ACCG Gains Influence With Collectors

By Richard Giedroyc

The Ancient Coin Collectors Guild is defending more than collectors of ancient coins against special interests in archaeogical circles who would outlaw collecting ancient coins if these people could legislate it. Readers should understand that the ACCG is defending all collectors regardless of the age of the coins in their collections, since these special interests claim just about any object of any significant age is the cultural patrimony of the country where it was either found or originated and for this reason should be repatriated to that country regardless of who has current title to that object. Defining what exactly these "objects" are is vague, but the archaeologists and legislators involved have ensured the definition is still clear enough to include coins.

Consider this a shameless plug for the ACCG if you like, but this is an organization worth plugging. The latest news of the organization is likely best explained by its director, Wayne G. Sayles.

Sayles is quoted in the December 2008 issue of The Celator, a magazine for collectors of ancient coins, as saying, "The ACCG has come a very long way in the four years of its existence, and is a force to be reckoned with on the cultural property scene."

Sayles is responding to an unintended compliment the ACCG received from archaeologist Paul Barford in a recent blog. In that blog Barford calls the ACCG "the most prominent ancient coin collectors' lobby group worldwide."

Sayles continues in The Celator, saying: "While antiquities dealers and organizations, with the exception of Hershel Shanks, have all but vanished from the cultural property debate, the ACCG has grown stronger, more capable, and more aggressive in defending the rights of private collectors of ancient coins. Even the museum community is unable to mount the sort of resistance that it once did."

Sayles makes a plug worth reiterating here, saying: "If you, as a collector or dealer, are not a member of the ACCG you simply must not understand what the ACCG does for you. The guild will be launching a membership campaign at the turn of the year, and I would hope - strike that - I would expect that every reader of The Celator would want to be a member of the ACCG. It is the only collector organization that aggressively opposes the formidable pressures against private collecting."

Sayles may have directed his comments towards readers of The Celator, but readers of World Coin News should understand that the term "ancient" is now being liberally applied to much more modern coins by nations that would like to prevent collectors and museums from owning what those nations have decided are their cultural patrimony. The Peoples' Republic of China, as an example, has been defining ancient coins of China as those being struck prior to 1911, while attempting to demand the return of their ancient coins from private collectors and museums by lobbying the U.S. government for legislation that would mandate it.

The ACCG can be contacted at www.accg.org.