Yes, CPAC there is a EU and Its Member States Allow Exports of Historical Coins

 Here is what I said today, more or less, during the public session of the Cultural Property Advisory Committee to discuss a proposed Cultural Property Agreement with Romania, and renewals with Albania and Nigeria.

        Thank you for this opportunity to speak on behalf of the small and micro businesses of the International Association of Professional Numismatists, including IAPN member firms in both the US and European Union.

          IAPN has submitted detailed comments on the proposed CPA with Romania and the renewal with Albania along with a short comment on Nigeria. First, let me highlight a few issues related to Albania and Romania.  The Albanian comments point out that the current grossly overbroad designated list ignores the extensive numismatic research IAPN provided about the broad circulation of Illyrian coins and that the “circulated primarily” standard referenced in current restrictions fails to provide importers with the fair notice required under 19 USC Section 2604 as to what coins are actually covered.  The Romanian comments similarly discuss that coins that are found in Romania also circulated regionally and internationally.  It also notes that the Transylvanian coins struck there are neither archaeological nor ethnological objects, and are more properly considered “Hungarian” than “Romanian.”  

          Now let me focus on another important point that has been raised multiple times before only to be ignored.  This issue relates to one of the necessary findings CPAC must make about “less drastic” measures under 19 USC Section 2602(a) (1) (C) (ii) before any import restrictions on coins or other artifacts may be imposed.   In particular, CPAC, the State Department, and US Customs and Border Protection (CPB) must recognize that any legal export from one European Union (EU) country is also binding on other EU members.

          Claims that any CPA is with “Romania” not with the “EU” fall flat when one recognizes Romania’s own export controls are part of an integrated system that recognizes the rights of each EU member state to export cultural goods with or without a permit according to local law.^[1] 

          The applicable provision, Council Regulation (EC) No 116/2009, and in particular, Article 2.2 authorizes all EU countries to export ancient and early modern coins that may appear on “designated lists” for Romania and soon Albania with an export certificate or without one as objects of limited archaeological or scientific interest. Indeed, this rule is also consistent with the EU’s recent import controls, which treat all coins not traced directly to archaeological sites as “low risk” items that only require “importer’s statements” when they are over 200 years old and valued at more than 18,000 Euros. 

          Our request can be simply accommodated by ensuring Article I of any CPAs with Romania and Albania make any import restrictions inapplicable to cultural objects legally exported from another EU country, with or without a formal export permit as required under local law. 

          The ridiculous results likely from not adopting this commonsense proposal should be obvious.  If import restrictions under a Romanian CPA are applied to the Hungarian or Austro-Hungarian coins that circulated in quantity in what is now Romanian Transylvania, CBP could detain, seize and forfeit such coins legally exported from either Austria or Hungary even though neither country has a CPA with the US and such coins are available for legal export in both countries.  As an aside, this would be particularly painful for Austrian and Hungarian Americans who purchase such coins to keep in touch with their own cultural heritage.

          So, yes, CPAC, State Department, and CPB, there is a European Union that has created a comprehensive system of import and export controls for cultural goods, and there is no rational basis to contend that it doesn’t exist.  Thank you for listening to our concerns and please let me know if you have any questions.

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[1] See Council Regulation (EC) No 116/2009, available at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32009R0116 (last visited February 12, 2026).