Legal Foreign Bills Or Coins To Have In USA

It would probably be illegal to purchase coins directly from ISIS, since you would be funding an active terrorist organization.

It is also illegal to own "government property" US coins and notes, like the 1933 St Gaudens, the 1976 aluminum cent, and any $100,000 bill.

It would be iffy to buy a mint or bullion set from North Korea or any country against which we have an embargo, but I think it is legal. I do see coins from those countries from time to time, and it would only be questionable for direct-purchase, post-embargo issues.

Everything else is 100% kosher.

I have bought from Russian ebay sellers at least 3 times with no issues. One of the lots contained a whole bunch of old Soviet and imperial coins. I would worry about the export restrictions on your side (you have mentioned that they can be severe) but no import restrictions on the US side.

The embargo, if I am reading correctly, only restricts military contractors/equipment and sale of "high technology" (e.g. the kind of stuff you could use to guide a missile or hack a CIA mainframe).

Cuba was the most severe embargo if I recall, followed by Iran, Sudan, North Korea, and a few others. If there are restrictions, they are against the country, not its coins--it should be legal to buy them from a third party.

You can't import coins/bills from Cuba (ones already here or from before the embargo are OK as long as they don't come directly from Cuba)

There are several categories of coins that can't be imported due to "cultural heritage" restrictions.

a. Pre-monetary media of exchange including "arrow money," bells, and bracelets. Approximate date: 13th century B.C. through 6th century B.C.

b. Thracian and Hellenistic coins struck in gold, silver, and bronze by city-states and kingdoms that operated in the territory of the modern Bulgarian state. This designation includes official coinages of Greek-using city-states and kingdoms, Sycthian and Celtic coinage, and local imitations of official issues. Also included are Greek coins from nearby regions that are found in Bulgaria. Approximate date: 6th century BC through the 1st century B.C.

c. Roman provincial coins - Locally produced coins usually struck in bronze or copper at mints in the territory of the modern state of Bulgaria. May also be silver, silver plate, or gold. Approximate date: 1st century BC through the 4th century A.D.

d. Coinage of the First and Second Bulgarian Empires and Byzantine Empire - Struck in gold, silver, and bronze by Bulgarian and Byzantine emperors at mints within the modern state of Bulgaria. Approximate date: 4th century A.D. through A.D. 1396.

e. Ottoman coins - Struck at mints within the modern state of Bulgaria. Approximate date: A.D. 1396 through A.D. 1750.

F. Coins of Italian Types—A type catalogue of listed currency and coins can be found in N.K. Rutter et al. (eds.), Historia Numorum: Italy (London, 2001). Others appear in G.F. Hill Coins of Ancient Sicily (Westminster, 1903).

1. Lumps of bronze (Aes Rude)— Irregular lumps of bronze used as an early medium of exchange in Italy from the 9th century B.C.

2. Bronze bars (Ramo Secco and Aes Signatum)—Cast bronze bars (whole or cut) used as a media of exchange in central Italy and Etruria from the 5th century B.C.

3. Cast coins (Aes Grave)—Cast bronze coins of Rome, Etruscan, and Italian cities from the 4th century B.C.

4. Struck coins—Struck coins of the Roman Republic and Etruscan cities produced in gold, silver, and bronze from the 3rd century B.C. to c. 211 B.C., including the ''Romano-Campanian'' coinage.

5. Struck colonial coinage—Struck bronze coins of Roman republican and early imperial colonies and municipia in Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia from the 3rd century B.C. to c. A.D. 37.

6. Coins of the Greek cities—Coins of the Greek cities in the southern Italian peninsula and in Sicily (Magna Graecia), cast or struck in gold, silver, and bronze, from the late 6th century B.C. to c. 200 B.C.

There are restrictions on coins from Cyprus before 1850. They can't be imported unless you have documentation that they left Cyprus before 1999.

Chinese coins before 907 AD

There have been moves to have Egyptian, Iranian, and Iraqi coins added to the import bans in the name of cultural heritage but so far I don't believe they have been acted upon.

Conder's list is basically a summary of the Memoranda of Understanding the US has signed with various countries, including Cyprus, Bulgaria and Italy. Theoretically, if US customs detect such coins being imported, they are obliged to repatriate them to their country of origin, even if the coins in question were not being shipped directly from that country of origin. Here's a PDF chart of all the countries which the US currently has cultural heritage import restriction protocols with. The only ones on the list that are relevant to coin collectors are the ones which have hosted ancient coin-issuing civilizations: Bulgaria, China, Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Iraq; the MOUs with Greece and Iraq currently do not include coins in the proscriptions, the others do.

The other things that are illegal to import, under various other laws and regulations, are fake coins that don't have COPY stamped on them and coins from countries that are blacklisted by trade embargoes, which at the moment I believe are Cuba, Iran and Syria.

Note that all of these things only affect IMPORTING such items. It's perfectly legal to own them, and to buy and sell them within the US.

No. Going the other way might have been a problem, though the laws are clear about the imports being direct from the country in question. The whole point of the laws is to make it difficult for people and companies in America to trade directly with people and companies in the proscribed countries, and thus give direct or indirect financial support to the regimes in question. Your buying a 60 year old Syrian coin from a coin dealer in, say, Canada, and importing it into the US, would in no way aid, assist or give comfort to "the enemy", so it should be perfectly OK.

ebay, on the other hand, has a far more... liberal... interpretation of the regulations, and tends to ban outright any sales of any coins that mention the proscribed countries, even if the seller is not in America.