How To Legally Own Illegal Coins?

All grist for the legal mill.

For the OPs question, the answer is "yes". All you have to do is not live in the country. And it doesn't even have to be an "enemy" country; the laws saying certain coins are illegal do not apply outside that country's borders. You'd be just as safe owning a 1933 double eagle in Canada as you would be in China.

I own several "illegal coins". The coin I'm using for my avatar is an excellent example. This coin is from Rhodes, an island in the Mediterranean currently owned by Greece. Under Greek law, private ownership of any artefact older than 1826 is forbidden. But I'm not in Greece, I'm in Australia, and it was here in Australia that I acquired this coin. And in Australia, the only "illegal coins" are counterfeits of current coins.

Now, where you may run afoul of the law is when you commit a crime and then change countries, as many countries have agreements in place to stop cross-border smuggling and in capturing criminals fleeing from one country to another. So, if you (illegally) acquired an "illegal coin" in America and then tried to flee to Canada with it, you could in theory find yourself extradited if the Americans can convince the Canadians that a criminal act did indeed take place on American soil.

If you have your heart set on breaking US law and fleeing someplace with your ill-gotten coin, this State Department pdf lists all the countries the US has extradition treaties with. So pick a country that's not on this list to flee to.

As for the second part of the question: it should be obvious that, once a country or government ceases to exist, all its laws and strictures are no longer binding on anybody. I have some Roman coins featuring emperors who were so despised that they were placed under damnatio memoriae by their successors - owning coins of those emperors would have been strictly forbidden. But the Roman Empire is long gone, as are any laws the Romans may have passed banning coins of emperor Geta or Maximian.

Bingo.

If it were illegal to own fake coins here in the States, I could not easily enjoy my particular niche in the hobby. :-)

Once an error leaves the Mint properly "into circulation" it's fair game. If it's *smuggled* out of the Mint and not actually "released into circulation" it's still Mint property, and owning one is therefore owning stolen property.

Sap's explanation is also very thorough.