Saturday 30 May 2015

Calling IAPN Dealers: Licitness in Question


Peter Tompa ('Trade Professionals Speak Common Sense') has provided an opportunity for all IAPN dealers to show their licit trade practices to heritage stakeholders worldwide. Ed Snible suggested a contest sponsored by the ACCG with a cash prize of $50 for a photograph from a dealer of a "21st century export certificate from Greece of a $100 ancient Greek coin". IAPN's lobbyist added an open invitation for any CPO readers out there to send him a photograph of a Greek, Cypriot, Egyptian, Turkish, Syrian or Ruritanian export certificate for a coin bought through an IAPN dealer. And an
"extra bonus for anyone who sends me a picture of a license of one issued before 1970. Please send image along with any information you have about the export certificate to my work email address, pkt@becounsel.com".
James Ede has some pre-1970 export licences from Egypt, he says. But that is the IADAA, what about the IAPN? How many of them are in a position to claim their $50 rewards?

 I've handled some Bulgarian ones for coins, there are Israeli ones too. Of course Bailey and Ehrenberg's "cultural property lawyer" should know that in the case of Greece the key date is September 5th, 1981, Cyprus January 19th, 1980, Egypt July 5th, 1973, Turkey July 21st, 1981, May 21st, 1975 (and Iraq, May 12th, 1973). This is when the Convention (and therefore its Art. 3) came in force.

The reference to Ruritania is a bit of an aberration, as is well known that the Ruritanian state banned coin exports when the borders were opened in 1918 on the insistence of the "Ruritanian National Guild of Associated Professional Numismatists and Collectors" and any coins in a modern collection are most unlikely to be legal exports, so there will be no (genuine) export licences from there, but of course no reputable foreign dealer would dream of holding such coins in their stock anyway, that would be supporting criminal activity (smuggling).  

So, all you 98 IAPN dealers out there, here's your chance to show how many Greek, Cypriot, Egyptian, Turkish and Syrian items in your fresh stock are licit and win fifty dollars from the ACCG into the bargain! A win-win situation, all you have to do is show some export documentation for your fresh stock.

Distribution of IAPN members
(none in Greece, Turkey, Syria, Iraq and most of Southern hemisphere)
UPDATE 31st May 2015
Dealer Dave admits he does not understand the implications of the above. I believe him, he is after all a coiney, an area of human endeavour which seems to attract many of those who are not overly-endowed with mental agility. Welsh adds to his confession:
collectors of ancient coins, and the professional numismatists who supply them, are simply continuing the normal and traditional practices that have defined this avocation for centuries
and centuries ago, there were no export licences. Alles klar. But this is the twenty-first century now and times have changed. Keeping slaves to do the work is no longer the normal and traditional practice on American farms, either.

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