Comment on DOS-2026-0628-0001
Anonymous AnonymousOpposeIndividual
Summary: An individual coin collector opposes the proposed import restrictions and bilateral cultural property agreements with Albania, Nigeria, and Romania. The commenter argues that these actions infringe on private property rights and harm the hobby of coin collecting, requesting that any agreements clearly exempt widely circulated or legally imported coins.
Please do not place new or renew import restrictions on collector’s coins that prioritize “soft power” over the due process and private property rights of American coin collectors. If you nonetheless enter into a new CPA with Romania and renew the prior agreement with Albania, please ensure that any designated lists are rewritten so that it is absolutely clear that they do not impact coins that widely circulated or those legitimately imported from legal markets abroad, particularly those in Europe. Also, please do not put new restrictions on coins from Nigeria. Nigeria only used coins in recent times so that such coins cannot be considered either archaeological or ethnological objects under the governing legislation. Coin collecting is a hobby that promotes cultural understanding and relationships with collectors abroad. It is troubling that the State Department Bureau of Cultural Affairs is behind efforts that do considerable damage to a hobby that actually promotes the cultural understanding the Bureau aims to foster.