“Emergency” import restrictions
Effective Date: December 5, 2017.
Source: 82 Fed. Reg. 57346-57351 (Dec. 5, 2017).
The Designated List is as follows.
a. General--Examples of many of the coins found in ancient Libya may be found in: A. Burnett and others, Roman Provincial Coinage, multiple volumes (British Museum Press and the Biblioth[egrave]que Nationale de France, 1992-), R.S. Poole and others, Catalogue of Greek Coins in the British Museum, volumes 1-29 (British Museum Trustees 1873-1927) and H. Mattingly and others, Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, volumes 1-6 (British Museum Trustees 1923-62). For Byzantine coins, see Grierson, Philip, Byzantine Coins, London, 1982.
For publication of examples of coins circulating in archaeological sites, see La moneta di Cirene e della Cirenaica nel Mediterraneo. Problemi e Prospettive, Atti del V Congresso Internazionale di Numismatica e di Storia Monetaria, Padova, 17-19 marzo 2016, Padova 2016 (Numismatica Patavina, 13).
b. Greek Bronze Coins--Struck by city-states of the Pentapolis, Carthage and the Ptolemaic kingdom that operated in territory of the Cyrenaica in eastern Libya. Approximate date: 4th century B.C. to late 1st century B.C.
c. Greek Silver and Gold Coins--This category includes coins of the city-states of the Pentapolis in the Cyrenaica and the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Coins from the city-state of Cyrene often bear an image of the silphium plant. Such coins date from the late 6th century B.C. to late 1st century B.C.
d. Roman Coins--In silver and bronze, struck at Roman and Roman provincial mints including Apollonia, Barca, Balagrae, Berenice, Cyrene, Ptolemais, Leptis Magna, Oea, and Sabratha. Approximate date: late 3rd century B.C. to 1st century A.D.
e. Byzantine Coins--In bronze, silver, and gold by Byzantine emperors. Struck in Constantinople and other mints. From 4th century A.D. through 1396 A.D.
f. Islamic Coins--In bronze, silver, and gold. Dinars with Arabic inscriptions inside a circle or square, may be surrounded with symbols. Struck at mints in Libya (Barqa) and adjacent regions. From 642 A.D. to 15th century A.D.
g. Ottoman--Struck at mints in Istanbul and Libya's neighboring regions. Approximate date: 1551 A.D. through 1750 A.D.
Comment: The restrictions explicitly encompass Greek, Carthaginian, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman coins struck outside Libya that are found within Libya. This is a major departure from prior restrictions that listed coins based on where the coins were made hundreds, if not thousands of years ago, rather than where they were found today. While this phraseology is more consistent with applicable statutory language, it remains to be seen how it is applied.
