I wonder how many people were saddened by the suggestion made by US sellers of ancient dugups from the soil of foreign countries that the "Obama Administration" was stifling the US coin trade? Coin collecting in the US has however never been so popular or profitable as it is today. Collectors can learn about the history and culture of their country by looking at the designs and researching what they depict. They can have a lot of fun. 147 million people collect the State Quarter series of coins alone, and under the Obama administration the mint is issuing a supplementary series of other territories and now national parks. There must be many tens of millions of people of all ages and walks of life in the US that collect modern world coins and banknotes too. Where is the evidence that the hobby of these 147 million people is being in any way penalised by the Obama administration? I would not mind betting even that there's a set of State Quarters tucked away in a drawer somewhere in the White House.There is a minority of US citizens, no more than a few dozen thousand strong at most, who - not content with the tens of thousands already in existing collections - claim the "right" (sic) to involve their country in the shameful trade in illegally exported ancient coins dug out by persons unknown from archaeological sites in foreign countries. Against the 147 MILLION other collectors this is a mere stain on the milieu as a whole. But they are a noisy bunch. In a recent press release they drag the name of decent law abiding collectors and dealers of all coins through the mud with their self-centred claim that a measure introduced to curb the trade into the US of illegally exported dugup artefacts is a blow aimed at the entire 147 million community of collectors and the dealers that supply them. It is not, it is a blow for culture pirates who have no regard for others. The decent law-abiding community of US coin collectors should come out and repudiate any connection with those who sully the image of the hobby by involvement in the trade in looted archaeological artefacts.
All along the way, the coin dealers' lobbyists the ACCG has quite clearly deliberately set out to mislead its readership by what seem to be bare-faced lies, emotive soundbites and cynically applied pars pro toto tactics. It is clear that many fast-food and Disney-fed US collectors are failing to approach such arguments with the use of any of their critical facilities which makes them easy to mislead. Here is a very good example: A text grandiosely called: "A Major Threat to Coin Collectors, Buyers and Sellers" is about measures being adopted to clean up a small segment of the dugup antiquities market in the US.
"..this is an issue that should concern ... every coin collector", "This should concern everyone who buys, collects or sells coins". Yes it is but not in the way the ACCG mean. Not everybody wants to buy looted coins, do they?
"The entire hobby is being challenged". No its not, just the cowboys who want to sell and buy dugup ancients no-questions-asked.
When are US coin collectors going to show they are capable of behaving unlike sheep led by the nose?