Just thought I would share this notice I got about the German law which could have greatly restricted the ancient coin trade. Appears coins are not going to be restricted harshly. I responded to their request for comment and this is what has happened so far. Read below their notice:
Teilerfolg Ihrer unterstützten Petition
Für den Erhalt des privaten Sammelns // For preserving the right to privately collect
Dear signatory of the petition,
We would like to thank you for your dedication once more. Although the new law on the protection of cultural property has arrived, it has not turned out to be as bad as its first draft had suggested. All minerals and fossils, for instance, have been removed from the law, and the due diligence on the part of the private owner has been drastically mitigated. The most important victory though, was the general recognition that coins are not inherently archaeological objects, which implies great easement in terms of care and trade.
You were a part of this achievement. Without your signature, many politics would have believed that collecting was a matter of only a tiny elite. The associations who did excellent work for us collectors were able to appear much stronger with all of you backing them up and supporting them.
Of course we are not happy with this new law. And we are still particularly angry at the political entities who used the argument of the art trade supposedly financing terrorism as a moral pretext in order to motivate the legislation. They thus knowingly discredited a respectable, blameless part of society! The fact that Monika Grütters was made the CDU state chairwoman of Berlin on 2 December 2016 anyway, shows how large the gap between German politics and the people of Germany has in fact become.
Meanwhile it has actually been proven that ISIS could only have earned marginal amounts through antiquities trade – which comes as a surprise to no one who has seriously occupied themselves with the matter. Several journalists have also come to realise this. The so-called financing of terrorism was nothing but propaganda. The post-factual age has thus not only started with Trump, and God knows it is not limited to the United States of America.
https://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2016/10/14/house-homeland-security-committee-releases-report-on-isis-financing/We will wait and see how the new law will be put into action. And many of us are ready to take the crucial questions to court.
In case we should ever need your support as a collector in order to put out a petition against disproportionate restrictions by the legislative power, we will let you know.
Sincerely yours,
Ursula Kampmann
