Chinese Coins: Are they Really of Cultural Significance?

For the State Department and US Customs to restrict entry of Chinese coins lawfully they must be of "archaeological interest" and "cultural significance."  See Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act, 19 U.S.C. Section 2601.

Yet, in China they literally find them by the ton and the Chinese themselves consider them of so little worth that they have been thrown into the sea as a publicity stunt.

So, are ancient Chinese coins really "of cultural significance" as the State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and US Customs have found in order to restrict them under the MOU with China or is this just more evidence that the Congress' limitations on executive authority are regularly ignored in furtherance of the broadest possible bureaucratic restrictions on the ability of Americans to collect anything old.

3,500 KG of Chinese Coins--A Large But Not Unheard of Haul