Advisory Committee Hears Concerned Collectors About Bilateral Agreement with Italy

GAINESVILLE, Mo., May 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Cultural Property Advisory Committee hearings on renewal of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Italy were held at the U.S. State Department in Washington D.C. on May 6-7. The committee heard comments in open public session from representatives of five main groups of concerned citizens: Archaeologists, Museum Administrators, Art and Antiquity Collectors, the Numismatic Trade and Ancient Coin Collectors.

Collectors expressed concern that coins may be added to a list of import restrictions in the next draft of the MOU with Italy, but so far, the State Department is being tight-lipped about the matter.

An informal account of the hearing appeared in the personal blog of Ancient Coin Collectors Guild (ACCG) executive director Wayne Sayles on May 7th:

http://ancientcoincollecting.blogspot.com/2010/05/to-be-or-not-to-be.html

An article by staff reporter Maria Glod appeared in the Washington Post on May 8th:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/07/AR2010050705046.html

A more detailed account appeared in the blog of Peter Tompa, a numismatic trade lobbyist, on May 9th:

http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2010/05/report-on-cpac-hearing-on-italian-mou.html

The hearings followed a period of written submissions about the MOU during which ACCG supporters sent in 1,934 faxes highlighting problems that adding coins to the MOU would create. The Archaeological Institute of America reported that hundreds of their supporters, in a similar campaign, sent in faxes about the MOU in general.

Since few archaeologists supporting the Italian MOU were specialists in ancient coins, their statements consisted mostly of well-worn party lines about the matter. Both Sayles and Glod picked up a comment from survey archaeologist Susan Alcock, of Brown University. Referring to their archaeological context, she said about coins: "There may be millions of these little suckers, but they are still important."  Actually, the vast majority of ancient coin finds are from the top few inches of disturbed soil and have no archaeological context.

Though he did not appear at the CPAC hearing, Dr. Alan M. Stahl, curator of Princeton University's important coin collection, was interviewed by Ms. Glod. Stahl teaches a course on numismatic methodology and understands the complexities of the issue. He said: "It is not a simple problem, which is why I don't put myself solidly in either camp." Stahl's views do not differ drastically from those of the ACCG, which recognizes the importance of a licit market where coin finds can be properly recorded.

Contact: Wayne G. Sayles, 417-679-2142, [email protected], http://www.accg.us

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SOURCE Ancient Coin Collectors Guild