tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8174756573570334952.post8771592112395816262..comments2024-03-27T04:46:33.198-07:00Comments on Portable Antiquity Collecting and Heritage Issues: "Ancient coin Collecting" Strike ThreePaul Barfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10443302899233809948noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8174756573570334952.post-39040126772756353532016-03-05T05:40:45.170-08:002016-03-05T05:40:45.170-08:00By "a step in the right direction", I me...By "a step in the right direction", I meant precisely that: a "step". The provenance is clearly far from ideal (for example, there is nothing to show that coin did not come from the kind of wholesale looting I mentioned <a href="http://ancient-heritage.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/ancient-coins-looted-as-if-on-cue.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>) but I welcome even the tiniest step towards acknowledgement that a provenance, however inadequate, is as important for a coin of low financial value ($35) as that for a marble statue. Archaeological sites are destroyed to supply mundane artefacts every bit as much as they are to supply exceptional ones. How genuine that acknowledgement is, is another matter.<br /><br />I think you know my opinion of the ACCG and their attitudes from numerous posts on my own blog and elsewhere. Sadly, I doubt we will ever really get a "Fresh Start" from its Executive Director; whether due to genuine ignorance or willful obfuscation, the misguided and outdated views he expresses are unlikely to change.<br /><br />His 'concern' about site conservation and that of people like Morag Kersal have about as much in common as Genghis Khan and John Betjeman.David Knellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13488678409144873954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8174756573570334952.post-82350191585964966952016-03-03T21:50:49.137-08:002016-03-03T21:50:49.137-08:00Well, you can be as "fair" as you like t...Well, you can be as "fair" as you like to this obstructive old man, but the link to an auction site means nothing at all about how and when it came on the market (ie left the ground and source country). This falls precisely into the category of produce mentioned a little below that link:<br /><br />"<i>fresh stock (almost all of which 'just happens to have <b>lost' all documentation tracing it further back than the catalogue of the last auction where it was bought)</b> ...</i>". <br /><br />Who sold it to "Triskeles" and where had they got it from? Triskeles is as much a "provenance" and "step in the right direction" as "a bloke in the pub". You can name the pub ("the Duck and Bucket, Dursley"), but that does not make the object any the more legit. <br /><br />The point I was making though is that he is claiming that his clients "care" about site conservation as much as Kersel et al, which is shown to be completely untrue because the vast majority of coins sold (we are asked to believe of legal provenance) cannot be linked to the point where they ("legally") left the ground, ie the sites which Kersel is writing about. "Triskeles" is not an archaeological site. We are again hearing chalk for cheese from the collectors and dealers. <br /><br />Sayles aims to disrupt and confuse the discussion, not contribute in any way which is meaningful. This is why I say people like him need not be included in a discussion they have absolutely no intention of engaging in properly. They are alienating themselves. <br /><br />This is his "Fresh Start". \<br /><br />Paul Barfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10443302899233809948noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8174756573570334952.post-47058895430085355022016-03-03T18:16:02.765-08:002016-03-03T18:16:02.765-08:00"[...] none of the items he sells are given e...<i>"[...] none of the items he sells are given even the vaguest provenance let alone traceable to a specific site - like this coin"</i><br /><br />To be fair, the description for that coin does mention that it is "Ex: Triskeles 2, lot 249" (the auction took place April 2013). Not much of a provenance but better than absolutely zilch and at least a step in the right direction.<br /><br />I've been tracing the relative origins of archaeology and numismatics (distinguishing it from mere coin collecting) for a future post. Despite the frequent assertions by US coin dealers that the latter pretty much predates the Big Bang, my research so far suggests the reality is that it is a little less antediluvian.David Knellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13488678409144873954noreply@blogger.com