Today's Date

VIA FACSIMILE AND EMAIL

Name of Your Member of Congress
U.S. House of Representatives or U.S. Senate
Address
Washington, D.C.

Dear Member:

I am writing in regard to H.R 2009 The Iraq Cultural Heritage Protection Act, legislation recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives which addresses the illegal importation into the U.S. of artifacts stolen from the Iraqi National Museum (INM). Although this legislation addresses an important cultural property crisis, if passed in its current form, it is likely to have unintended harmful consequences to those involved in the numismatic or coin collecting trade.

American numismatists have enjoyed collecting ancient coins since before the American Revolution, counting among their members Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams. This tradition of collecting is threatened by the current form of H.R. 2009, which prohibits the import into the U.S of a very broadly defined group of objects in addition to containing documentation requirements that are virtually impossible for the average, legitimate collector or dealer in ancient coins to meet. Very few coins that may have originated in the geographic area that is now known as Iraq necessarily have stayed in that region due to the highly transitory nature of coins. Thus, a coin that may have originated in the geographic region of Iraq but was dispersed to other areas over 2,000 years ago could still be confiscated from a collector or a dealer bringing the coin into the U.S. if that person does not have sufficient documentation to prove that it was ever legally exported from Iraq.

Those in the numismatic community strongly condemn the looting and destruction of Iraqi cultural treasures at the INM and unequivocally support the return of these treasures to the Iraqi people. Clearly the focus of such legislation is to protect those unique and irreplaceable objects from early Mesopotamia c. 3000-1000 B.C; however, the bill currently is drafted so broadly that it could be interpreted to put restrictions on any coin struck as late as c. 1903 A.D. Indeed, previous import restrictions on cultural property have always made an exception for ancient coinage based on the recommendations of the President's own cultural property experts. Therefore, the overly broad definitions and unrealistic documentation requirements of H.R. 2009 necessitate an amendment to exempt coins from its scope so the existing legitimate numismatic trade may continue to thrive.

By supporting an amendment to exclude coins from this legislation you will still be supporting U.S. efforts to recover the artifacts stolen from the INM, and additionally, you will be upholding the long tradition of American numismatists to engage in the collecting of ancient coins.

Sincerely,

Constituent's Name

cc: Congressman William M. Thomas
Senator Charles E. Grassley
Congressman Philip M. Crane
Senator Craig Thomas
Names of Your Senators
Cultural Property Advisory Committee