Ancient Coins & Artifacts

Change of blog address

2011-02-17T11:34:00.000-08:00

Please note that our blog moved some time ago to:

http://jan.imperialcoins.com/blog

Best,

Alfred

ACCG Benefit Auction

2008-06-16T20:28:00.000-07:00

ACCG Benefit Auction

I was very pleased to see several new donations to the ACCG benefit auction.

As many of you already know, the ACCG benefit auction is raising funds to defend the rights of ancient coin collectors.

Donations of coins, books and other numismatic items are still be accepted for the auction. The auction will close on August 17th 2008. If you can not make a donation, please support the auction. There are several fantastic coins that have been donated by dealers and collectors.

While you are at it, support the dealers have made donations and let them know that you appreciate their efforts made on their behalf for ancient numismatics. (Disclosure: I am one of the dealers that donated a few lots, no need to pat me on the back)

TheHill.com - Coin collectors, art dealers fear restrictions on Chinese imports

2008-05-28T08:05:00.000-07:00

An interesting article came out today. What I find particularly unsettling is that ancient coins are being described "cultural heritage" and that description is left unchallenged.

Also, the fact that China of all countries is "pleading" the case that "Every day that goes by without an [agreement] is another day we are not doing everything we can to stop the plunder of China’s cultural heritage, everyone’s cultural heritage" when the government of China sells ancient coins. Not to mention a little thing like the hundreds of REAL significant cultural heritage sites flooded by the Chinese government and the hundreds more that are scheduled to be flooded by 2010.

According to the REUTERS news report: "Chinese heritage officials are scrambling to save thousands of cultural relics dating back 3,000 years and threatenedby a $25 billion project to pump water from the country's southern rivers to its arid north. The 1,300-km (800-mile) central route of the south-to-north water transfer project, scheduled to pump water from a major tributary of the Yangtze river to Beijing by 2010, cuts across the Yellow river plain -- the so-called "cradle of Chinese civilisation" dotted with ancient sites. With only three years left to complete the project, heritage workers had finished less than a third of their task, the Beijing News said. "Looking at it from our current excavations, whether in terms of quantity or quality, the relics along the (route) are far, far more valuable than those along the Three Gorges dam," Monday's Beijing News quoted Li Taoyuan, a senior archaeologist from central Hebei province, as saying. The 185-metre Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze river, China's longest, has inundated hundreds of cultural sites, along with some 116 towns in Hubei province and neighbouring Chongqing municipality. Junxian, a village in Danjiangkou city, at the southern extreme of the project, had "tens of thousands" of ancient tombs dating back to the Zhou Dynasty (1122-256 BC), Li said, indicating the scale of the task."

Money by it's very nature can not be considered a specific countries cultural heritage. It was designed to be portable. At best, an argument can be made that specific find sites should be protected, but the vast majority of ancient coins on the market today come from chance finds and finds which are not tied to a archaeological site of any significance. Going after ancient coin collectors and dealers will have virtually no effect on the underlying problems.

TheHill.com - Coin collectors, art dealers fear restrictions on Chinese imports

Economic woes, US Financial crash?

2008-05-20T10:47:00.000-07:00

Quite often online discussions come up concerning the rising price of coins. Dealers are sometimes viewed as "greedy" or "opportunistic" on some of the USENET lists, while more reasonable individuals point out the rising cost of living, cost and increased scarcity of new material and a stong European market.

An interesting article today (found here: Numismaster.com) really got me thinking on what the cause was of the increased prices and where the market will be a year or two from now. The article speculates that the United States is in for a major Financial crash within the next two months . The article brings out some interesting points of how fabricated statistics by the federal government could be enough to cause a crash.

I certainly agree that when the citizens of a country lose faith in their money and more importantly, they lose faith in what they are being told, it could spell serious trouble. (Pick any failed economy and/or currency and analyse why it failed!)

As a small business owner, citizen of New York City and consumer I have certainly felt the pinch. Over the past seven years (I use 9/10/01 as a starting point because in my opinion that was the starting point of many of the factors that have lead to a weakened economy and dollar) I have personally seen double digit inflation and a depreciation of the US Dollar. Some examples:

Medical Insurance premiums have gone up more than 70%, comparing inferior service to that of seven years ago
Staple goods (milk, bread, etc.) have gone up at least 40% (Due to the high demand for corn production as an alternative fuel to gasoline i.e.: Ethanol, higher fuel and transportation, expenses, etc. )
Rent and Co-op/Condo maintenance has gone up, my maintenance in 2001 was $492 and in 2008 is now $680 (A relatively low maintenance for a 2 bedroom apartment, but imagine someone that has been paying market rent)
Gasoline has gone up a whopping 100%+ from a price of $1.39 per gallon on 9/10/2001 to yesterday's price of $4.06
In 2001 the toll for the George Washington Bridge jumped from $4 to $6 and now in 2008 it has jumped to $8
The Euro on 9/11/01 was $.91 and today (May 20, 2008) it is $1.57 per Euro

As a coin dealer I have seen the cost of inventory steadily increase to the point that my cost for inventory is in many cases double or triple what I would have sold the same material for in September of 2001.

Imperial Coins & Artifacts, Inc.

2008-05-17T17:07:00.000-07:00

Ancient Coins & Artifacts.
Over 2000 coins for sale, 2000 coins in the sold category for research, and tools and resources for collectors. One of the most trusted ancient coin dealers since 1999.