The ACCG is joined by IAPN and PNG in a complaint filed against the U.S. State Department

GAINESVILLE, Mo., Nov. 15 – The Ancient Coin Collectors Guild (ACCG), an advocacy group for private collectors and independent scholars, announced the filing today of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U. S. State Department (DOS).

According to Wayne G. Sayles, executive director of the guild, this action became unavoidable due to persistent refusal of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) to provide the guild and others with information relating to requests for import restrictions.

The DOS recently imposed unprecedented import restrictions on ancient coins from Cyprus, requiring importers of even a single common coin of Cypriot type to provide unfair, unworkable and unnecessary documentation.

The ACCG seeks information relating to requests from Cyprus, China and Italy. In each case, apparent irregularities in the way these requests were handled led to significant concerns. Members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives also requested similar information on behalf of the ACCG and others. “None of these avenues produced responsive replies,” said Peter K. Tompa, ACCG president. “The reason for this lawsuit is that the DOS has refused to provide meaningful information. We seek transparency and fairness of the process by which decisions affecting the American people are made.” (more…)

by Wayne G. Sayles

Suddenly, the Archaeological Institute of America is interested in ancient coins. That is good. The more that archaeologists learn about coins from antiquity, the more they will realize that the context within which they are found is merely one aspect, and a small one at that, of the tremendous historical resource that coins present. Unfortunately, the AIA’s motives for this blossoming interest are suspect.

Having virtually ignored coins for scores of years, why is the AIA disposed now to highlight the value of coins to archaeology? The answer is really quite basic. The numismatic community, comprised primarily of independent scholars, has argued effectively that archaeologists do not have a preeminent claim to the acquisition or study of ancient coins, much less to the dissemination of knowledge about them and about the past from whence they came. If the AIA were to acknowledge this simple fact, it would expose a chink in the armor of their perceived supremacy.

So, be prepared to see a lot more ink spilled by the AIA and other archaeological support groups regarding the “importance” of coins. Oddly, collectors have always known that coins are important. This awakening by archaeologists is probably a good thing if they really consider the issues rather than just fill the web and print media with institutional propaganda. (more…)

A major exhibit on “Numismatics in the Renaissance” will be on view in the main exhibit gallery of the Firestone Library of Princeton University from November 9, 2007, through July 20, 2008. The exhibit will include rare fifteenth and sixteenth century books from the Princeton collection that discuss and illustrate ancient coins and a display of some of the treasures of the University’s numismatic collection, featuring gold, silver and bronze coins of Greece and Rome as well as coins and medals of the Renaissance that were inspired by them. The exhibit will also include manuscripts and prints and drawings from Princeton University collections and a print of Pirro Ligorio’s monumental map of ancient Rome, made in 1561.

While ancient coins were found throughout the Mediterranean region in the millennium following the end of the Roman Empire, it was only in Renaissance Europe that they began to be systematically studied and were reproduced in the earliest printed books to carry engraved illustrations. The Princeton collection is particularly rich in these impressive examples of early printing, ranging from the 1517 edition of Andrea Fulvio’s Images of the Illustrious with its highly decorated settings of each coin image, through Hubert Goltzius’s large-scale chiaroscuro reproductions of imperial portraits of the 1550s, to Antonio Augustín’s systematic classification of ancient coinage and guidelines for detecting counterfeits from the end of the sixteenth century. (more…)