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Greetings,
I posted this idea back on November 8th of 2007 and both Paul Barford and Nathan Elkins seemed to like it. Imagine, me, a bogey-man of the 'Collecting Lobby' actually proposing a solution rather than just griping and throwing bombs.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Unidroit-L/message/2688
Greetings,
We all have discussed (and bickered) about how to solve the problem of coins and looting. I think this is a problem that has several key component parts.
1) One big problem with looting is that in source countries with confiscatory laws, 'finding' an object intentionally or unintentionally can land you into trouble with the authorities and lead to confiscation. There is no incentive to properly report a find but every reason to go to a black market dealer. I think we need to look at a looter's motivation to dig - to make money. The laws should be changed to both honor private property concepts such as rewarding the finder and property owner for one thing so people are compensated fairly and do not turn to the black market. The other is to co-opt the diggers/looters to learn proper archaeology from the archaeologists, at least in some rudimentary basic way and bring the archaeologists in as both teachers and as monitors creating a symbiosis between the archaeologists and the citizens of the source country.
Write the laws so that the symbiosis carries benefits and higher profit and independent, illicit looting is less profitable and carries punishments. However, intelligent persons who are deemed to have genuine gifts for archaeology and meet certain competencies may be certified to work on their own or with reduced supervision.
2) Create a universal form for finds. Each form could have it's own alphanumeric number that is entered into a database, data would include a snapshot of the find in situ and if immediately conserved, an item such as a coin could have a photograph of each side taken as well. To address the possibility of this becoming cumbersome, if the archaeologist in charge determines all or most of the coins would be the same or similar and of low to moderate value, a percentage sample could be individually shot and the rest put on the market sold as a lot with a general provenance ticket. You would wind up with something like this:
-----
Ticket #: ABCD0009876
Country: United Kingdom
Area: Colchester
Items: 245 bronze coins of Constantine I (#76), Constantine II (#58),
Constans (#61), Licinius (#30) & unidentified slugs (#20).
-----
Individual coins worth recording could each have their own separate ticket and have the usual archaeological & numismatic info such as date of find, find spot, strata level (if applicable), country, ruler, obverse, reverse, size, weight, grade, denomination, metal, die axis, etc.
All ticket data would be entered into a searchable database that includes those categories and photos.
If so desired, for an extra fee a coin could be slabbed. (Ugh!)
A similar format could be applied to any other artifact, both those that are unique such as statuary, mummies, weapons, etc and others such as oil lamps, buckles, pins, arrow heads, etc that are more common.
3) Tax it all. I know some of us have an aversion to taxes, maybe call it an 'antiquity collector's user fee' (ha-ha!). Keep the fee low enough so it does not discourage sales but high enough to continue to fund the things archaeology needs like site security, funds for further expeditions, publishing, etc. Oh, and of course to pay those people building and maintaining the database! I envision it as a percentage sales tax of a rate between 5 to 9%. So if an archaeologist or a certified/licensed person would find a hoard of 100 silver coins valued at $50 each (to use a round number) and the lot was sold for $5000 then a 5% tax would create a $250 revenue. Of the $5000, the property owner would get $2500 and the finder or archaeological team would get $2500. The tax would be paid by the buyer like when the winner of an auction pays a hammer fee.
4) Give private collectors a way to enter their unprovenanced coins and antiquities into the database so their item has a number and a place in the database in the future. This makes sense because while some collectors collect everything they like, most specialize and those who specialize will have knowledge to impart as items are entered into the database. As items are sold and resold a trail of ownership (pedigree) can be built and established. When a sale is made, a dealer can immediately enter the transaction into the database. When a private individual gives an item or collection to a museum, the museum can refer to the database and make any needed entries. Likewise when a museum sells off deaccessioned items, again the record can be made to reflect that in the database. After this becomes normative practice if a seller tries to sell an item with no credentials of provenance nor pedigree to a buyer, the buyer will shun him. Hence looting and the sale of looted items will become unprofitable and the sale of ones with a known title will become not merely profitable but normative.
5) Collectors and dealers with items valued at $25 or less will be encouraged *but not required* to enter said items into the database. No criminal penalties will apply to the sale or ownership of low value, untitled items. I suspect if the fee to enter an item is minimal, a collector might do it if for no other reason than to raise it's value just as American coin collectors do when they 'slab' a modern US coin. In the end only the most abysmal and common examples will end up unrecorded.
6) Make use of the database for ancient coin dealers & antiquity dealers mandatory by law. Also dealer members of coin groups like the ANA, ACCG, PNG, etc who are ancient coin dealers would be required to regularly record their sales into the database or have their membership revoked. This would keep dealers accountable. This measure should be introduced gradually. It would be worthwhile to put some time and effort into having training seminars annually or semiannually even in different regions so dealers would have a chance to learn how it worked and how to use it.
There would be a penalty free phase-in period for several years while such an apparatus was phased in. I say this mainly because if it was done tomorrow, there would be a large number of older dealers who are so averse to computers and modern technology that it would be draconian in the extreme to force them to use such a thing. More computer literate people around my own age and younger would probably feel entirely at home with such a system.
I am sure I am forgetting something but I think this would be a good solution. To start with I think the database and form should be created 1st. If we make it normative practice in the world of numismatics and eventually museums and antiquity sales, it may just catch on and the laws will catch up to us.
I think a system like this would be a mutually agreeable answer to our current dilemma. I think once we drop our swords, we might realize we have more in common than we think. We both love the past, we both are concerned with conservation of ancient items. We just gotta toss out all the class warfare and give each other the benefit of the doubt.
Best to all (even Nathan and Paul),
Jim McGarigle
************
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Unidroit-L/message/2689
My Own Solution - An Addendum
Comments interspersed below,
[snipped for brevity]
>
> 2) Create a universal form for finds. Each form could have it's own
> alphanumeric number that is entered into a database, data would
> include a snapshot of the find in situ and if immediately conserved,
> an item such as a coin could have a photograph of each side taken as
> well. To address the possibility of this becoming cumbersome, if the
> archaeologist in charge determines all or most of the coins would be
> the same or similar and of low to moderate value, a percentage sample
> could be individually shot and the rest put on the market sold as a
> lot with a general provenance ticket. You would wind up with something
> like this:
> -----
> Ticket #: ABCD0009876
> Country: United Kingdom
> Area: Colchester
> Items: 245 bronze coins of Constantine I (#76), Constantine II (#58),
> Constans (#61), Licinius (#30) & unidentified slugs (#20).
> -----
> Individual coins worth recording could each have their own separate
> ticket and have the usual archaeological & numismatic info such as
> date of find, find spot, strata level (if applicable), country, ruler,
> obverse, reverse, size, weight, grade, denomination, metal, die
axis, etc.
>
> All ticket data would be entered into a searchable database that
> includes those categories and photos.
>
> If so desired, for an extra fee a coin could be slabbed. (Ugh!)
>
> A similar format could be applied to any other artifact, both those
> that are unique such as statuary, mummies, weapons, etc and others
> such as oil lamps, buckles, pins, arrow heads, etc that are more common.
If there was a desire on the part of a seller to record the resale of
a bulk lot he purchased, he could apply a Sub Number (SN) to the
original number hence if he sold 5 coins to John Doe from Ticket #:
ABCD0009876, they would be numbered, ABCD0009876SN1, ABCD0009876SN2,
ABCD0009876SN3, ABCD0009876SN4 & ABCD0009876SN5.
ALSO - The universal form and the database would be used to record all
finds - both those headed strictly for being housed in museums or in
the case of common items like coins - items for sale. The form and
database are not just for the benefit of collectors and dealers but
for all involved.
> 3) Tax it all. I know some of us have an aversion to taxes, maybe call
> it an 'antiquity collector's user fee' (ha-ha!). Keep the fee low
> enough so it does not discourage sales but high enough to continue to
> fund the things archaeology needs like site security, funds for
> further expeditions, publishing, etc. Oh, and of course to pay those
> people building and maintaining the database! I envision it as a
> percentage sales tax of a rate between 5 to 9%. So if an archaeologist
> or a certified/licensed person would find a hoard of 100 silver coins
> valued at $50 each (to use a round number) and the lot was sold for
> $5000 then a 5% tax would create a $250 revenue. Of the $5000, the
> property owner would get $2500 and the finder or archaeological team
> would get $2500. The tax would be paid by the buyer like when the
> winner of an auction pays a hammer fee.
For items that would be put into govt museums, I'd follow the example
of the UK and give a fair market reward to the finder and property
owner and tax the reward as income targeted for archaeology expenses.
[snip]
> Best to all (even Nathan and Paul),
>
> Jim McGarigle
************
TTFN, Ta-Ta-For-Now (as Tigger would say)
Jim McGarigle
Polymath Numismatics
ANA ANS ACCG
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