ANA Warns Import Restrictions Damage Mission

The American Numismatic Association explains how import restrictions on coins that focus on place of minting in ancient times rather than modern find spots have damagesd its educational mission.  CPO once again expresses hope that the Trump Administration will perform a cost benefit analysis of such restrictions and their impact on various stake holders.

ANA Convention in Boston

The American Numismatic Association has scheduled its summer convention in Boston. See http://www.xpresspress.com/breaking-news/worlds-fair-of-money-draws-dealers-and-collectors-to-boston/4689

Boston also serves as headquarters for the AIA and though the AIA hierarchy might not want to admit it, I'm certainly aware of at least some AIA members who are also avid collectors. Some of the greatest archaeologists like Evans and Petrie also collected (Evans, ancient coins,Petrie Egyptian artifacts). It is indeed a shame therefore that the AIA is now associated with an anti-collecting agenda. Collectors, after all, already share a common interest in preservation of the remains of the past. And countries like England and Wales have already shown that systems can be devised to take into account the interests of both groups.

Venerable French Numismatic Museums to Close: What's Next?

Coin World (March 16, 2010) reports that both the museum of Monnaie de Paris (founded in 1833) and the Cabinet des Medailles of the Biblotheque Nationale de France (with collections dating back to at least the 17th c.) will close this year. Smaller displays may replace them, but even that is unclear. There is an international petition to try to save the Cabinet des Medallies that has been posted on-line. See http://jesigne.fr/sauvonsleplusancienmuseedefrance But it all may be too little too late.

In any event, this continues an unfortunate trend. In the United States, the Smithsonian traded its wonderful (if a bit ragged around the edges) coin display for a few panels of mostly American coins. See http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2009/07/disappointing-smithsonian-numismatic.html

This leaves the ANA and the ANS-- which are both funded almost exclusively by collectors and coin dealers-- with two of the last remaining decent coin displays in the US (though the ANS mostly uses borrowed space at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York). See http://www.money.org/Content/NavigationMenu/ExploretheWorldofMoney/MoneyMuseum/default.htm and
http://www.numismatics.org/Exhibits/DrachmasDoubloonsDollars

I have a real question how long this can continue, particularly if the AIA gets its way and greatly limits the ability of collectors to trade in ancient Italian coins from abroad. Without a vibrant numismatic trade in ancient coins, funding will dry up for the ANS in particular. Of course, the prospective money drain won't just impact coin displays. It will also decimate the academic research archaeologists also purport to support.

People to People Contacts Through a Shared Interest in Numismatics

I attended the American Numismatic Association (ANA) Convention in Baltimore, Maryland today. What makes this show different from others is the foreign participation. For example, I spoke with ancient coin dealers from the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland while I was there. I suspect there were also some foreign collectors in attendance, though not as many foreign dealers and collectors as those that come to the New York International Numismatic Convention (NYINC) every January. For more about the ANA and NYINC see: http://www.money.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=ANA_Conventions&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=12462 and http://www.nyinc.info/

The State Department's Bureau of Educational Affairs (ECA) purports to support such people to people contacts, but typically does so through institutional exchanges. See http://exchanges.state.gov/news/2004/040204.htm ("ECA, comprises a team of 350 people who manage over 30,000 professional, academic and cultural exchanges worldwide every year.") Groups like the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute are the main beneficiaries of such federal largess. See http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2008/05/cash-and-caari-cyprus-american.html This work costs the taxpayer money.

You would think that ECA would also support activities like the ANA and NYINC as way to promote such 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.

Hopefully, the ECA's new bosses, James Glassman and Goli Ameri, will avoid the "tunnel vision" of members of the archaeological community that agitate for import restrictions and instead consider all the interests at stake before imposing such a draconian remedy in the future.