Importing World Coins Into The US

Quote:


Collectors Challenge U.S. State Department Bureaucrats After Baltimore Seizure
Tue Sep 15, 2009 9:14am EDT



GAINESVILLE, Mo., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- A small packet of inexpensive
Chinese and Cypriot coins imported from England by the Ancient Coin Collectors
Guild (ACCG) have been seized by Customs in Baltimore, Maryland.

The coins were imported to test the legitimacy of State Department (DOS)
imposed import restrictions via two Memoranda of Understanding (MOU). ACCG
maintains that actions of DOS relating to implementation of the Cultural
Property Implementation Act (CPIA) have been secretive, arbitrary and
capricious and will contest the seizure in the U.S. Federal District Court in
Baltimore.

Information from another Freedom of Information Act lawsuit suggests that the
DOS failed to follow the recommendations of its own experts on the Cultural
Property Advisory Committee (CPAC) in extending restrictions to Cypriot coins,
and then misled Congress about this decision. Other information implicates
DOS bureaucrats adding coins to the Chinese MOU even though Chinese officials
never asked for their inclusion.

The Obama Administration has promised transparency and accountability in
government. ACCG hopes its challenge to the ban on ancient Chinese and Cypriot
coins will lead the Court also to address these and other concerns about the
process for imposing import restrictions on cultural goods.

During a 2008 International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR) discussion,
former CPAC Chairperson Jay Kislak (2003-2008) said, "I am not necessarily
against any actions that were taken on any of the MOU's which were recommended
by the Committee and put into action. I am, however, opposed to the way it is
done because I think it is absolutely, completely, un-American, and I don't
mind saying that. Not anywhere in our government do we do things this way,
except with this group."

Kislak also addressed government transparency by saying, "In every other
branch of government, there is disclosure, and information is made public. We
have a democracy, and it is government of the people, for the people, by the
people, not by the bureaucrats over them."

Another former CPAC chairperson, Jack Josephson (1990-1995), added, "...rarely
has Committee membership been in conformity with the Act. During my experience
on the Committee, this was not the only part of the Convention on Cultural
Property Implementation Act (CPIA) that was disregarded." Former CPAC member
Kate Fitz Gibbon (2000-2003) agreed, saying, "In many cases, from my 'plain
reading,' the Committee has substantively altered Congressional intent."

Contact: Wayne G. Sayles, 417-499-9831, director@accg.us, http://www.accg.us

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SOURCE Ancient Coin Collectors Guild

Wayne G. Sayles, +1-417-499-9831, director@accg.us