State Department 3, Coin Dealers 0

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MARYLAND

Civil Action No. CCB-10-322
ANCIENT COIN COLLECTORS GUILD v U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF :
HOMELAND SECURITY, et al.

The ACCG's long awaited court case resulting from their Baltimore Illegal Coin Import Stunt has just been thrown out. Hands up who was surprised at that after reading their rambling complaint? It is clear a huge amount of work has gone into assessing this case, and all of us who care about the protection of the world's archaeological heritage from damage by commercial looting and smuggling should be grateful to Judge Catherine C. Blake for taking the time to deal with this so thoroughly.

Now what remains is the undisputed fact that the London firm Spinks exported coins to the USA knowingly in infringement of US law (see the atypical wording of their invoice cited in the Judge's dismissal, indicating that they willingly went along with the stunt) and the ACCG is guilty of deliberately importing coins into the USA which did not fulfil the criteria of legality under the CCPIA. The ACCG executive Director claims both he and Spinks are now on a US Customs watch list (a claim not denied by the State) and I say, good. What did they expect?

Obviously the ACCG's legal team made a serious mistake (apart from the one in the original complaint which I am not going to discuss until it is sure there will be no appeal or return to this case). They should have imported the coins through Salt Lake City airport, then they'd have at least a chance of coming before a US judge who sees nothing much wrong with archaeological looting.