HR 7865, a bill introduced by the Hon. Beth Van Duyne (R-Tex.) to facilitate the lawful trade in numismatic items, has picked up four cosponsors. The cosponsors in order of their agreement to sign onto the bill are the Hon. Michelle Steel (R-Cal.); the Hon. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.): the Hon. Mark Amodie (R-Nev.); and the Hon. Sarah Jacobs (D-Cal.).
Ever increasing numbers of overlapping import restrictions on common collectors’ coins have made the legislation necessary. For twenty-five years after the Cultural Property Implementation Act (CPIA) was passed, there were no import restrictions on ancient coins. This should be no surprise because it is hard to link coins—which by their very nature are instruments of exchange—to one modern nation state. Indeed, when the CPIA was being negotiated, Mark Feldman, one of the State Department’s top lawyers, assured Congress that “it would be hard to imagine a case” where coins would be restricted.
In 2007, however, the State Department imposed import restrictions on Cypriot coins, against CPAC’s recommendations, and then misled the public and Congress about it in official government reports. Since that decision, import restrictions have been imposed on coins on behalf of 20 different countries. Moreover, despite statutory requirements limiting restrictions to archaeological objects first discovered within and subject to the export control of the particular country for which restrictions were granted, they have increasingly been applied to common coins that circulated regionally and even internationally that were minted as recently as 1774.
Such restrictions impose the probatio diabolica or devil’s proof on coin collectors. The problem for coin collectors is that most historical coins, which can be valued for as little as a few dollars each, simply do not carry with them the detailed provenance information U.S. Customs can demand for legal imports. This often includes citation to an auction record predating any restrictions when the vast majority of collectors’ coins are not valuable enough to be sold at auction.
The legislation’s “safe harbor” language addresses these concerns. It allows for the import of coin types on “designated lists” with evidence the numismatic material was acquired lawfully, is of a known type, and is not the direct product of illicit excavations within a State Party after the effective date of any import restrictions on coins. It is designed to promote continued legitimate trade with collectors in Europe.
Just since the bill was introduced in April 2024, new or renewed import restrictions have been imposed on behalf of Pakistan, Tunisia, Yemen and Ukraine, with new restrictions being considered for India, Lebanon, Mongolia, North Macedonia and Uzbekistan. Moreover, recently produced documentation under the Freedom of Information Act has confirmed that the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and its Cultural Heritage Center have worked behind the scenes with anti-collector archaeological advocacy groups to bypass statutory requirements meant to promote fact-based decision-making, encourage transparency, facilitate public comment, and protect legitimate cultural exchange. More here:
https://accguild.org/news/13420183
Collectors have also developed information that the State Department both gives and receives funding from these groups to help justify new cultural property agreements and their associated import restrictions. More here:
https://culturalpropertynews.org/careful-collector-no-22-your-tax-dollars-at-work/
Organizations supporting the legislation include the American Numismatic Association, the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild, CINOA, the Global Heritage Alliance and the International Association of Professional Numismatists.
More about the bill can be found here:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7865/all-info
