunities for enriching both research and possibilities for widening participation with archeological heritage. These schemes work within specific legal and social frameworks, and the paper scrutinizes each scheme in the context of citizen participation. The paper also discusses the challenges concerning sharing open data connected to crowdsourced archeological information, and the limitations and prospects offered by the different national and regional frameworks within which the schemes operate. 

Representing: University of Helsinki, Finland; University of Bergen, Norway; Aarhus Universitet, Denmark; Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands; British Museum, London, UK. 

Note the repeated spelling of the word archaeology here. 

There is nothing much new here, the authors are largely just regurgitating information already published by them elsewhere, with a few shallow buzzwords thrown in ("Caring means sharing").

When it comes to the specifics, much is made for example of the verification of PAS records, but anyone who's actually gone through a large number of their records (I have) will know that this is in reality by now dead in the water, and a lot of descriptions and inconsistencies that should have been picked up by those 'verifiers' have slipped through and form part of the public record, thus reducing their value as 'data' - still less 'scientific data'.

Also with regard to the article's title and subject matter, the PAS is no longer as "collaborative" as it was, a lot of it is being compiled by (anonymous) karaoke recorders and the PAS FLO staff are also now anonymised in the public record to obscure who is responsible for what.

The record instead exploits artefact hunters who bring in material to bulk it out, and get no individual public recognition of their contribution. This is a colonial model of science where 'natives' are exploited to serve an academic elite who in turn then act as gatekeepers (see the content and mood of the social media output of PAS staff members). [see also - PACHI 16 July 2022, ' Fish-in-Barrel "Archaeology", Metal Detecting as Imagined "Citizen Science" in the Czech Republic' - a 'collaborative' European recording scheme that funnily enough is not mentioned here].

Allegedly: "the paper scrutinizes each scheme in the context of citizen participation". This promise however is not met. In the UK there are an estimated (by PAS) 40 000 artefact hunting metal detectorists actively stripping the archaeological record of collectable artefacts and therefore information. In this paper however there is not only no mention of this figure, but no mention of the degree of participation of these heritage strippers to the academics' pet "citizen science" project. That aspect - of mitigating the damage done to science by artefact hunting with metal detectorists under the noses of these academics - is completely ignored. In fact, participation is very low in the metal detecting communities of England and Wales (despite the definition in the Code of Best Practice of "responsible detecting" that is automatically, but falsely,  applied to "the majority" of them). 

Anyway, the authors have their grant money extended, their nice offices and conference fees paid, and as long as they can spin a nice story with the right buzzwords about "participation" of a pars-pro-toto minority (and attack colleagues like Sam Hardy that raise some issues they'd rather not talk about), the stripping goes on unchecked - and indeed unrecorded.

Artefact hunting and artefact collecting are not "citizen science", they are knowledge theft, they are erosion of the archaeological record. Academics who, regardless, write about it as anything else are just living parasitically on the results of this destruction.

Vignette: Not "citizen science", just the tip of the iceberg of selfish exploitation, note undeclared "silver" finds right under the PAS noses while their staff write such academic verbiage.

Collector With Attitude: No Database, No Bother

 Ancient Coin collector on a public forum: " [...] so long as the coin is genuine and has not been stolen (ie on a stolen property database), I couldn't care less about the provenance".

Git yer Own Affens Owl Tet 'ere, Good Investment, First Come, First Served: "The Parliament Collection"

"Located in the heart of Hong Kong's Central Financial District (Des Voeux Road Central, Central, Hong Kong), LPM is one of Asia's largest and most trusted Precious Metal Retailers. Now celebrating 10 years in business LPM understands the needs of Gold and Silver investors". Some of the collectors' items they sell are a real eye-opener. People buy this stuff? But there are no prizes for guessing where these coins are probably from (Concealed 2018 Konya Hoard)....

Athenian Owl Silver Tetradrachm
NEW DISCOVERY - THE LARGEST HOARD OF ATHENIAN OWLS!
Athenian Owls
Struck sometime between 440 and 404 B.C., this Greek Silver Tetradrachm was minted in Athens, the capital city of Attica, a region of the Greek empire. It features perhaps the most iconic and instantly recognizable designs found on ancient coinage: the Athenian Owl, flanked by the crescent moon, olive branch, and monogram of its city of origin. The obverse features the goddess Athena herself, protected by her beautifully designed helmet.

Part of what makes these coins so iconic is that they are the first mass-circulated coin ever produced! In fact, many of the skilled laborers and soldiers who were paid with these coins simply had no idea what a coin was,* resulting in many coins being marked with knives or other instruments used to cut into their surface and confirm their contents.

These coins were minted in large quantities in order to restore the Acropolis and build the Parthenon in Athens. Because of our connections in the numismatic world, we were able to get our pick of the nicest looking coins from this hoard. These selected pieces make up the Parliament Collection - a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire such high-quality Athena Owl coins.

It's the largest hoard of its kind we've ever seen, with coins in this offering graded by the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC). These coins have received the extra designation of being a part of The Parliament Collection. Don’t let these historic, museum-quality coins disappear!

Ancient History You Can Hold in Your Hands
Each coin is approximately 2,400 years old from a time when Athens was a cultural center of the world and the heart of ancient Greece. Athens was a key city-state that laid the foundations for Western civilization. When one thinks of ancient Athens, images of the Acropolis, the Parthenon and the Temple of Zeus come to mind. Now you can hold an actual piece of that history in your hands!

Each Coin Struck by Hand
Your Athenian Owl Silver Tetradrachm was carefully struck by ancient artisans more than two millennia ago. Because of this, no two coins are exactly alike!

Athenian Owls
Comes with Special Pedigreed Label and FREE Book. Each coin will come sonically sealed in an acrylic coin holder and encapsulated with a special Parliament Collection label. A parliament refers to a gathering of owls and a fitting label for a coin from this important coin discovery.

Historic Designs that Influenced Modern Coinage
These Owls proved very wise. Athena was the goddess of wisdom and warfare and the patron goddess of Athens. In Greek mythology, she was the daughter of Zeus. The owl is Athena’s familiar and, according to legend, she sometimes took the form of her owl. President Teddy Roosevelt was said to have carried an Athenian Owl coin in his pocket, which in turn inspired him to order the redesign of U.S. coins in the early 1900s.

We only have a small cache of these coins, so you'd be wise to order your Athenian Owl Tetradrachm while we still have some available!

Somebody called "GovMint.com®" Corporate Center Curve, Eagan, MN 55121 ("a brand of Asset Marketing Services, LLC (AMS). AMS is a retail distributor of coin and currency issues and is not affiliated with the U.S. government") also has had some of this "Parliament Collection" with exactly the same sales spiel. It looks like they give away a copy of a Wayne sayles book with it (whooppee!). There is a similar sounding offer from Stauer.com, Afford the Extraordinary', 440-404 B.C. Ancient Attica Athens Silver Athena Owl Tetradrachm NGC MS Item#: 50019 Now Only $2,250. 'The Coin Vault', East Union City Pike Winchester, IN 47394 still has them in stock c. 440-404 BC Attica, Athens Owl Silver Tetradrachm NGC Ancients Choice Extra Fine Item# 273754 at $1,199.98 but "The coin will arrive in The Coin Vault's custom certified presentation box and will be accompanied by the 3rd edition 'Money of the Bible' book" (Ha! Athena in the Bible, eh? Novel). Apmex, "Investments you can hold" has had at least one coin from this collection (says it was discovered in 2015).

You could even get them from Walmart: "Athens Ag Tetradrachm Owl (440-404 BC) Ch XF NGC (Parliament Col) $1,040.21" but the one they figure has no nose. Here's one for 1025 USD on VAuctions (you know, the one with a "Code of Ethics" that...). Mynt Collector - Coins Gold Loose Diamonds + New York, NY, USA has one on auction right now - starting price ten dollars. Ask them if they have export paperwork before you bid.

Funnily enough absolutely none of the sales offers includes even basic information abut who put together this "Parliament Collection", where and when and from what. Still less is there any mention of any paperwork related to legal export. Odd that, if the coin was found recently. 

*bollocks. 

A Greek Coin Case to Watch? A Munich-Zurich Link

       Coin surfaced on antiquities trade  

In the fallout from the ongoing Beale/Roma Numismatics case a Greek newspaper has printed some details of an old case that appears not to have been abandoned after all (Giannis Papadopoulos Αρχαιοκαπηλία: Το θρίλερ με το χρυσό νόμισμα του Βρούτου [Archaeocapilia: Brutus' Golden Coin Thriller] kathimerini.gr 23.03.2023). In Google translation it alledges:

The case file in Patras
The auction house involved in this case has also concerned the Greek authorities in the past. In October 2016, his name was mentioned in a security document of Patras, without naming its owner, in the context of the dismantling of a multi-member ring of antiquities. Two years later, the Appellate Council of Patras issued a 2,546-page resolution to refer 47 defendants to trial. The relevant documents analyse the route of ancient objects (mainly coins) from their illegal excavation to their sale, the suspicious role of foreign auction houses in laundering antiquities, as well as techniques for manipulating electronic auctions with virtual "hits". However, no relevant prosecution was brought against representatives of the international houses at the time, as it was judged that there were insufficient indications of guilt. [...] [the documents detail] auction process of an ancient Corinthian cut silver stater by the British house. The specific coin, dated 500-480 BC, weighing 8.65 grams and 19 millimeters in diameter, depicts Pegasus on one side and was allegedly taken from Greek territory by illegal digging. It sold for between €1,500 and appeared at auction in September 2016 with a starting price of £8,000. In the description of the catalogue it was mentioned that the coin comes from a collection before 1920. According to the case file, there is also a reference to the specific coin and its auction in a telephone conversation with a Greek defendant which has been recorded. The case was set to be tried in first instance in October 2020, but after a series of postponements it is unexpectedly expected to start in June 2023.

Uh-oh. Sounds familiar. Those "techniques for manipulating electronic auctions with virtual [bids]" are known as shill bidding, this is illegal, but very commonly applied in the online collectables market, including antiquities, and is just one of the deceptive and lawless practices this unsustainable and exploitative industry functions on.

The case referred to may be found in articles from 2020 (for example 'GCT', 'Five rare ancient silver coins returned to Greece' Greek City News October 6 2020):

The Ministry of Culture and Sports on Monday announced that five rare silver coins dating to the 5th and 4th centuries BC were returned to Greece, before being auctioned off in Munich and Zurich.
Three of them were repatriated on September 30 from Munich: a stater from Lindos (Rhodes) of the first half of the 5th century BC, an octadrachm of Getas, the king of Edonians in Thrace, dated to around 480-460 BC and a stater from Elis dated to around 328 BC. The coins were handed over to the Consulate General of Greece in Munich by Bavarian police, and are now in the care of the Numismatics Museum of Athens, which helped identify them.

Another two silver coins were returned from Zurich to Athens on September 27. They were an Athenian tetradrachm (of the so-called new style), dated to 136 BC, and a tetradrachm of Ptolemy IV Philopator cut in Sidon around the end of the 3rd century BC.

Both coins which are now at the Archaeological Museum of Patras, were confiscated when a criminal ring was dismantled by Patras police in October 2016. The criminals were based in Greece but had an extensive network abroad, where they transferred looted antiquities. "A total of 126 ancient objects and 2,024 coins were confiscated in Greece, while in March 2017 Germany returned 33 Mycenaean vessels, 600 ancient coins and other antiquities of various periods, which were illegally exported by the looters," the Ministry of Culture and Sports added in the statement.

 I also discussed the Patras Bust in earlier posts on this blog: PACHI Wednesday, 5 October 2016, ' More on the Patras Bust - They Have Buyers' Names' and PACHI Wednesday, 5 October 2016, ' Dealers, where - precisely - do those artefacts come from?'. 

"Greek police have busted what they say is a criminal organisation that has been looting antiquities from ancient sites in the country for the past 10 years and smuggling them out to auction houses and private buyers in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the UK. A spokesman for the Patras police department in western Greece, which led the 14-month investigation, said on Wednesday that more than 50 people were involved in the ring and 26 arrests have been made. [...] Police said the works were sold using fake provenance documents attributing them to private collections in Europe, but that the auction houses involved (which have not been named) knew the coins were illicit property and often helped inflate the final prices paid for them. Officials added that extensive paperwork will help them track down many of the objects that have already been sold. “For very many of the coins we have full documentation, starting from when they were discovered in the earth to the auction at which they were sold,” the police spokesman Haralambos Sfetsos told The Associated Press.

Sadly, very little was released from the ongoing investigations, if it comes to trial in the next few weeks, all that may change, quite dramatically.   Beale may be just the beginning. 

Silence and Self-Deception in the Dodgy Ancient Coin Market

 As part of the fallout from the Roma Numismatics case, collectors on their forums are beginning to ruminate about other rather dodgy-looking cases they know about:

Tetradogma (Newbie Member) Friday 24/3/23 at 11:37 PM
In regards to Roma selling coins of dubious origin and extraction, I've been thinking quite a bit about the 2018 hoard of 30,000 Owl Tets, from Turkey (we think). Given that pretty much every E-Sale Roma did would usually have about 60 of these coins in, is it fair to say its probably quite likely this constant volume of Tets are from that hoard? Feels like an open secret they were doing this stuff for a while, no?

'Velarfricative' (interesting to see antiquities collecting linked to linguistics in that name) added:

I mean, not just Roma E-Sales, those owls hit every major auction house for years (and continue to do so, I presume)

It is worth noting Tetradogma's reply (Friday 19 hours ago):

Absolutely true - sorry, was just because this thread was about Roma. That seems to correlate with the reporting in those Greek newspapers about a syndicate of dealers and looters working together that have established a multi national network of illegal extraction, falsifying provenance and market manipulation. I feel like this is a huge story but we are only seeing the tip of the icebergs, whispered asides at coin fairs, its from a Swiss Collection wink, wink etc. All very difficult to prove but given we are in a boom period of over inflated prices this story is really pertinent as it underpins how those mega prices we've been seeing have (and sorry to use this Reganite term) trickled down across all fields of the market. ie have we all been massively over paying for coins for the last ten years?! Ok, I'll take my tin foil hat off now, but still, this all has a very bad whiff coming of it

But most shocking of all is the self-centred reply to that by one 'Kaleun96' [aka 'flipperwaldt' and pssibly other names] that hits the nail on the head and is worth placing on the record where it can be searched and seen:

On the whole, I don't think we've been overpaying for coins even if the alleged practices of bidding-up of coins and "washing" them through auction houses is true and widespread. I say that because the number of coins coming to auction from illegal finds is probably so substantial, it's keeping down the prices more than the dodgy bidding practices might be increasing them.

The hoard of Owl tets is probably the best example of this. While prices haven't bottomed out as much as you might expect for a type with hundreds being sold every week, they're still much cheaper now than they were a decade or so ago. If auction houses only sold coins that were 100% legitimate according to all applicable laws (hypothetically let's pretend this is possible for them to know), I imagine the number of coins coming up for auction each week would be drastically reduced and the current levels of demand for them would send prices even higher than they are currently.

So in that sense I think we probably benefit from lower prices even if these looters/middle-men are bidding up their own coins. Just guessing about this all of course, but that's my impression.

The "even if the alleged practices of bidding-up of coins and "washing" them through auction houses is true and widespread" is just self-delusion, typical of antiquities collectors as a whole. They miss totally the interac tion between "the number of coins coming to auction from illegal finds is probably so substantial, it's keeping down the prices" that actually not only facilitate the expansion of the market that thrives on "the dodgy bidding practices" but actually requires them so that dealers can make the enormous profits that they do. "There's none so blind....". Also with regard some earlier remarks of this same collector (dealer??) the remark "if auction houses only sold coins that were 100% legitimate according to all applicable laws (hypothetically let's pretend this is possible for them to know)" stupidly misses the point. Auction houses should only be handling artefacts not only where they "know" that they are in some way "OK", but where the person they got them from can document it and pass that documentatiopn on to them so the buyers get it. That's not "imp[ossible' its what happens with used cars, animals and plants protected by CITES, pedigree race horses, diamonds and a lot else. Your supermarket sells potatoes that can be traced back to a specific supplier who buys from certain source. If contamination of one of those sources (heavy metals, sewage, nuclear waste spill) is detected, all the potatoes produced on that land can be withdrawn from the market through the cdocuments showing chain of transfer of ownership. At least that's how it works in Poland, and one assumes the EU.

As for "So in that sense I think we probably benefit from lower prices even if these looters/middle-men are bidding up their own coins" me, me, me. Total diregard there for the fact that if the colonialist me-me-me collectors of wherever the pseudonymous Kaleun96 comes from, it is actually at the expense of the cultural heritage (and the archaeological sites telling the story of the territory) of a 'them-them-not-one-of-us' community that these coins were stolen from, by those very looters and middlemen that Kaleun96 is apparently so indulgent as to allow them to make an even bigger profit by doing so. Nice of him/her. All in the name of... what, how would we call it?

I talked about the 2018 Konya hoard here: PACHI Friday, 1 November 2019, 'Concealed 2018 Konya Hoard' and the need for a crackdown on those involved.

Numismatists Confused. Dugup Coins "as a class do, in fact, stand apart"

AmazedAncient ('Rookie Member') of a numismo-forum near you, March 14 [hyperlink added by PMB]:

"I think we all need to step back from the moral judgments about coins and take a minute to read the ANS Cultural Property Statement:

"It is unreasonable to assume that a coin is stolen, illegally exported, or illegally imported merely because the holder cannot establish a chain of custody beyond receipt from a reputable source. Taken together, such considerations argue that within the world of artifacts, coins as a class do, in fact, stand apart"."

Actually, if collectors are responsible and concerned about the hygiene of their collection, they would not be buying artefacts where there is no documented chain of custody going back to legal excavation and legal export. This is for the very simple reason that NO dealer who cannot document the legality of both (and transfer of ownership) can claim that what they have in their stockroom actually is legally-sourced. And if they cannot document that, the artefact has no right to be in their stockroom, because there is no way the dealer can claim all their stock are 100% licit if they have not focused n acquiring only items where this can be established and documented.

This is rather like the Ruritanian Used Car Dealers' Consortium Trading Standards Guarantee:

"It is unreasonable to assume that a used car is stolen, illegally exported, or illegally imported merely because the engine and chassis numbers have been filed off or otherwise obscured and there is absolutely none of the original documentation associated with it, beyond a statement asserting previous purchase from a "reputable used car dealer". Taken together, such considerations argue that in the commercial world, used cars as a class do, in fact, stand apart"

Quite simply, the ANS has got this wrong. As an artefact, as an element of the archaeological heritage, coin is no different from a Roman brooch, an Anglo-Saxon strap-end or a Viking sword and (what ever collectors may think) is subject to the same regulations and safeguards.

A Coiney's Claim About another Roma Numismatics Sale

"Our commitment to ethical and responsible provenance: the

consignor affirms that this auction lot is their lawful property to sell,

and where cultural property restrictions may exist, that it meets the

requirements to be legally imported into the United States and Germany

unless specifically stated otherwise".

 Roma Numismatics Ltd

    Metal detector find from Limburg (Roma Numismatics)   

  

E-Live Auction 6 25 Mar 2023
Lot 176
Estimate: 500 GBP 
Description
Domitian, as Caesar, Æ Sestertius. Rome, AD 80-81. CAES DIVI AVG VESP F DOMITIAN COS VII, laureate head to right / Minerva advancing to right, holding spear and shield; S-C across fields. RIC II.1 295 (Titus); BMCRE 232 (Titus). 15.54g, 32mm, 6h.
Extremely Fine; featuring a expressive portrait and an attractive dark green patina.
From the collection of a Romanophile; Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., E-Sale 93, 6 January 2022, lot 963 (hammer: £700).

On a coiney forum near you (and potential bidders) someone called " Roerbakmix" said March 13:

They have added this ‘provenance’ to a coin I sold via them last year, which is now for sale again: https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=6613&lot=176
curiously enough, they omitted the real provenance which I provided before: find location, year when it was found, and documents of the registration in the numismatic Dutch database…

Interestingly those details were added before the sale today:

From the collection of a Romanophile;
Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., E-Sale 93, 6 January 2022, lot 963 (hammer: £700);
Ex Classical Numismatic Group, Electronic Auction 484, 27 January 2021, lot 769;
Found in Limburg, the Netherlands in 2010. Registered in NUMIS under ID# 1154746.

It sold for 400 GBP. The "description" failed to note the condition; under the compact patina (how produced? Chemistry?) seems to be a troublesome powdery layer that has led to flaking at the edges of the flan. The inscription looks odd to me in places. The outline of the obverse and reverse images do not match, what is that odd break in one edge?

Metal Detecting: North East Lincolnshire Council gets it!

By Nigel Swift

“The Council will not grant permission to speculative metal detecting on their land, they will consider requests for archaeologist or educational projects, for location of underground services or recovery of lost personal objects.”

Bravo! You won’t find that phrase, “speculative metal detecting” used anywhere else by anyone ever yet that’s what 99% of metal detecting consists of! Random and object-centred rather than targeted, scientific and purely in pursuit of knowledge. There is nothing “responsible” about that. That’s why the Council only consider requests for archaeologist or educational projects on their land. They owe it to their ratepayers and the public whose knowledge it is.

I think it’s time the new phrase was adopted by other landowners as well as archaeologists and PAS. Speculative metal detecting: just three words that are owed to the public.

Eid Mar Aureus Repatriated

It is being reported (Tom Mashberg, 'Rare Coin, Minted by Brutus to Mark Caesar’s Death, Is Returned to Greece Tom Mashberg New York Times March 22, 2023 that Manhattan District Attorney’s office has returned 29 looted antiquities to Greece, including the Eid Mar aureus seized from indicted coin dealer Richard Beale. This is "thought to have been looted from a field near where an army loyal to Brutus camped during the struggle for control of Rome". Tom Mashburg also reports a new detail, that the Eid Mar coin was

"was given up earlier this year by an unidentified American billionaire who, investigators said, had bought it in good faith in 2020. The British dealer who helped to arrange the sale was arrested in January, and the coin itself was recovered in February, officials said [...] Experts said they believe the coin was likely discovered more than a decade ago in an area of current-day Greece where Brutus and his civil war ally, Gaius Cassius Longinus, were encamped with their army."

The grounds for that belief are not stated. After the defeat of the rebel army by the Triumvirs at the Battle of Philippi in October 42 BC, the soldiers (and more likely officers) who had been paid in these coins would have scattered, probably being pursued, and the coins may have been taken to any place where they sought refuge, so there is no a priori reason why this coin should have been found anywhere near Phillipi or Greece. Once again, we see the effects of the US fixation with "repatriation", at the expense of following back the chain of events that led to it being on the market where seized.

 

"Viking" Artefacts from North Africa

From an Internet sales platform near you:

A Genuine Rare Ancient Bronze Decorated Viking Amulet Artifact Authentic
Condition: Used
Price: US $51.66
Located in: Fes, Morocco Seller: elhomoh_0


Dear Customers, you will receive exactly the same item which you see on the pictures, not similar or other. This is a lovely item to own or to give as a special gift [...] We strongly urge all of our customers to contact us first if a problem arises. We do our best to ensure that everything goes smoothly, but mistakes can and will happen. We will do everything within our power to solve any issue you have Thank you.

I have a problem with this and I've not even bought it. It is a cast metal lunulate pendant of non-Scandinavian type (looks more like what we get from eastern Europe, but I am sure this one is of modern manufacture). So why (apart from marketing purposes) is it described as "Viking"? Where did it get that odd patina? In the soils of Morocco or out of a bag of chemical fertiliser? Is this a representative artefact from the El Soukskam Culture, like many that have been turning up with increasing frequency from Morocco in recent months? This guy has been trading "Ancient items, oldest items, bronze and brass items with good prices" since Feb 2020. There seems to have been an increase in sellers from Morocco offering what they say are Roman and Viking artefacts in the past five or so years (examples: Barnoussi.10, based in Tangier - from Dec 2018; Antiques-and-artefacts Marrakesh, started Jun 2019; King_of_antique, trading from Sidi Kacem, - Sep 2019; Berbarea, from Marrakesh - Jan 2020; Haskar_4875, Casablanca -Apr 2021; Waazz_84 [= Wolf.Antique] -Oct 2021; Bofirl_0, kenitra - Sep 2022; Aureus.collectibles.coins -Oct 2022; Rare_ancient, based in -Dec 2022; Hasoumo-68 Casablanca [= old_crafted] -Feb 2023). There are many more, they generally sell small personal ornament items, often in a wearable state, and generally in the price range $30 -$75. While some of them are attempts at faking real Viking artefacts (Thor's hammers, axe amulets etc - nothing very elaborate), most are variants of local 'vintage(style) jewellery including 'Berber' and related styles. Rather shocking are some hand-of-Fatima amulets described as 'Viking' (and a brionze tobacco-pipe). Indeed, one wonders whether in some/many cases, the word "Viking" is there, not so much to attract attention of collectors of Viking artefacts (not all of whom are so stupid, surely, to be taken in by this deception), but to deflect attention of local authorities from the export of vintage/historical items from Morocco (on the logic that, like in many other countries, Moroccan law does not protect foreign artefacts in transit through the country). For the record, of the many hundreds of "Viking" artefacts offered from Morocco, not a single one I saw looked like an authentic dugup Viking (whatever you take that to mean) artefact.

* Berber artefacts are very popular with collectors. In the Colonial mindset, the austere lives of the desert-dwelling native populace of Europe's North African colonies led to them being cast as the noble savage belved of the collectors of so-called 'tribal' artefacts and jewellery.

Discussion of a Recent Leu Coins Sale - Too-Shiny Tets.

DonnaML (' Grand Master and Benefactor') of a numismatic forum near you wrote (March 13 (edited))

[...] Dubious - and truly preposterous - "from an old collection" provenances are hardly limited to that company [Roma Numismatics]. On the Facebook ancient coins group, people have been ridiculing the stated provenance of a group of coins up for sale at the current Leu auction. To quote one member a couple of days ago: "Looks like the Leu auction had some decent bargains today so far. That person who formed the 'European collection formed before 2005' had quite the appetite for coins - among their many holdings were 42 shiny late type Lysimachus tets all from the same mint!. Amazing."

The subsequent conversation is entertaining; I've omitted the names of those who posted the comments: [...]
There is another one from the same hoard in the new roma numismatic as well. Will be interesting to see how many of them will pop out
Does anyone really think Leu is any better than Roma? Anyone? [...]
2005 must have been the key year! A Swiss collection, a European collection, a Bavarian collection. So many collections….[...] Someone explains why they picked 2005: 2005 is the year that Switzerland signed on to the 1970 UNESCO Convention. Objects with a provenance before that date would be exempt from the Convention as far as Swiss authorities are concerned. How long before isn't the point, just "before"

It ws commented that Leu had sold a group of coins that had apparently previously been labelled the “Harshly Cleaned Collection” by the collecting community. In reality of course this probably refers to one or more hoards that had not reached the proper authorities but ended up being peddled by a dealer that had without scruples just stripped the lot chemically. And collectors were laughing about it. Here is is of note that what collectors say were coins from the same hoard split between at least two dealers, and that more are likely to surface - all of course without any information reaching the authorities or archaeologists. This is nothing but knowledge theft right out in the open.

More Skewed Figures in PAS Database [Updated].

Archaeologist  Nathalie Cohen writes (21 mar 2023) of

" Day 2 metal detecting survey in Forstal Field @SmallhytheNT - total finds now located = 1400+ - mostly ferrous…"

The site is by the 16th century Smallhythe Place at Tenterden in Kent. This sort of survey puts the (ahem) "achievements" of the object-centric Portable Antiquities Scheme in context in terms of real in-the-ground-archaeology. We need more of this. The statistics of the PAS database containing "1,632,882 objects" reveal that only 6,964 of them (in 4615 records) are ferrous, so how representative is what is being recorded of what is being taken out of sites and the archaeological record by 40000 greedy artefact collectors from under archaeologists' noses in England and Wales? (spoiler alert - it ain't at all). The PAS database is not anything like a record of the archaeolgical evidence removed from archaeological sites during artefact hunting. It is not mitigation of the damage done and the vast amounts of information lost (knowledge selfishly stolen) from searched sites - even if we have the hallowed x-marks-the-spot "findspot" beloved of those that support this kind of artefact-hoiking. The "data" there are not evidence of the archaeology of those destroyed sites and assemblages.

And how many coins are there from this survey's 1400+ artefacts? The PAS database is 61% (796409) coins at the expense of other artefact types:

Nathalie Cohen @Nathalie_Cohen 2 min
One 1984 pound coin.

I doubt we'll be seeing any real open and public discussion of the issue of the representativeness and significance of these data that goes much beyond Kossinnist typological mumbo-jumbo and dot distribution maps by the PAS and its FLOs or cultic supporters.

Update: Also note that in subsequent discussion, it emerged that those 1400+ finds in that survey had been located by one bloke, detecting in two days. The figure used in the Heritage Action Artefact Erosion Counter is just over thirty artefacts a year's detecting. If the same bloke goes out artefact hunting on his "own permissions" just a few weekends in the year, at that rate (if they are "productive" sites), he'll be locating ten thousand or more artefacts a year. How many, and what, does he report to PAS a year?

Revealing Coiney Confusion over the "Applicability of a Country's Export Legislation to Any Americans"

I sometimes forgot how seriously dysfunctional some US ancient coin collectors can be, really. Over on a numismatic forum, the members are taking exception to me writing about the Beale/Roma Numismatics case and looking over their shoulder at what they are writing about it. So one of them comes out with something that happened some 15 years ago that I had forgotten, but apparently he cannot let go.  Phil Davis (Mentor, Benefactor), 'Interesting thread on reddit about Roma Numismatics and the apparent arrest of Richard Beale' posted March 9 2023 decided to drag it up again, apparently in order to 'discredit' me in the eyes of like-minded coiney forum members. 

He starts off by quoting what another forum member had said about looking over my shoulder here, and then launches into his grudge from the past:

On 3/9/2023 at 7:04 AM, DonnaML said: Note also that Paul Barford -- no friend of the collecting community, to put it mildly! -- has apparently been reading this thread: see http://paul-barford.blogspot.com/2023/03/beware-ides-of-march.html.

Once upon a time, I engaged fairly intensely with Barford over a period of months; I think I made his blog by name: "noted coin-fondler Phil Davis..." Something like that. I wrote him off completely and forever when he trashed a group of teenage American Jewish girls on a "heritage" trip to Poland, who encountered an antique Torah scroll gathering dust in a Polish junk store. Understandably appalled, they pooled their funds, purchased the scroll and brought it home for display in their temple. A bittersweet feel-good story for most of us, but unbelievably, Barford went on and on about this "crime" against the Polish national heritage. A new low, even for him. He truly is one of the worst people in the world.

Mr Davis of course is not telling it quite right. This whole matter is discussed in a post here from 6th May 2009 and concerns the Solomon Schechter School of Westchester (The Leffell School), a private school in New York ("preparing the next generation of leaders to live thoughtful, values-based Jewish lives in the ever-evolving modern world"). Not very much thoughtful or value based in the story told (PACHI Wednesday, 6 May 2009, 'A Torah from Warsaw, Would it be Too Much Just to Ask Before “Adopting” it?' - based on an old story from the New York Times of 2007).  First of all, we were not discussing a "group of teenage American Jewish girls" as such, gender was not one of the issues. Not that it matters. However it is the case that this was no "junk shop" and no "gathering dust" was involved, but they were in a well-known antiques and collectables shop, slap-bang in the middle of the most touristy area of Warsaw's Old Town. I know it very well. It sells all kinds of things including Judaica (both real and fake). If anything was in there for any length of time enough to get dusty, it was due to the rip-off prices they are also infamous for. One other thing, however, that is still there.... is the big notice in the front explaining Polish export laws to anyone it might concern. You walk past it going in.

The question is not where these visitors to my country got the funds from, but how the scroll left the country - it was described by Mr Davis at the time, I recall a big winter coat was involved. However Phil Davis wants to represent what that party of visitors did, in actual fact that's what we call "smuggling", pure and simple. As for the notion these "heritage tourists" who were guests of my country "[took] it home for display (sic) in their temple" (sic), Mr Davis has it all wrong. Home is where that scroll was made and used and that's not somewhere across the Atlantic, but here in Poland. This country lost so much of the Jewish heritage in the Second World War to the Nazis and later to the Soviet-puppet government of the 1940s-1980s, without some entitled colonialist American tourists thinking they can now just walk in and help themselves to what they fancy to "display" back home like some trophy from Darkest Africa. There is an export procedure to follow, hiding artefacts under big coats are not part of it. 

Davis comes over here as a US-based coiney that thinks US tourists showing disrespect for the laws of the countries they visit and stealing stuff are mere trifles, and that anyone who thinks otherwise is the "one of the worst people in the world". It seems that there are other coineys who think the same. So we find DonnaML (Grand Master, Benefactor) joining in and adding her thoughts on the incident I described in my 2009 post (March 9 2023)

"[...] How repulsive. What a moron. Polish national heritage my Jewish foot. Suddenly Jewish Poles were just "Poles" after everything that happened, and their stolen possessions have to remain in Poland? He actually lives in Warsaw; maybe he should pull his head out of his rear end and learn some real history, not propaganda from the unfortunate current Polish government. He probably collects those ubiquitous "lucky Jew" dolls so popular there".

Eh? It is unclear to me whether DonnaML had first actually read with her own eyes the text that Davis mentions (it would be difficult as no link was given by the coiney). She seems to have an odd view of the events of 1939-45 in this part of Europe. It may have escaped this person's attention but "what happened there" was due to the fact the country she's talking about was no longer sovereign, but occupied by the Nazis. Perhaps she too believes in the "Polish concentration Camps" slur that Americans seem to find so attractive  as a xenophobic 'anti-Polak' rhetorical device. If so, she is rather the one that needs to "learn some real history, not propaganda from [wherever she'd be getting this Anti-Polish smear campaign from]".* What's this next bit about?

Suddenly Jewish Poles were just "Poles" after everything that happened, and their stolen possessions have to remain in Poland? 

Jewish Poles or Polish Jews? In the case of the native pre-1939 inhabitants of the Republic of Poland, their citizenship - quite obviously - was Polish. There was no time they "became just Poles" if they were born and lived here, that is who they were. DonnaML blithely claims that that any property (like this scroll) still in the Republic of Poland today must be "stolen" (and therefore these tourists taking it is the second wrong that in her eyes makes a "right"), but cites no proof of that in this or any other case. There actually is a Jewish community in Poland today, a group of people that actually own private property of their own - I doubt they'd much appreciate DonnaML intimating that whatever is "Jewish" and "in Poland" must be stolen from Holocaust victims. I also suspect the shopkeeper who sold the item will not be too happy either (he is still in business). 

But yes, cultural property in Poland that falls into the groups defined by the current legislation, whether or not it was sold, found or inherited, can only leave Poland legally by following the proper procedures relating to that specific situation, and that was the case in 2007 and 2009. That is the law here, whether judgemental foreigners like Phil Davis and DonnaML agree or approve (funnily enough, nobody's going to ask them for their approval, Poland is a sovereign country).   

I really do not understand their logic. Is not Chinese pottery used by nineteenth Chinese workers on the railways found on sites on state owned land in the western USA protected by US law as cultural property? What about a lost nineteenth century Chinese amulet or religious artefact dropped in the same circumstances, even if it relates to foreign religious beliefs?  And what if it was a nineteenth century Jewish amulet? The position of these two on what "should apply" in my country, contradicts the reasoning behind the way their own US system works (which is enshrined in US legislation).  What do they think makes American travellers exempt from the law here? 

This is not about sweet Jewish girls, it is about about respecting a country's laws. It is also about a US institution, School or Synagogue agreeing to display stolen goods. Like all countries in Europe, Poland has laws. There are laws about a lot of things, property, driving, drinking, sexual relations with minors and animals, propagating fascism, prostitution, sale and use of narcotics, and smuggling of cultural property etc., etc.. It may upset or even surprise Mr Davis and Ms Donna ML, but while they are on Polish territory, those laws apply to even Jewish girls from America, whatever they think of them, and whatever laws apply to them back home or in any other country. If they come here, they are obliged to obey our laws while here, even if they are from 'exceptionalist' America.

I really do not care what the laws are in the USA about respect to the flag. Let's imagine however that it is against the law in the US to take the Stars and Stripes to the bathroom and wipe your arse with it (it might be an illegal act even in the country priding itself on "freedom of [even offensive] speech" like the US). Let us imagine that a group of Polish teenagers come as tourists, on a "heritage" tour to America (let them be girls, let them be sweet curly-haired girls of Jewish and Romany heritage, why not?) and after a night out clubbing they decide to defecate in Central Park and then wipe their naked butts clean with the Stars and Stripes and wave the soiled flag around in full view. Well, they are Polish, they've never had to swear an oath of allegiance to the US flag, for them its a coloured piece of cloth. They might even see it as a symbol of US imperialism and a racist state with rampant social equality. Phil Davis and DonnaML apparently think that they should be allowed to wander off home unchastised for such disrespect "because US law does not apply to them while they are on US territory as Polish tourists". Yes?

 

In light of this discussion, it is also quite symptomatic that since  I wrote the original text, these organised "Jewish heritage" tours to Poland have been suspended for the past two years, precisely because of the disrespectful behaviour of the participants of a number of past trips (both the kids, but also organizers). This spoils it all for those visitors of Jewish heritage who genuinely want to use the experience of visiting sites here in the process of learning and reflection, rather than as backdrops for the toxic behaviour that has reportedly been going on during some of these excursions. The good news is that these tours may be starting up again, if the organizers can provide some guarantee that the excesses of past years will be prevented in future. I think that requires a rethinking of the attitudes of these visitors to the values of the host country - and that will include not stealing from it. 

* [Poland by the way is a democracy, its current government may have its opponents, but Poland in no more "unfortunate" than a country that chose Donald Trump and family, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss]. Also for the record, DonnaML is confused about the figures (her "dolls"), which are not "lucky", she's confusing them with the pictures. I "collect" neither, what a strange idea.

Vignette: Blinkered self-interest, the next stages of US imperialism