Sofaer Collection

The ANS has published the Sofaer collection of coins of the Holy Land.  This publication will add to the scholarship in the area.   The coins were all purchased on the collector market in the United States, Europe and Isreael.  Yes, numismatists can derive significant meaning from studying coins independent of any archaeological context.  Abe Sofaer is a former federal judge and State Department legal adviser.

Archaeological Context: Is it About Preservation or Control?

Archaeo-Blogger Rick St. Hilaire somehow believes that I have discounted the importance of archaeological context, but all I have said is that coin collectors derive their own context from the iconography and fabric of the coins themselves and that the goal of preservation of archaeological context�however worthy-- should not be allowed to control all else.  Perhaps, then, he should not take such statements about context out of context!

St. Hilaire then seems to discount the value of numismatic context, though his fellow archaeo-blogger Nathan Elkins organized an entire conference on the subject.  Perhaps, coins do indeed tell us something without reference to where they are found.

Finally, though suggesting that a good lawyer looks at all the evidence, St. Hilaire somehow apparently missed the ANS article appended to the Chasing Aphrodite interview.  In it I explained that perhaps archaeological practice may be different than archaeological rhetoric when it comes to issues of context.  I state:

Frankly, I might feel a bit better about all this if I had evidence that the archaeological community as a whole makes every effort to not only record the coins they find but to publish them.   Both are critical to the preservation of numismatic knowledge.  Even if a coin is recorded in an excavation notebook, it does little good if it is never published, and, if the notebook or computer data file is not backed up in some way, the information about its provenance could easily be lost.  That, of course, would render the coin for all practical purposes, �an orphan� of the sort members of the archaeological community roundly condemn�at least when held in a collector�s trays.  

This is not a hypothetical concern.    Indeed, a recent study prepared at the behest of the numismatic trade for the use of the State Department�s Cultural Property Advisory Committee concluded,

• The publication record for coins found in Italian excavations is poor.
• What has been published is thanks to a few dedicated individuals, not to the encouragement of the archaeological community.
• Without publication it is almost impossible to know what has been found and what has become of the material.

Let me give just one concrete example.  Some 60,000 - 70,000 ancient coins from excavations at the City of Rome, which were recovered by archaeologists during the 19^th century, still await publication in Frankfurt.  One would have thought coins excavated in Roman contexts would be of utmost importance, but the fact that they are still awaiting publication after over a century speaks volumes.  

All this raises a larger question.  Is all the talk about protecting archaeological context for real or is it actually about justifying further controls?

Reader Beware: Peter Weiss' Mea Culpa and Ancient Coin Collecting

The archaeological blogosphere is seeking to make the most of Peter Weiss' article in the ANS Magazine. While I don't have much to quibble with concerning Peter's recommendations-- at least as they relate to purchasing very expensive ancient coins-- one must also acknowledge that the article was written under duress as part of a plea deal, and one wonders if getting the article vetted by members of the archaeological lobby was some sort of requirement. It is of particular note that John Russell, a former (or current?) State Department employee also associated with the archaeological lobby (but not known as an expert in coins) is specifically mentioned in the introduction as one of Weiss' editors. Did prosecutor Bogdanos want to help his friends in the State Department justify their much criticized decision making concerning import restrictions on coins by "suggesting" that Russell and other members of the archaeological lobby be given editorial rights? The article certainly fails to mention some of the problems with the archaeological orthodoxy, including poor stewardship of coin finds by archaeologists and countries like Greece, Cyprus and Italy.  And let us not forget that unprovenanced coins are widely collected in each of the countries for which the US has granted import restrictions.  Yet, I hear no US archaeologist or State Department official criticizing such practices.

For more about Russell's apparent transformation from sanctions breaker to rule maker, see an earlier blog.

Update:  As some in the archaeological blogosphere purport to want me to respond to the topics raised in Peter Weiss' article, here again is a link to the article I wrote for the ANS Magazine.  I can also assure CPO readers that my own article was not written under duress.  Nor was it vetted by members of the archaeological lobby before publication.

More Coins Return to ANS

"Culture Grrl" has additional coverage about more Huntington coins being �repatriated� back to the ANS due to the generosity of a donor.  More good news for the ANS. 

ANS Recaptures Part of HSA Collection

Lee Rosenbaum (aka "Culture Grrl") reports the welcome news that a generous donor has agreed to return some 10,000 coins from the Hispanic Society of America collection back to the American Numismatic Society, where they resided for so many years.

Update (6-20-12):  The New York times has now reported on the generous contribution as well. 

Snobbery

Does snobbery help motivate the archaeological community�s support for clamp downs on collecting? One might conclude �yes,� based on this: http://paul-barford.blogspot.com/2012/05/what-they-collect.html

I�ve had the pleasure of being both a Trustee of the American Numismatic Society and the head of a local ancient coin club, the Ancient Numismatic Society of Washington, DC. Both have done excellent work fostering the appreciation and study of ancient coins. The work of the ANS is unparalleled. But the work of individual collectors has been important too. For example, members of the ANSWDC have written books that have ranged from the major work on Seleucid coins to another on an understudied area in Roman numismatics.

Now, more information is being placed on the Internet. Alfredo De La Fe should be commended for his new contribution. To mock it instead only betrays the academic snobbery behind the archaeological community�s opposition to collectors and collecting.

AIA Young Patrons Treated to Undocumented Coins at ANS

AIA Young Patrons have been treated to a visit of the ANS and its vast collection of ancient coins, which includes hundreds of thousands undocumented coins of the sort the AIA has condemned before the State Department's Cultural Property Advisory Committee. See http://www.archaeological.org/news/aianews/8634

The ANS only exists because of the generous contributions of collectors and dealers, though archaeologists associated with the AIA have also condemned them as no better than looters.

Yet, condemning collectors and dealers has not stopped the AIA from profiting from the ANS' wonderful collection of unprovenanced coins.

Hopefully, the more inquisitive of the AIA's young patrons will question the hypocrisy of the the AIA's actions.

Or, perhaps, this experience will be treated as a bit of a "guilty pleasure."

Hispanic Society Coins Put on the Auction Block

The Hispanic Society has put its collection of 38,000 historic Spanish coins up on the auction block in one lot with an estimated value of between $25-$38 million. See http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/hispanic-society-enlists-sothebys-to-auction-rare-collection-of-coins/

Archer Huntington endowed both the Hispanic Society and the American Numismatic Society, where the coins were previously kept. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer_Milton_Huntington The fate of the group was the subject of litigation between the ANS and the Hispanic Society, which ended up with the Hispanic Society being awarded the coins they now want to sell.

If the collection could not stay intact, I'd rather it was broken up to allow American collectors and perhaps the ANS or ANA a chance at purchasing at least some of the coins. Given the estimated price, who will buy the group? The Smithsonian? Laughable. Cash strapped Spain? Doubtful. More likely the coins will go further East to the Persian Gulf or perhaps China.

Will the ANS be conducting a similar fire sale directed at foreign buyers sometime in the not too distant future? Let's hope not, but recognize such a possibility is becoming more likely given today's realities.

I've observed that both a prosperous numismatic trade and collector interest are essential to fund the ANS and the serious study of ancient numismatics in this country. See http://numismatics.org/wikiuploads/DigitalPublications/WitschonkeTompaFinal.pdf The fanatics at the AIA and the obdurate bureaucrats at the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs might want to consider how their efforts to suppress ancient coin collecting will impact numismatic study in this country before its too late.

Ancient Coins and Cultural Property Debate at ANS

My own article is the second in a series being published in the ANS Magazine about ancient coins and the cultural property debate. Not surprisingly, while Sebastian Heath's article came from an archaeological perspective, my own article comes from that of a collector. An extended version can be found here:

http://numismatics.org/wikiuploads/DigitalPublications/WitschonkeTompaFinal.pdf



After explaining that bureaucrats in the State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Cultural Heritage Center and their allies in the archaeological establishment have perverted the statutory process for imposing import restrictions on cultural goods to ensure that undocumented coins are treated as "stolen," and that such regulatory overkill can only damage numismatics in this country, I urge the following:

Collectors should be encouraged to only purchase coins from reputable sources and ensure that they retain the history of their coins with the coins themselves so it does not get lost.

Dealers should be encouraged to do the same, and to make sure they comply with the laws of each country in which they do business.

The U.S. Government should be advised to drop the idea of imposing import restrictions based on a coin�s type. The U.K. authorities have the right idea. Restrictions should only be imposed on coins reasonably suspected to be �straight from the ground� in violation of national laws or coins of the highest rarity. Restrictions based on coin type, such as � all coins struck in Cyprus belong to Cyprus�, suggests that assuaging nationalistic impulses rather than the furthering archaeology is really the motivating force. Under no circumstances should restrictions be allowed to discriminate against American collectors and institutions. The U.S. Government should not entertain any request for broad restrictions from a country that allows its own citizens to collect unprovenanced coins or other artifacts. It is plainly unfair to place burdens on Americans that source countries will not place on their own citizens.

Foreign countries should be encouraged to allow the free sale and export of common coins. They should also investigate the U.K.�s Treasure Act and Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS). These programs help preserve context, provide museums with a right of first refusal over material and give collectors access to coins, complete with information about the coin�s find spot.

The archaeological community should avoid ideological approaches to the question of how best to preserve provenance and foster the recording and publication of coins from any source (including those that do not come from official excavations). The AIA should, in particular, end its aggressive campaign for import restrictions on ancient coins. Such restrictions are by their nature controversial: they bar import into the U.S. of artifacts legitimately sold abroad merely because the importer cannot produce detailed provenance information. Preserving archaeological context may be a worthy societal goal, but the AIA�s support for import restrictions confuses �conservation� with �control,� to the detriment not only of collectors, but of numismatics itself.



I'm grateful for the ANS to allow me to express my views, and hope others will also make workable suggestions on how to preserve both collecting that is essential to numismatics and context that is so important to archaeologists.

Ancient Coins and the Cultural Property Debate at the ANS

The American Numismatic Society (ANS) Magazine is carrying a feature about ancient coins and the cultural property debate. As the ANS notes in an email to members,

The ANS has a long tradition of scholarly numismatic research and publication, often based upon the availability of information about the source of ancient coins, and thus supports efforts to preserve contextual information. On the other hand, much of the membership of the ANS consists of coin collectors and dealers, who have a strong interest in preserving the right to collect ancient coins. In the interest of informing its membership (and the public at large) on the issues involved, we have inaugurated a series of articles in ANS Magazine on various topics relating to ancient numismatics and the cultural property debate. An extended version of the print article is available to view online. All subsequent articles within this column will be published online as well.

For an overview by Rick Witchonke and an archaeologist's perspective by Sebastian Heath, see http://numismatics.org/html/dpubs/nonxml/WitschonkeHeathFinal.pdf

In his overview, Witchonke rightly notes that aggressive application of cultural property laws has disincentivized the sharing of numismatic knowledge. Meanwhile, while I agree with Heath that we all benefit from information gleaned from the Frome hoard, it does not follow that the State should keep all coins once they are recorded or that it is a legal requirement to record all coins found in the UK. In fact, the Treasure Act sets forth the legal duties of finders while the Portable Antiquities Scheme is a voluntary program that encourages coins not legally required to be reported to be recorded. Finally, I commend Heath's desire for greater transparency in the US process for imposing import restrictions on cultural goods, but would nonetheless suggest such restrictions have little practical impact other than to punish those importers who seek to comply with the law.

My own perspective should follow in the next of the series.

ANS Database Upgraded

The American Numismatic Society has upgraded the ability of scholars and collectors to search its extensive collection of ancient coins. For more, see
http://www.coinsweekly.com/en/News/4?&id=565

As the story explains,


The new search tool is an open source implementation of several applications used in the Library, Archive, and Museum communities, including Apache Solr for faceted searching. The tool enables users to interact with the ANS collection through keyword searches or by browsing and sorting on numerous categorical and physical attributes common to numismatics. This search tool connects individual objects together by these searchable attributes, allowing users to seamlessly navigate from one object to its relations.