The Serbian Connection: The Art World Does Deals with "All-Singing, All-Dancing Criminals"

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It emerges from an Art Newspaper article today that quite a few stolen art works from Western European collections are turning up in southeastern Europe. There seems to be an international network of connections between organized criminal groups in the Balkans along which illicitly obtained artworks and antiques (the Ashton Keynes lecturn) - and I would not mind betting antiquities - are moving. This article highlights one section of the activity, the Serbian connection.

European art recovery experts are increasingly concentrating on developing their businesses in the Balkans to track down stolen works of art circulating in the region’s criminal networks. Dick Ellis, the former head of the Metro­politan Police Art & Antiques Unit has, with four Serbians, including businessmen and private investigators, set up "Art Management", a specialist art recovery firm to focus on the Balkan region.

We understand that, in addition to Ellis’ firm, at least two other private investigators are active in the region, while the Art Loss Register (ALR) has launched a campaign targeting Balkan criminals. The ALR, whose representatives made around eight trips to the region last year, presented a briefing document at a conference in Barcelona last October, setting out options for recovery in a notoriously difficult region.

Since the break-up of Yugoslavia and the subsequent war, the authorities have largely focused on hunting war criminals and combating drug trafficking. However, the region has become an important transit point for art stolen from France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, the former Czechoslo­vakia, Hol­land and Belgium by well-known gangs including the “Balkan Bandits” and the “Pink Panthers”. While Serbia is the main base for the gangs, many of the stolen works are emerging in surrounding Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro. Charlie Hill, another former Met Police detective, says that, despite the silly names, “these … are all-singing, all-dancing criminals. The problem with art crime in the Balkans is that it’s a fascinating nightmare—the crim­inals are a nightmare but the art turning up is fascinating.”

The rest of the Art Newspaper article discusses the ethical issues involved in paying ransoms to recover stolen artworks.

[The Serbian Connection, orange areas where art is stolen from, green, where it is ending up.

Who in the antiquities trade sells antiquities of likely Serbian, Montenegran, Kosovan and
Makedonian origins and where do they come from?]

Riah Pryor. 'Balkans targeted in hunt for stolen art', The Art Newspaper January 19, 2012.

Donna Bowater, 'Brass lectern stolen from Wiltshire church turns up at Romanian antique fair' Telegraph 08 Jan 2012 (Ornate brass lectern stolen from a church in Ashton Keynes in Wiltshire worth around £2,000 found on sale in Romania)

CPAC Comments: Lost for Words? A How-to Guide for Conservationists (and coineys)

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[I vowed never to get involved in another US MOU campaign, it costs me too many nerves and personally, as I have said many a time, I do not believe the US are using the 1970 UNESCO Convention in any laudable way. However the fact that this next one is one I have long dreamt of, the looting of archaeological sites in Bulgaria is a something I take very personally, and has historical connections with the rise of the US "minor antiquities" trade, it seems I cannot ignore this].

In my analysis of the coiney contributions to the debate yesterday, it became clear that virtually none of them actually addressed the issue at hand and this is because they were to a large extent cutting and pasting (if only mentally) from the [I now think deliberately] misleading propaganda given out by the dealers and their lobbyists.

So after being pretty negative about the coineys, I thought a positive contribution would be to give the people on my side of the fence something to help them put together something addressing the same issues. There is of course no reason why coineys cannot use this too, to make sure that they are addressing the actual issues in hand, please feel free, let's get some proper debate going on in place of the sad apology for one propagated by the ACCG and Moneta-L and their ilk.

In the public notice, comments were specifically and exclusively requested on Section 303 (a) 1 A-D of the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act, 19 U.S.C. § 2602, pursuant to which the Committee must make findings. This Act is pretty badly written as prose and its layout and section numbering are tragic, but not too many minutes work suffice to untangle it. But some people are too busy to do that, so I thought it might help somewhat if I set out the main issues it raises and some guidelines to what one might consider saying in response. I am going to use Bulgaria as the example, but please use this to write a similar response for Belize too. Show the world you care.

Let us start off by noting:

(a) there is no "conspiracy",
(b) the aim is not to stop "collecting" but to halt at the US border, as far as is possible, the import of archaeological material and ethnographic objects which have been illicitly exported from Bulgaria [including, as far as possible, those cynically 'laundered' by being sent via other countries - such as Dubai],
(c) the United States has been a state party of the 1970 UNESCO Convention for 28 years, and according to article 3 of the Convention, any such transactions were all that time (and are) illicit in terms of the Convention (a fact most coineys conveniently ignore).
(d) for the same reason (190 countries are states parties) there is no "discrimination" here. The US is simply implementing the Convention it accepted in September 1983.
(e) the Act is intended to implement the Convention for all types of cultural property covered by the term "archaeological material and ethnographic items", most of the comments to the CPAC have concerned excluding one type of archaeological material (collectable numismatic material) from its scope. There is no authority for that either in the text of the Convention or the CCPIA.

Section 303 (a) asks (in fact, the US President) five questions. Let's go through them in detail.

303 (a).1A: Is the cultural patrimony of Bulgaria in jeopardy from pillage? Sadly, the archaeological sites of almost all (if not all) countries which have a 'productive' archaeological record are subject to this threat. Tragically this applies particularly to Bulgaria where whole sites such as the Roman city of Ratiaria (look it up on this blog) have been stripped on an industrial scale to produce "minor" artefacts and coins which have been OPENLY sold on the US market through internet shops and auction sites (eBay in particular - there's quite a bit about that on this blog too) for year after year with nothing being done about it by UNESCO-Convention-state-party the United States of America. How many arrests have there been in the US for this in the past twenty years? Yes, the cultural patrimony of Bulgaria is indeed in jeopardy from pillage, and much of it done by looters affiliated with criminal groups who organize the transport of the loot to foreign markets (Shentov, O., Todorov, B. and Stoyanov, A. 2007, 'Organized Crime in Bulgaria: Markets and Trends', Sofia, Center for the Study of Democracy - this thought-provoking report figures the antiquities trade alongside trade in drugs, prostitution and human trafficking, and vehicle thefts).

Coineys: here you have to answer "no, the archaeological heritage of Bulgaria is not in peril because of looting", but you are on your own justifying that in the face of all the evidence, and what the Bulgarian authorities are now saying in submitting this request. Also it seems to me you would have to come up with some pretty hard evidence to trump the conclusions of the Bulgarian archaeological authorities monitoring these sites lying behind this request.

303 (a).1B: Has Bulgaria taken measures consistent with the Convention to protect it?

It should be noted that the CCPIA refers ONLY to measures consistent with the context of the Convention which it implements. The Convention has a number of articles devoted to what states parties should do to protect the cultural patrimony of its territory. Bulgaria complies with the following: Art. 2, 1-2; Art 3, Art. 4, Art 5 (which the US has not); Art. 6 (which the US has not); Art 8; Art. 9 (it has just done so, please also note the obligations of the US already now invoked at the end of that article!); Art 10 (a) and (b); 14 (despite the typical economic difficulties common to most states in that regard, and we know the US also has its own problems there with regard the preservation of the archaeological heritage from looting)
[Articles 7, 11, 12, 13, 15 do not apply to this question, articles 16 onwards to the state party's relations to UNESCO - equally irrelevant here]Coineys: here you have to answer "no, Bulgaria taken measures consistent with the Convention to protect its archaeological", and give your reasons for saying so. Please though distinguish between intent and effect. The Bulgarians have for decades been faced with political difficulties and financial restraints, and criminal gangs with bulldozers and a lot of determination to profit from a lucrative market. Should their cultural heritage be penalised (stolen by outsiders) because of it?

303 (a).1C (i): Would the application of the import restrictions proposed be of substantial benefit in deterring a serious situation of pillage?
The ACCG claims that there are 50000 collectors of dugup coins in the US. ACCG officer, coin dealer Dave Welsh asserts confidently that it is "credibly estimated that roughly half of all ancient coin collectors in the world reside and half of the world's numismatic trade is carried on" in the United States. If true, that obviously means that if illicit exports can be prevented from getting to this half of the market, this would cut down the profits that ensue from such an activity. Most of the other countries of the other half of the market are already parties of the Convention and the sale of illicitly-exported archaeological artefacts is already illegal there (for example Britain with its 2003 Dealing in Cultural property (Offences) Act). Obviously vigorously prosecuting these policies in each of these state parties (Convention Art 3 and 13a-b) will substantially reduce the possibilities of smuggled goods finding a market.

Coineys: here you have to answer "no, the application of the import restrictions proposed will not deter a serious situation of pillage", and then trot out the old argument that it has never been proven that no-questions-asked collecting actually has any relationship to looting. I doubt whether the CPAC will accept that, but you can try.

[303 (a).1C (i) additional point: "if applied in concert with other nations having a significant import trade in such material" other nations already have legislation rendering trafficking in illegally and illicitly exported items of this nature illegal. While it is true that with no-questions-asked one can buy such material in countries such as the UK and Germany, it is not, in fact, legal to do so (see here, point 2 - the lawyer has not yet provided the list of countries). It is like driving faster than the speed limit, staying parked longer than the time limit, or jaywalking, you can do it, and generally nothing happens - unless you are caught doing it.]

303 (a).1C (ii): Are there available (to Bulgaria or the USA) other measures less drastic that would achieve the same aim?

Well, what is proposed is that US customs look at the paperwork concerning export of certain types of cultural property. That is hardly "drastic", it's what customs officers are for - to check that what is coming into a country complies with the law. In this case, articles 3 and 13a of the 1970 Convention should be being applied by the customs services and border guards of the US as a state party of the Convention since September 1983 in the case of cultural property from all other countries party to the Convention. Is there anything less "drastic" than customs officers taking more care to do what customs officers should be doing anyway? Once again, it is worth stressing, in terms of the CCPIA, articles with kosher paperwork pass through without a hitch and dealers and other importers should be encouraged (Art 6c, 7b, 10a and 13a) to strive for kosher paperwork.

Coineys have in the past suggested that a "less drastic" measure would be to have the source nations set up something which they characterize as "like the UK's Portable Antiquities Scheme and Treasure Act" which would allow lots of artefacts to enter the market licitly - in other words simply redefining what is "pillaging/ looting". Apart from the fact it is not their place to imperialistically tell other sovereign nations what they "should" do to suit US collectors, this is irrelevant. The setting up of such schemes and attendant legislation are not within the scope of the measures covered by a Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Cultural Property. What we are talking about here is export controls. The home of the PAS and Treasure Act, the UK, has quite stringent export controls on all dug-up archaeological material. A collector buying fresh dugup coins from Great Britain which have been exported without an export licence is committing an act as illicit as if they came from Greece or Bulgaria(and those coins too should have been stopped at the US border). The PAS and Treasure Act do not create an "export free-for-all", and certainly do nothing to protect the sites of England and Wales from looting by artefact hunters.

303 (a).1D: Would the application of these measure be consistent with the general interest of the international community in the interchange of cultural property among nations for scientific, cultural, and educational purposes?Obviously, yes. The large-scale importing of stolen and illegally exported cultural property by one country from another - while no doubt profitable for individuals - is not in the general interest of the international community. This, surely, is particularly the case when it seems it encourages or facilitates international criminal activities. Stopping the traffic in illegally exported cultural property would not have any negative impact on the "general interest of the international community in the interchange of cultural property among nations for scientific, cultural, and educational purposes" since this can surely be satisfied better through mutual licit and legal interchange of such items through the legal art market, museum loans, travelling exhibitions and other means. we should bear in mind that the Bulgarians themselves are part of the international community.
Coineys would have to show that curbing the large-scale importing of stolen and illegally exported cultural property by one country from another is not in the general interest of the international community, and that this would have a wholly negative impact on the "general interest of the international community in the interchange of cultural property among nations for scientific, cultural, and educational purposes". You are on your own there.

So that is five relatively simple questions that the CPAC is currently asking for some public comment on. The answers seem relatively straightforward. Given the scale of the damage already inflicted on the accessible parts of the Bulgarian archaeological heritage through the no-questions-asked buying of the ancient coins dug up by the bucketful from Bulgarian sites, I think the CPAC owe it to the international community to recommend the President apply import restrictions on archaeological artefacts (and let us not forget the ethnographic material - where stolen icons must probably figure highly on the list of priorities) as soon as practically possible. Let it also roundly condemn those that want to continue the disgusting bulk trade in freshly dugup archaeological material like this no-questions-asked.
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Vignette: How to...

Bulgaria Requests the US stop Buying Looted and Smuggled Artefacts from its Soil

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Looting Matters draws attention 'CPAC: Belize and Bulgaria' to a document from the end of last month that we all seem to have missed (coineys too), but it turns out it was only published yesterday [link to the formal notice here]. After enduring having most of the accessible archaeological sites seriously looted - some of them on an industrial scale - over the past two decades, and the material smuggled out often by organized criminal groups, Bulgaria is at last seeking to impose import restrictions on archaeological and ethnological material on the massive US antiquities market which has greedily devoured this material. The legislation sought will restrict legal imports to those items which arrive in the US with the appropriate documentation confirming legal export from Bulgaria under the terms of the US CCPIA. This is the public summary of the request:

[Billing Code: 4710-05]
DEPARTMENT OF STATE [Public Notice 7599]
Notice of Receipt of Cultural Property Request from the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria.

Bulgaria, concerned that its cultural heritage is in jeopardy from pillage, [has] made a request to the Government of the United States under Article 9 of the 1970 UNESCO Convention. United States Department of State received this request in September 2011. Bulgaria’s request seeks U.S. import restrictions on archaeological and ethnological material from Bulgaria dating to the Neolithic Period (7500 B.C.) through the nineteenth century A.D. The specific contents of this request are treated as confidential government to-government information, consistent with applicable U.S. law. Information about U.S. implementation of the 1970 UNESCO Convention can be found at http://exchanges.state.gov/heritage. A public summary of Bulgaria’s request will be posted on that web site.
Date: September 30, 2011
Ann Stock, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs,
Department of State [FR Doc. 2011-26643 Filed 10/13/2011 at
8:45 am; Publication Date: 10/14/2011]

Now, anyone who has been closely following the course of the conflict between the ACCG and the State Department can see, I think, in these two documents pretty clear signs that they've a few ideas how to deal with those pesky un-American dealers' lobbyists that want to get in the way of DoS foreign policy. Good. In fact, one wonders about the precise domestic political context of this request. Have not the coineys brought this upon themselves by kicking against the system instead of complying willingly with the law? I certainly hope so.


The metal-detector and bulldozer looting of Bulgaria and the Balkans was at the core of the expansion in the early 1990s of the US and worldwide "minor antiquities" market. The trade in ancient coins was given new impetus by the arrival in some manner of huge amounts of apparently freshly dug-up artefacts and coins from this region. This is when many of the dealers and collectors in the ACCG began to take an interest in this market. The coin trade which is now fighting import restrictions owes its existence, one might legitimately suspect, to the massive availability of coins almost certainly from the Balkans, and Bulgaria in particular, which appeared on the US market in the past two decades.

A meeting of the US Cultural Property Advisory Committee (CPAC) will be taking place on 15th-17th November to discuss this request from Bulgaria. The majority of the meetings will be closed sessions of the Committee, but on 16th November there will be a three hour public session which invites comments on the request from Bulgaria and Belize together... Methinks that's going to be a real barrel of fun when the coineys take the floor.

I expect, if they are true to the pattern established by the events surrounding the previous several MOUs, we will see the usual ACCG-promoted copy-and-paste philistinic fax-bombing campaign prompted by some amazingly crazy bluff with no basis in fact (probably penned by Peter Tompa who is good at that sort of thing) which will only showcase once again the profound intellectual limitations of the whole coiney crowd taking part. I wonder how many will note that:

"all comments must relate specifically to the determinations under Section 303(a) (1) of the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act, 19 U.S.C. § 2602, pursuant to which the Committee makes findings [...] You may also send written comments to the Committee. Again, your comments must relate specifically to the determinations under Section 303(a) (1) of the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act, 19 U.S.C. § 2602, pursuant to which the Committee must make findings."

The comments can be sent by Internet by November 2, 2011 (go to
http://www.regulations.gov and search on docket number DOS-2011-0115 for
Bulgaria). Comments by fax or by e-mail will not be accepted. Comments submitted in electronic form will be posted on the site http://www.regulations.gov.

State Department Notice of Receipt of Request from Bulgaria

Public Summary of Bulgaria Request

Vignette: Alexander Nevski Church, Sofia; Bulgaria map.

Artefacts Seized in Thessaloniki.

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A recent anti-antiquities smuggling operation by the Athens security police's antiquities smuggling division together with culture ministry official in the city of Thessaloniki led to the arrest on Thursday of two men and the recovery of what Greek police say are "more than 70 items of great archaeological importance”. They apparently date from the 6th century B.C. to the 5th century BC and included:

gold masks, four helmets, a glass perfume bottle, small clay statues and part of a gold diadem and parts of an iron sword decorated with gold leaf.

The items were taken to the National Archaeological Museum in Athens (where it seems they were viewed by Prime Minister George Papandreou, Citizens’ Protection Minister Christos Papoutsis and Culture Minister Pavlos Geroulanos).



The two detainees will be taken before a Thessaloniki prosecutor, while two more suspects were wanted.

Culture Ministry officials consider that the items had most certainly unearthed following illicit excavations in Central Macedonia, though their exact provenance has yet to be determined.

Citizens’ Protection Ministry officials told Kathimerini that given the items’ Macedonian heritage, it was imperative that they not to leave the country and run the risk of being “rediscovered” during an “official” excavation in a neighboring country.

Sources: Associated Press: Greek authorities seize smuggled antiquities MSNBC News 10/6/2011

Anon, 'Police recover ancient relics', Ekathimerini, Friday October 7, 2011

AMNA, 'Priceless artifacts recovered', Athens News 7 Oct 2011 (where the number of items seized is given as 100).

BBC, 'Greek police seize 'smuggled' ancient treasure ', 7th October 2011 [the BBC seems - apparently wrongly - to think the items were dug up in Greece, rather than being the products of illegal excavations outside the country]

I am left wondering whether this is part of the same operation as one in the same city in March 2010 ("Greece Arrests Two for Dealing Smuggled Artifacts") which was discussed here a while back though I saw no follow-up stories.

Photo: Some of the recovered items on display in an office of the Archaeological Museum in Athens (Ekathimerini [left] and Athens News [right]).
(edited Saturday 8th Oct)

UPDATE 23.12.2012:
The finale of what seems to be this case is discussed here. 
 

Canada Makes the Bulgarians Pay

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Peter Tompa suggests that in writing about the return of stolen antiquities to Bulgaria archaeobloggers might have 'Misplaced Priorities', CPO, June 20, 2011. This is because "Bulgarian authorities are spending up to 320,000 Euros to repatriate minor Bulgarian artifacts" recently seized in Canada.* Tompa argues that this cash could have been better spent in Bulgaria on protecting sites and issuing artefact hunters rewards for handing finds in (see below).

Well, if we are going to take that attitude, I would ask why the Canadians made the Bulgarians travel all the way to Canada to pick up the stuff and call it "repatriation"? Have the Canadians no diplomatic post of their own that they could send the goods safely to their consulate in Sofia to be handed over there? Or was the whole point not so much getting the artefacts back, but through holding a ceremony on Canadian soil making a big political show of what good guys they are for keeping an eye on what crosses their borders?

*(We may note that Tompa, quite correctly for a lawyer, says "allegedly smuggled", because "As is the case with many similar reports, we'll never know the actual facts because the importer abandoned the property". Let us note that the reported value of the shipments seized was 707,000 euros ($1 million), and my feeling is an importer would have to have a pretty good reason to shrug his shoulders and simply abandon such a haul - surely it can't cost that much in Canada to send your lawyer along to the customs office with a copy of the export licences. So if there had been export licences issued for this shipment (ie the objects were not smuggled), what conceivable reason is there for him to simply abandon his purchase? I really am curious to know).

What the Dealers will not Admit About the Source of their "Minor Antiquities"

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I suggested readers might like to assess the remarks of coin dealer Sayles in the post above. Let us also remember previous attempts by coin dealers like Dave Welsh to claim that the coins that are sold on the US market do not come from archaeological sites at all. Before people accept that, I'd like them to think about some real examples of the antiquity trade in action. I'd like them to look at dealers like Empire Danny in Cordova, TN United States. I've discussed him before (here, here, here and here) , and since that time he has been busily selling off his stuff, week after week.

[Now the material obviously of Balkan origin is mixed with a much greater number of "Viking" artefacts coming from around the Gulf of Finland/Ladoga area than earlier. (He is obviously strengthening his contacts with the gentlemen from the former Soviet Union - but the question is "which gentlemen", gentlemen from St Petersburg ones?)]

So this dealer has job lots of metal detected stuff alongside the material sorted into categories such as rings (sold individually as they are most often found whole) and other collectable items.

Here's what's left over after sorting:
Metal Detector Finds - HUGE LOT OF ARTIFACTS 6701 US $119.00 ("These artifacts are guaranteed to be an authentic ground dug artifacts dating from Roman to possibly modern times, 100 to 1500 years old or older. These items are being sold UNCLEANED in "as found" condition. These items were found in the Balkans with a metal detector").
Metal Detector Finds - HUGE LOT OF ARTIFACTS 6702 $116.29 ("These artifacts are guaranteed to be an authentic ground dug artifacts dating from Roman to possibly modern times, 100 to 1500 years old or older. These items are being sold UNCLEANED in "as found" condition. These items were found in the Balkans with a metal detector. I have viewed these items under a microscope to aid in authentication") Whoopee.
Metal Detector Finds - HUGE LOT OF ARTIFACTS 6704 US $119.00
Metal Detector Finds - HUGE LOT OF ARTIFACTS 6236 US $119.00
Metal Detector Finds - HUGE LOT OF ARTIFACTS 1679 US $129.00 ("These items are being sold UNCLEANED in "as found" condition This item was found in the Balkans with a metal detector").
Metal Detector Finds - HUGE LOT OF ARTIFACTS 6237 US $119.00


Metal Detector Finds - HUGE LOT OF ARTIFACTS 6706 US $119.00 ("These items were found in the Balkans with a metal detector").


Metal Detector Finds - HUGE LOT OF ARTIFACTS 6703 US $119.00 ("These artifacts are guaranteed to be an authentic ground dug artifacts dating from Roman to possibly modern times, 100 to 1500 years old or older. These items are being sold UNCLEANED in "as found" condition. These items were found in the Balkans with a metal detector. I have viewed these items under a microscope to aid in authentication").






Here's a turn-up for the books, the detectorists even collected metal-working waste and it got sent top the US and the dealer is flogging it off: METAL DETECTOR SILVER SLAG FINDS 3976 US $99.00 though with the proviso - should a collector decide to cash it in as bullion - "This artifact is guaranteed to be an authentic ground dug artifact. This lot weighs over 125 grams. I have not had any of these items tested for silver content. I am not sure that they are all silver, in fact, odds are some of them are not. This item was found in the Balkans. I have viewed this item under a microscope to aid in authentication".

Then another category Mr Danny and his business partners have been busily sorting out from the general run of partifacts are fibulae - categorised by whether they have pins preserved (or restored?) or broken. There's a price difference:
30 UNCLEANED ANCIENT FIBULAE FIBULA WITH PINS 5155 US $599.00 ("These fibulae were found in the Balkans").
LOT of 10 Ancient ROMAN FIBULAE FIBULA 4987 US $39.00 ("This item was found with a metal detector in the Balkans").
LOT of 75 UNCLEANED ANCIENT ROMAN FIBULAE FIBULA 5122 US $279.00


LOT of 75 UNCLEANED ANCIENT ROMAN FIBULAE FIBULA 5119 US $279.00

LOT of 75 UNCLEANED ANCIENT ROMAN FIBULAE FIBULA 5117 US $279.00


LOT of 75 UNCLEANED ANCIENT ROMAN FIBULAE FIBULA 5124 US $279.00
30 UNCLEANED ANCIENT FIBULAE FIBULA WITH PINS 5154 US $599.00 ("These fibulae were found in the Balkans. These fibulae are GUARANTEED to be AUTHENTIC ANCIENT ARTIFACTS").
30 UNCLEANED ANCIENT FIBULAE FIBULA WITH PINS 5160 US $599.00
30 UNCLEANED ANCIENT FIBULAE FIBULA WITH PINS 5159 US $599.00
LOT of 75 UNCLEANED ANCIENT ROMAN FIBULAE FIBULA 5118 US $279.00
LOT of 75 UNCLEANED ANCIENT ROMAN FIBULAE FIBULA 5120 US $279.00
LOT of 75 UNCLEANED ANCIENT ROMAN FIBULAE FIBULA 5116 US $279.00

Then there are collectors of ancient weapons in the States, so the bulk material received from "Balkan" contacts has been searched to make up a:
Lot of 100 Authentic ANCIENT MEDIEVAL ARROWHEADS 5016 US $399.00

there are lots of rings on sale, usually picked out intact. Metal Detector Find - Lot of 15 "SILVER" RINGS 5392 $392.70

Or they can be sold in larger bulk lots for sorting by the purchaser: UNOPENED lot of 150 UNCLEANED ANCIENT FINGER RINGS 4832 $959.59 (note the number on the bag): The same seller has also loads of coins on sale, singly if they are nice, or bulk lots of several hundred "uncleaned". Here's something for everyone:
a lucky dip, packages of coins packed in opaque plastic bags:
250 UNOPENED UNCLEANED HIGHEST QUALITY ROMAN COINS $934.01
1000 UNOPENED UNCLEANED ANCIENT ROMAN COINS $884.80


Then some bags were opened and sorted:
500 HIGH QUALITY UNCLEANED ANCIENT ROMAN COINS 6292
US $799.00. "These coins are HIGH (middle) quality coins. I have tens of thousands of Roman coins in my store so check it out if you want a different (better) quality than these".
500 LOWER QUALITY UNCLEANED ANCIENT ROMAN COINS 4316 $294.28
474 LOWER QUALITY UNCLEANED ANCIENT ROMAN COINS 4318 $280.50

Then some individual items picked out for separate sale, such as: Authentic ANCIENT Bronze GREEK COIN AE10 OWL ? 4630 $38.38
Bronze GREEK COIN AE36 PTOLEMY II Philadelphos 5458 $126.96
6 LARGE As / Dupondius Sized Ancient Roman Coins 6690 Buy It Now" $48.23

It just goes on and on. This seller has 2526 lots of antiquities on sale today. Some of them individually, some as job lots. Obviously the latter are amenable to purchase for the purpose of sorting, cleaning and restoring to put on the market again in smaller lots. So a lot of the minor artefacts sold through internet venues probably come one way or another from precisely such assemblages of material. And where do they come from?

To my mind, this illustrates very well how the minor market in antiquities functions. A bulk lot created by the removal of metal artefacts from the topsoil (where?) on an industrial scale with metal detectors is bought, perhaps direct from source, or perhaps through middlemen (such as German or Swiss intermediaries). It is then sorted through. In some of Empire Danny's photos the objects are shown on a table with a metal grid behind. One can imagine the items spread out on the latter, hosed and then dried before sorting. Numismatic items can be picked out, different artefacts that can be sold individually too. That leaves a whole load of partifacts which are also sold in bulk lots to those who like to puzzle out what the fragments came from. I imagine there were also a lot of shapeless pieces, some of which are included in the partifact lots, I imagine many more going for scrap.
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Canada: 18 000 Stolen Coins Did Not Make it onto the North American Market as Planned

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This Friday evening at a ceremony at the Canadian Museum of Civilization the Ministry of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages returned the largest ever Canadian seizure of stolen cultural property to the Republic of Bulgaria. Going back were 21,000 coins, pieces of jewellery, and other objects that were illegally exported to Canada and seized by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Vezhdi Rashidov, Minister of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria, was present to accept the artefacts from the Government of Canada. Madame Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO, came over for the event. The usual speeches were made.

"The RCMP is pleased with this successful outcome. Our team in Montréal has worked long hours to investigate, locate, and retrieve these Bulgarian artifacts," said Bob Paulson, RCMP Deputy Commissioner.

In 2007, Canada Border Services Agency officials detained two imports of cultural property sent by mail from Bulgaria. These imports were referred to Canadian Heritage for further assessment, and the RCMP was asked to investigate. As a result of its investigation, the RCMP seized about 21,000 ancient coins, pieces of jewellery, and other objects in November 2008. In January 2011, the importer formally abandoned the cultural property, clearing the way for the Court ofQuebec to rule under the Criminal Code for the return of the seized antiquities to the Republic of Bulgaria. These objects, many of which were illegally excavated, cover more than 2600 years of the history of Bulgaria. This collection includes more than 18,000 coins, as well as a number of artifacts including bronze eagles, rings, pendants, belt buckles, arrows and spearheads, and bone sewing needles. They represent a mix of Hellenistic, Roman, Macedonian, Byzantine, Bulgarian, and Ottoman cultural heritage.

The "importer" involved in this attempted smuggling was not named. But there are not too many coin dealers selling this kind of stuff in that part of Canada, are there?

Canada and Bulgaria are signatories to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Cultural Property, under which participating states agree to assist each other in the recovery of illegally exported and stolen cultural property. In Canada, the Convention is implemented through the Cultural Property Export and Import Act [1985], administered by the Department of Canadian Heritage. The Department works closely with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Services Agency to enforce and administer the Act and combat the illicit traffic of cultural property.

Huge numbers of such artefacts flow through the US market annually. In fact a substantial portion of the market seems to have been initiated by the flow of masses of cheap dugup coins precisely from Bulgaria. The USA and Bulgaria are signatories to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Cultural Property, under which participating states agree to assist each other in the recovery of illegally exported and stolen cultural property. In the United States, the Convention is implemented through the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act 1983, administered by the Department of State (unlike countries like Canada, the USA has no Ministry of American Heritage). Despite this, very few shipments of looted coins and artefacts stripped from archaeological sites by gangs of criminals have ever been stopped at the US border, or investigated, located and retrieved by US law enforcement agencies (DHS, FBI etc).

Lesser, but still substantial numbers of such artefacts flow through the UK market annually and are openly sold alongside (and sometimes masquerading as) local finds obtained by metal detector use according to Britain's all-too-lax laws. The UK and Bulgaria are signatories to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Cultural Property, under which participating states agree to assist each other in the recovery of illegally exported and stolen cultural property. In the United Kingdom, the Convention is implemented through the Dealing in Cultural property (Offences) Act 2003, administered by the Commissioners of Customs and Excise. Despite this, very few shipments of looted coins and artefacts stripped from archaeological sites by gangs of criminals have ever been stopped at the UK border, or investigated, located and retrieved by UK law enforcement agencies.

So well done Canada for doing what neither the UK nor the USA can be bothered to do for fear of upsetting the local collectors and dealers.

Source: Government of Canada Returns Its Largest Ever Seizure of Cultural Property to the Republic of Bulgaria

Vignette: RCMP commemorative coin (8000 minted).

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Chariot Burial Looted in Macedonia

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Associated Press has announced today that Macedonian police had seized parts of a Roman-era bronze burial chariot dating from the second century A.D. as part of an operation to recover stolen antiquities and detained 2 people and charged with "concealment." It is believed that other parts of the chariot have already been sold on the foreign antiquities black market. In crackdowns in Macedonia more than 4,000 ancient artefacts, have been recovered in police raids since June. A total of 29 people, including two police officers and a former mayor, have been charged and police believe they are members of a crime ring aiming to sell stolen antiquities abroad. This trade of course cannot exist without people abroad willing to buy these antiquities from those representing the business interests of such a crime ring. Let us hope the ongoing Macedonian investigations reveals who they are. Let us hope their names are revealed and those of their business contacts. Responsible dealers should hold out for this too, so they can be protected from the stigma of association with those who have no scruples about not checking in detail the origins of the items they peddle.
Macedonian police seize parts of Roman-era burial chariot, detain 2 people
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(A reader suggested to me that instead of being a fresh story as Google Alerts tells me, this might be a recycled story five years old, on checking however I could find no trace of that being the case, if anyone knows any better please get in touch. Even if it is, the point made at the end still stands of course).

UPDATE: David Gill reminds us of this report ('Macedonia says cultural heritage plundered', 7th October 2005):

Macedonia's cultural heritage has been plundered to such an extent since independence in 1991 that authorities say they believe they have lost more than a million archaeological artefacts to Europe's black markets. "Macedonia is a victim of organised crime," which has stolen archaeological objects dating back to the 7th century BC, according to University of Macedonia history professor Viktor Lilcic.[...] Jovan Ristov, who heads the government department for preserving Macedonia's cultural heritage, added: "About 80 percent of Macedonia's archaeological treasures have been destroyed or taken from shallow archaeological sites."[...] A recent example of the trafficking occurred just days ago when an unidentified group of criminals smuggled out a "funeral ritual chariot" including human remains and animal figures from the 6th and 4th centuries BC, the Vreme newspaper said this week".

This seems to be yet another case of the disturbing practice of human remains going to a private collector to put on domestic display as some kind of trophy. This however seems to be a different vehicle from the one mentioned above.
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Vignette: Wikimedia.

Another Antiquity Criminal Group Busted in Bulgaria

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The press office of the Interior Ministry has announced that Bulgarian authorities have terminated the activity of an organized criminal group involved in illegal excavations and trade of cultural-historic valuables and foiled the illegal export of a group of looted archaeological finds to foreign no-questions-asked markets. The operation was carried out by officers of the Cultural Valuables Traffic Department at the Chief Directorate for Fight against Organized Crime, in cooperation with the territorial units in the cities of Pleven, Vratsa and Montana who had been watching the group for four months.
The gang was carrying out illegal excavation work on the Ulpia Oescus site (photo), located close to the village of Gigen, district of Pleven. Five members of the group have been detained. The authorities seized around 200 different ancient Roman coins, metal and stone figurines, gilt ("golden") harness appliqués and plaques. A two-metre stone ("marble") statue was also seized, which the criminals peddling it apparently valued at "more than EUR 1 million". It was initially thought to have represented Aphrodite (conceivably what it was being marketed as) but archaeologist Petar Banov from the Regional History Museum in Pleven identified it as a tomb sculpture of an unknown woman. The statue had been hidden by being buried in the yard of a house in the village of Gigen, police believe it had probably been dug out in 2006 or 2007 and had been hidden as the dealers awaited clients willing to buy it.



Sources:
'Criminal group dealing with illegal archaeological excavation works trade of
cultural-historic valuables busted in Bulgaria', Focus News, 29th October

'Bulgarian Police Seize Aphrodite Statue from Archaeology Criminals', www.novinite.com October 29, 2010.

'Bulgarian Expert: Seized Statue Is Not Aphrodite www.novinite.com October 31, 2010.

[The Wikipedia page on the site is pretty pathetic (the German one alone contains more information). There are some photos of the site here. The Roman bridge mentioned by the newspaper reports was a bit further along the river].

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Montreal Antiquities Seizure

The Sofia-based news agency Novinte is reporting that an antiquity smuggling attempt was foiled in a recent seizure by Canadian customs at Montreal 21,000 antiquities of an estimated worth of some 100 000 Euros, probably of Bulgarian origin,(Novinte: Canada Seizes Bulgarian Archaeology Items in Smuggling Attempt, August 5th; Bulgaria's Culture Minister Demands Archaeology Items from Canada, 5th August 2010; Bulgaria to Recover Smuggled Archaeology Finds from Canada Shortly, August 6th 2010). The seized objects primarily consist of Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Medieval Bulgarian and Ottoman coils, though ornaments and other metal and glass objects were also seized. The Bulgarian Minister of Culture Vezhdi Rashidov has sent a letter to the Ministry of Canadian Heritage to thank them for seizing and looking after the antiquities and to ask them to send them back to Bulgaria. Owen Jarus of Heritage key tried to obtain further details from the Royal Ontario Museum which had reportedly been asked for expert advice and the Canadian Department of Heritage, as well as the Bulgarian Embassy, but his questions did not receive clear answers, though an Embassy official did confirm that "there is a situation underway – but would not discuss details".

Prosecutor Kamen Mihov (head of the International Department for Legal Aid of the Bulgarian Supreme Prosecutor’s Office of Cassation) explained to journalists Friday that:

he expects no problems in the recovery of the archaeological items back to Bulgaria as this is not the first such case [...]. Mihov has disproved allegations that the Prosecutor’s Office has started to investigate Angel Borisov, brother of former Chief Prosecutor Nikola Filchev, for organizing the channel for the smuggling of the captured antiques. A trial for antiques contraband against Borisov, which started in 1995, has not been completed yet.

So these items, were they on the way directly to a Canadian dealer in ancient coins? Or a middleman in the North American coin trade who would then be a supplier for Canadian and US no-questions-asked dealers? Or were they going to just one very greedy collector of ancient coins? Will the public ever learn anything about the intended destination of the items seized, so people can make their own minds up about the no-questions-asked trade in antiquities?

The numbers of antiquities of declared, probable and presumed Bulgarian (and other Balkan) origins on the international market, including large quantities sold in the USA shows that this shipment is not an isolated occurrence. Neither has the flow of such material stopped since the shipment discussed earlier on this blog of a metric tonne of antiquities through Frankfurt airport in March 1994 (purchased a similar quantity a few years ago, probably (?) not the same shipment. Indeed it is clear that the current form of the antiquities market in the US at least owes a great deal to the sudden influx of bulk lots of metal detected antiquities coming from the Balkans and Bulgarian in particular in the wake of the social collapse and disorder and rise of criminal groups soon after 1989.
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Bulgarian Metal Detectorist Arrested in Greece

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Yesterday, Greek customs officers stopped a young Bulgarian at the border crossing in the town of Kastanies on theGreece-Turkey border, and he was found to be in possession of 130 ancient coins, police in the north-eastern Greek city of Komotinia announced. The coins have been deposited with the archaeological authorities in Komotini, while the Bulgarian has been handed over to prosecutors in the nearby city of Orestiada. The man's identity has not been revealed. Dimitris Hotzidis, head of customs in Kastanies, told Greek news agency ANA that the man stated that he had found the coins dating to the ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine eras detecting "in the Turkish countryside". According to police in Komotini ... theft and trafficking of archaeological artefacts has been on the rise in the last couple of months, particularly between Greece and Bulgaria. Presumably the stocks of coins in the soil of Bulgaria has been so reduced by a decade of exploitation to feed the illegal export market that suppliers of the Bulgarian market are now having to look to neighbouring countries for material.

Metal Detected Finds from Bulgaria Stopped on the way to Western Collectors

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On March 10 and 11, in a joint operation between the GDPOB’s Directorate dealing with the illegal traffic of antiques, the police in the Black Sea city of Burgas and the Customs Agency at the Sofia Airport, Bulgarian authorities intercepted at the airport in Sofia two packages. They were addressed to Dutch citizens and upon opening were found to contain a large number of archaeological artefacts dating from Antiquity and the Middle Ages ("Bulgaria Police Bust Illegal Antiques Trade Channel", Novinite, March 13, 2010). The sender has been identified as G.G., 24, from the town of Karnobat who already has had problems with the law for his involvement in illegal artefact hunting and illegal trade in antiquities. A police search of his house after the seizure found over 100 other historical objects – coins, jewellery, ceramics and sculptures, as well as an antique iron sword, antique bronze vessel and two metal detectors. The two Dutch buyers were not named, but let us hope that the Dutch police also search their homes, who knows what other illegally exported material they may have been buying from foreign lawbreakers and are hoarding there, or perhaps they are dealers.
This however is small fry compared with the amount of archaeological finds dug out of sites all over the country to supply the no-questions-asked market abroad, to which tonnes, literally, have been shipped in recent decades. This shows just how damaging artefact hunting and collecting is to the archaeological record, and cases like this help to keep that n the public eye. Would the damage to and destruction of sites by digging this stuff up be any less if the law was liberalised and instead some kind of a PAS-type voluntary recording scheme introduced as some pro-collecting lobbyists suggest? Of course not, that is just a daft notion thrown out as a smokescreen by dealers.

Photo by BGNES It's not much of a haul, perhaps its only part of the seized material.

The Saga of an Uncleaned Coin (by Susan Headley)

A while back I made reference to the extremely informative text "the Saga of an Uncleaned Coin" which had been going the rounds of the internet a while back. I gave a link to a page where it was still available. I now see that link is broken, and a Google search suggests that this text is no longer available, not even in Google cache, which is a great pity. Fortunately I downloaded a copy, and have decided to make it available here in unedited form as a record of the openness that once prevailed in collecting circles. The author of the text is Susan Headley. The Saga of the Uncleaned Coin (by Susan Headley) found at: http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:0QgyY-XYmswJ:www.xanderancients.com/forum/viewtopic.php%3Ft%3D2+saga+of+an+uncleaned+coin&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1 [link now appears broken]

FORVM VESTIGIA :: View topic - The Saga of an Uncleaned Coin Nov 27, 2005 http://www.xanderancients.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2 This is the story of Constantius "Fel Temp" Reparatio. Reparatio is a coin that circulated in Roman society around 1,650 years ago. He is made of bronze, and has survived all these many centuries only to be sadly abused in modern times. He was born in a Roman melting pot, where his metal was pounded and cut into a round, coin-sized planchet. Several hammer strikes later, he bore the image of the man who ordered his creation, the Emperor Constantius. He was named Reparatio as a tribute to the ubiquity of his reverse type as found in uncleaned coin lots. Oh, the stories he could tell! Of the people whose hands he passed through on his journey through the years. But this is not the story he tells us today... He was buried in the ground, (not by soldiers, as is commonly believed) but by peasants. These hard-working farmers and tradesmen generally lived in rural areas outside the city walls, and during the many times of war and civil unrest, they would bury their valuables and coins nearby, so that the marauders and armies ravaging through the countryside would not easily find their tiny bits of wealth when their homes got ransacked. Reparatio laughs at the common misperception that soldiers would have buried most of his kin as ridiculous, because soldiers were paid in silver specie, so any coins that soldiers buried and subsequently lost would most likely be made mostly of silver. Indeed, being of lowly bronze, Reparatio was rarely held in the hands of soldiers and nobles, unless small change was needed. He was a poor man's coin, and was therefore buried in the ground with several of his cousins and friends by a hard-working farmer, during a time of great strife. Unfortunately for Reparatio, the farmer and his family were captured and carted off to be sold as slaves, and so Reparatio entered a deep sleep, safe in the ground where he would remain for 1,600 years (give or take a decade or two.) The story Reparatio wants to tell us today begins the day he was rudely awakened from his long slumber by somebody with a sharp instrument poking around in the dirt in which he had lain all these years. Indeed, this dirt is so unforgiving that a shovel would barely dent the ground - a pick-axe is the preferred method of quickly uncovering the sleeping friends and relatives of our poor Reparatio. The searchers work in teams, employing metal detectors, and searching for signs of lost metal from ages past. Many are paid an actual hourly wage for their efforts, and work at this like people in the USA work in factories. Overseers ensure that areas are searched thoroughly, but quickly, and that all finds go into the buckets (and not into pockets.) After a long day's work, the team members are driven back via van or truck to the collection point, where they are paid their wage and the contents of their buckets is dumped into a central collection tub. Then the Overseers sit down and sift through the material, sorting out the coins from the artifacts, and from the obvious junk, and picking out anything that looks unusual or particularly valuable to keep for themselves. Watching this from his place on the floor, where he was carelessly dropped, Reparatio sees that these guys aren't too interested in his cousins and friends. They are most interested in the metal objects like fibulas, rings, brooches, figurines, arrowheads, and other items that might bring a price and might be made of something better than base metal. They have very little interest in coins; anyway, nearly all of the coins are covered in millimeters of dirt. A good percentage of them are still encrusted together in little chunks, and since these low-level Overseers have no knowledge of, and no market for single coins, they go basically ignored. Reparatio can see that the day's haul amounts to a pile of around 700 coins, and about 14 or 15 pounds worth of other encrusted junk. The Overseers, after their brief survey of the day's take, don't set anything at all aside for themselves. They simply put the stuff into cloth bags in this roughly sorted order. The coins will go to one buyer, the "good" metal items to another buyer, and the "junk" metal items to a third source. Someone notices Reparatio and some of his cousins on the floor, and they scoop him up and toss him into the coin bag. He can see that there are a couple thousand other coins already here; apparently the overseers have been saving up a batch of goods for a number of days already. The next time Reparatio sees the light of day is a couple of weeks later, when his bag (which is now full) is opened and dumped out into a large, flat pan. Two men are bickering about price and condition; a few of Reparatio's cousins are picked up and scraped with pocket knives. Eventually, some cash exchanges hands and Reparatio finds himself back in the sack. He has been purchased by a regional Wholesaler, who will combine his lot with that of many other Overseers and single detectorists, and sell them to the Man. The price paid for Reparatio was based on weight, quantity, and quality, (not by a coin count) but it averages out to 6 American cents per coin. Before driving into the City the next day, this local wholesaler will take his purchases home and sort through them somewhat. He won't dare to do any cleaning; the Man insists on "fresh" goods, but he picks through the sacks, hefting some of the coins, trying to guess if they're silver, looking for unusual items that might not be coins at all, but medallions or pendants, but mostly just looking. He can't tell very much through the heavy dirt and encrustations that 98% of the coins are still covered in. Reparatio's next stop is in the back of a shop in a major Eastern European city. They are selling meat out front, but in the back, many different items are bought and sold. After all, meat must be bought and sold fresh, so the constant comings and goings of packages and people is no real anomaly. Reparatio and his kin are first weighed, and then once again dumped out, this time onto a large metal table. Once again, men bicker (but not nearly so harshly), and a price is agreed upon. Money changes hands, and Reparatio has a new owner. This time he has been bought by the Man, for about 15 American cents each. The Man knows quite a bit about Reparatio and his friends Denarius, As, Drachma, Follis, and others. The Man has very good friends in high places, and belongs to a tight-knit family-oriented social group, and it is the Man who will take Reparatio on his journey outside the country in which he was found. Well, maybe not the Man himself, but surely someone in his employ. The Man has many employees, in fact. Some of these employees have scooped up Reparatio and his friends, and placed them in sinks that have high-pressure water jets above them. Reparatio and his coin buddies are subjected to the water equivalent of sand blasting, with the intent being to eliminate much of the dirt and encrustation that currently protect the coins from the light of day (and analysis...) Once the coins are stripped of their detritus down to about a half centimeter or so, they go into the ovens for drying. Once dry, they find themselves back on the large, brightly lit table, where men sitting on high stools divide them into piles. The piles are sorted through by hand. Occasionally, a chisel is employed to break clumped coins apart into their singles. From time to time, a small blade is used to extract some of the dirt or crust, usually when silver is suspected. Silver is very easy for these men to detect because it is heavier than equal-sized bronze. Most of the silver is picked out of the coin lot in a matter of a couple of hours. The men work fast, and they miss things sometimes, but over all, they're pretty efficient. They count the coins into bank bags, and when they are finished the silver is in one sack, and the bronze is in the others. Approximately ten percent of the lot has been set aside as silver, and it's journey from here is very different from that which Reparatio will take. Later that afternoon, the sacks Reparatio is traveling with are loaded into the trunk of a car owned by an employee of the Man. There are several of these bags now, each containing approximately 5,000 coins. The next time the coins are sold, they will be sold by the piece, rather than by weight. After a long journey on the highway that includes a brief stop at the source country border (to say hello to a relative of the Man who happens to supervise the checkpoint there), Reparatio and company eventually find themselves in Munich, Germany. Reparatio might just as easily have wound up in The Netherlands or Spain, or perhaps even France; it just depends which wholesaler he found his way to, or which Man the wholesaler went to that week. Upon arriving in Munich, the coins once again see the light of day. They are simply delivered to the buyer this time, as the buyer has prepaid the Man for them. Ten bags of 5,000 coins each are passed across the counter of a clothing store in a better part of town, and from there they are taken home that night by the shop's owner, who is also an ancient coin wholesaler and hobbyist. In fact, he doesn't usually work in his store; he's only there today to accept delivery of this month's batch of coins. Nearly all of them are destined for the United States, but only 75% of them will be going across the ocean as "uncleaned bulk." Reparatio has finally met the Dealer. This fellow knows his coins very, very well. Although he has paid 35 cents a coin, his average return will be at least ten times that, depending on how well the coins clean up. Because this is the point at which most uncleaned coins are truly cleaned. The Dealer has an industrial sized rock tumbler in his basement. He dumps all ten bags of coins into the large tumbler, adds some plastic media, and lets the tumbler run overnight. By the next morning, about half of the coins will be showing detail; the rest will go back into the tumbler for a few more hours. Once the coins are out of tumbling, they are not clean yet, but the layer of dirt is now thin enough that the six workers that are employed by the Dealer can easily pick through the piles of coins and remove those that appear to be in extremely fine (EF) condition. Any silver that is found is set aside. By this point, it will be about 5% of the lot, most of it lighter because it was debased or clipped in antiquity (which is why the Man's employees missed it.) The workers also know their coins fairly well, and anything unusual or valuable, regardless of its condition, is also set aside for closer analysis. Most of the larger coins are picked out at this point, too, unless they are in really worn condition. This sorting and picking process will result in the removal of approximately 15 percent of the coins, and another 10 percent or so is picked out, by most ethical dealers, as total junk. The mildly chipped, holed, and blank coins are still present; usually only the most egregious examples of garbage are removed, along with any non-coin items that made it this far. Remember the dirt (now in dust form) that was removed from the coins in the tumbler? That dirt is sifted (removing any chunks of plastic media still remaining) and then placed in a large plastic tub. The non- picked out coins are also dumped in the tub, along with a small amount of a waxy oil substance designed to help some of the dust re-adhere to the coins. Some dealers forego this step, and frequently you know their coins because all you have to do the clean the coin is rub your thumb across the surface and the dirt comes off! And yet, our friend Reparatio is truly baffled by the fact that people would even accept such coins as "uncleaned" since it should be patently obvious to anybody with half a noggin that coins that laid in the ground for 16 centuries shouldn't be so easily cleanable! Nevertheless, before the coins are sold to the next person in the chain, (the Seller), they can sit for several months in the Dealer's basement. They might be combined with other batches; some of their kin may require many, many tumbler treatments before they pass muster, but ultimately Reparatio and his relatives are shipped across the Atlantic. The batch Reparatio travels in is of average size; it contains five thousand of his closest allies. The price paid for Reparatio at this step of the journey is about average: 50 American cents. Reparatio's newest owner is a Seller of uncleaned coins on the major online auction sites. This Seller buys a batch of 2,500 to 5,000 coins at a time, every few months, and he, too, will sort through the coins and retain anything interesting that he finds. Depending on how closely picked the silver was by the previous owners, he will find anywhere from 3 to 5 percent that show any silver. Most of these will be bronze coins that have a thin silver wash on them, and the few "pure" silver coins he finds were probably passed over by the Dealer ahead of him because they were too worn to be worth much, or perhaps they are holed, or bent, or drastically clipped. It is at this point that most of the very fine (VF) graded coins get picked out (as well as any extremely fines (EF) missed by the last pick-through). But it is also at this point that the majority of the "junk" is removed, as well. Sellers have learned that people paying a premium price (a dollar or more) for uncleaned coins get very upset when they get outright crap. This culling process usually depletes the lot by around 15%, depending on how ethical the Dealer who sold it to him was, but the majority of the remaining coins will be sold in lots of 100 or fewer to individual collectors. Reparatio, of course, ended up in one of the lots I bought last month, which is why I can so faithfully recant his sorry tale. I never realized that among my lesser talents I had the ability to channel ancient coins, but so be it...I haven't had any rest since Reparatio began screaming, and now that I've told his entire horrific tale I realize he is screaming because he is suffocating in that little two by two flip I put him in. Sigh.... Some facts emerged from this little tale, that the buyer of uncleaned coins would be wise to take heed of: (1) If there is less than about a millimeter of hard dirt on the coins, they have been cleaned (probably by rock tumbler or high pressure air/water) somewhere along the way. Such coins are invariably picked through. (2) It is not realistic to expect to find decent silver coins in these lots. If you really think otherwise, you are deluding yourself. The coins have been picked through a minimum of five times before they get to you. (3) Your best chance of finding anything in very fine (VF) or better condition (other than ridiculously common Constantine era coins) is from cleaning heavily encrusted coins. The coins have been picked through many times already, but nobody can see under that heavy lime-like crust. (4) If you think you'll avoid some of the picking-through by going up the food chain a dealer or two, just remember that the price of this is (a) having to place a large order; (b) Accepting the fact that 20% of the lot will be culls; and (c) you expose yourself to great risk, both of being ripped off altogether, or of being caught up in some illegal antiquities export ring. And anyway, the coins have already been picked through by the best, back in the source country. (5) Some of the more conscientious dealers will actually improve the lot for you (if you buy 25 or so coins or more) by throwing in a nice coin or two because their conscience bothers them about all the money you're paying for what they know is crap. But they probably got those nicer coins by picking through the uncleaned batches they buy. (6) Having said all that, I have found both nice silver and rare coins in uncleaned coin lots. So maybe everything Reparatio is telling me should be taken with a grain of plastic media.