Wednesday, July 30, 2008

My Thoughts Exactly!









A coin collecting colleague of mine recently wrote this:

You would think that ECA would support activities like the
ANA and NYINC as way to promote people to people contacts
between Americans and foreigners AT NO COST TO THE US
TAXPAYER. Yet, import restrictions like those ECA recently
imposed on "coins of Cypriot type" threaten to make foreign
participation in such coin fairs as a thing of the past.

My thoughts exactly!

His column reminds me of an old Rodney Dangerfield quote that I will intentionally paraphrase, "I went to a coin show the other day, and a friendship broke out".



I have often preached that the international exchange of coins by PRIVATE CITIZENS of differing countries has a 'Peace Dividend' in that as people buy and sell or trade (coin and bank note trading is BIG over the internet!) coins as a hobby, it builds good will between those countries one person at a time. I have had both a French collector and an Arab collector say the precise same thing to me, "I hate George Bush but I love Americans!" As I am a Republican who worked to elect and re-elect Bush I was not happy to hear they did not like my President but I got what they were saying. They did not care for our current President but they harbored no ill will for Americans. In fact both told me of numerous friends and customers they had who were American.

Washington, are you reading this?

Some years back when I was a student at Mankato State University, I took a class in political philosophy from a terrific professor, Doran Hunter. He had us read Steven Macedo's Liberal Virtues: Citizenship, Virtue, and Community in Liberal Constitutionalism. A big part of what we talked about was 'cross cutting interests and institutions'. Here in America, one reason we don't have Protestants and Catholics who live side by side slitting each others throats is because we don't monolithically identify with just our own religion. We may belong to a political party, we may belong to a social club like the Rotary Club, we may play chess and belong to a chess club or we might COLLECT COINS and belong to a COIN COLLECTING CLUB. Under the old Soviet system and under many of the past Fascist regimes, social clubs were either eliminated or co-opted into the party structure. Why? Because clubs often have leaders and clubs are often built upon coalitions!

Are you listening State Department?

Much of today's import restriction requests are born out of a philosophy called Cultural Property Nationalism (hypernationalism) which is a product (in many cases) of bad feelings over colonialism, hypernationalism also is related to Fascism. But the truth be told, colonial powers did frequently behave badly and either stole or bought (at very low prices) what some might now consider national treasures. Cultural Property Nationalism may be bad and counterproductive to friendly international relations but it is conceived in feelings that have some justification. The problem we are faced with now is a 'baby-with-the-bathwater' problem. Coins are rarely national treasures, coins were mass produced for public circulation as a means of exchange for the buying and selling of commercial goods. You just cannot equate a bronze coin of Constantine the Great that has a retail value of say, $5 to $25 with something like King Tutankhamen's treasure. It is like comparing an antique beer can to a print made by Albrecht Dürer.

Sure, both are collectible, but one belongs in a basement bar display and the other belongs in a museum. Many archaeologists wish to stop all trading in unprovenanced antiquities. In order to do this they feel that even if ancient coins may very well be common, it is all or nothing. All antiquities, no matter how insignificant, must be regulated and preferably, professional archaeologists should be the sole arbiters of their possession and study.

Back to the original topic, collecting has a 'peace dividend' that transcends politics, religion, ethnicity, gender, etc. If certain archaeologists and government busybodies (both with far too much time on their hands) want to send person-to-person international relations back 100 years, they should just keep doing what they have been doing. On the other hand, if a man in the U.S. wants to collect Judaean bronzes or Spanish milled silver, so what? And if a woman in India wants to collect U.S. or Canadian silver dollars, so what? Let them. This will promote cross-cultural exchange and global understanding when far too many balkanizing trends are at work.

Yeah, don't let people buy, sell and trade ancient and older world coins internationally - a friendship or business partnership might break out!



Peace,

Jim McGarigle
Polymath Numismatics
ANA ANS ACCG

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Coins And Cultural Property - A Solution Part 2









Greetings,

For those of you following this discussion, Ed Snible has made several entries recently on his blog, "A Gift For Polydektes" in which he proposes several complimentary ideas that he gets from existing technologies such as photographic notarization, such as with a machine/service called DigiStamp and one called the The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme which is used with diamonds.

For Peter, Nathan & I all warming to one idea something must be afoot!

I'll keep you posted.

TTFN, Ta-Ta-For-Now (as Tigger would say)

Jim McGarigle
Polymath Numismatics
ANA ANS ACCG

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Coins And Cultural Property - A Solution









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

My Ebay Store
http://stores.ebay.com/Polymath-Numismatics-and-Etcetera

My Myspace Page
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Saturday, July 26, 2008

Animal Coins Part 1 - Ethiopian Lions









Greetings,

As of late, I have been studying (and selling) coins with various animals on them. In the process of doing so I have made a few discoveries. Unless you are talking about those coins that are made strictly for collector consumption by the Pobjoy & Perth mints, a large bulk of animal coins will have Eagles or Lions on them. Just something noble about those creatures I suppose that makes them part of many nation's insignias.

What makes Ethiopia stand out in it's use of the Lion is it is not just any Lion but the 'Lion of Judah', a religious symbol. Until recent years, Ethiopia had it's own distinct (Felasha) Jewry who had fled Israel and had traveled down the Nile until they eventually settled in Ethiopia. Many later became Christian converts and Ethiopia was one of the 1st 'Christian nations' in world history. Both Christians and Jews believed that the Biblical Ark of the Covenant rested in a little Church in Axum where it is allegedly guarded by a little old monk. It is regarded as not just holy but powerful and this is why it is concealed from view from the general public according to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Here are some coins from earlier in the 20th century:

10 Matonas - 1923EE / 1930/31 AD
















25 Matonas - 1923EE / 1930/31 AD
















50 Matonas - 1923EE / 1930/31 AD
















25 Santims - 1936EE / 1943/44 AD (But actually minted in 1952/53 according to Krause-Mishler)















TTFN, Ta-Ta-For-Now (as Tigger would say)

Jim McGarigle
Polymath Numismatics
ANA ANS ACCG

My Ebay Store
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Friday, July 11, 2008

Pro-Coinage Senator Dies at 86








Bloggers Note: Love him or hate him, he was a supporter of the coin collecting hobby.

- Jim

Pro-Coinage Senator Dies at 86
jesse helmsBy David L. Ganz, Numismatic News
July 10, 2008

Jesse Helms, the five-term iconoclast senator from North Carolina who earned the sobriquet "Senator No" died on July 4 in his native Raleigh, N.C. He was 86 years of age and had been in ill health since his decision to decline re-election in 2002.

Helms was known for often saying "yes" to numismatics. He had a surprisingly active career involving numismatics, especially gold and commemorative coinage. A listing of his numismatic-sponsored legislation takes up 11 pages of text and almost four thousand words of explanation.

Full Article Here

TTFN, Ta-Ta-For-Now (as Tigger would say)

Jim McGarigle
Polymath Numismatics
ANA ANS ACCG

My Ebay Store
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