Due Process Demands a Reset of Current Import Restrictions on Cypriot Coins

    This is what I said, more or less, at last Tuesday's public session of CPAC.  As I have been travelling a summary of the meeting will be delayed, but hopefully completed before the end of next week.  

      I first spoke to CPAC in 1998 when I was accompanied by Dr. Jeremy Stone, a fellow ancient coin collector, who also served as President of the Federation of American Scientists.  CPAC’s Chairman, Dr. Marty Sullivan, was impressed that Dr. Stone would speak to his Committee.  We were the only speakers other than an archaeologist who worked in Cyprus.  We explained to the Committee that Cypriot coins should not be restricted because they circulated widely, meaning that one simply could not assume that coins made in Cyprus were found there.  After the meeting, Dr. Sullivan thanked us for providing our insights as coins were on the agenda.   Later on, we learned that coins were excluded from the Cypriot import restrictions.   

        After that hearing, I spoke before Dr. Sullivan’s Committee several more times, including another Cypriot renewal, which again excluded coins.   At each meeting, Dr. Sullivan asked speakers to offer ideas about what each country “could do better” so these ideas could be added to the Committee report. 

        Dr. Sullivan and his Committee were Clinton appointees.  President George W. Bush appointed a new Committee, chaired by Jay Kislak, a prominent collector.  Robert Korver, who worked at Heritage Auctions, was a trade representative.  When another Cypriot renewal came up in 2007, Jay Kislak revealed at the CPAC hearing itself that Cyprus had made a last minute request to include coins.  He and Mr. Korver also later stated under oath that the State Department rejected CPAC’s recommendations against including coins and then misled Congress and the public about CPAC’s true recommendations. These restrictions were expanded further in 2022 to additional widely circulating coins made as recently as the 18^th century.  As detailed in IAPN’s comments, these decisions simply cannot be justified on the facts or the law.

        Even worse, the one Court asked to fix this injustice refused, ultimately holding not only that the decision to impose import restrictions on Cypriot coins was a “foreign policy” issue beyond judicial review, but that this ruling even carried over to any forfeiture action, where the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild was not even allowed to present expert testimony to rebut the presumption that its coins were Cypriot “cultural property.”

        So, what has changed?  Recently, a New York Appeals court  ruled that “due process” demands that collectors be allowed to contest seizures of their cultural goods. This CPAC, like its Clinton and Bush era predecessors, should again stand up and do the right thing for the sake of due process and protecting private property rights.

        CPAC should recommend against any new restrictions on coins. Roman, Spanish Colonial, and early Latin American Republican issues were trade coins and cannot be assumed to be the cultural property of Cyprus, Guatemala or Peru. 

        CPAC also should recommend a series of “less drastic measures” under 19 USC Section 2602 (a) (1) (C) (ii).  First, that seizures of currently restricted Cypriot coins only take place where there is scholarly evidence that a coin type only circulated in Cyprus or there is proof that a particular coin was illicitly exported from there after the effective dates of the applicable regulations.  Second, that legal exports from Cyprus’ sister EU countries be recognized. Finally, that the Administrative Procedure Act be applied to the creation of designated lists, and that the Civil Assets Forfeiture Reform Act be applied to efforts to seize cultural goods.  The former would require the State Department to justify its actions in restricting common cultural goods on the record.  The latter would take the burden of proving a negative away from importers and instead ensure that the government must demonstrate that an item was illicitly exported after the effective date of any governing regulations.  Due process demands it!  Thank you.