Has anyone brought ancient coins on international flights?

[JayAg47]

With one or two coins you could simply mix it with your normal change, but what about large quantity of coins, or even your whole collection? How do you prove it's 'yours' and not just smuggling them! Do you have purchase records/receipts for all of your coins?

[hotwheelsearl]

I suppose it would highly depend on where you’re going and how strict they are.

 

when I went to Mexico in 2018, I brought along with me 5 different cameras. There was a sign at the airport saying that if one brings more than 2 cameras, they will be charged a sort of tax on the rest of them (I suppose they assume you bring multiple cameras to sell or something).

Nobody ever said anything about the cameras and nobody attempted to charge me a tax.

I did get my dried mango strips confiscated though 😞

[Ed Snible]

I have never done this.

I believe you need to declare all coins over 100 years old.

When entering or returning to the United States the rules are https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2020-Jun/Works of art etc ICP_0.pdf

If anyone has declared coins over 100 years old at Customs, I am curious to know what happened and how long it took to happen.

[kirispupis]

I've wondered this myself since there's the possibility we could move from the US to Luxembourg someday. I believe you'd have to work with customs in the destination country. This could get messy if the collection is valuable when moving it to the US, but I'm sure there are people who have done it. Ultimately I expect you'd have to list each coin, the country or countries where it commonly circulated, and the reasoning for your claim that it left that country before the corresponding MOU took effect.

I once did take a single coin from France to the US. I asked at CGB, where I bought it, about whether I should worry about US customs and they said only if the coins are worth more than $2k. In that case they would have arranged some paperwork for me to present, but they obviously would need some time to prepare it.

When I came to the US, I just included it with my souvenirs. It was technically a souvenir, since I'll always remember it from my Paris trip.

Kings of Bithynia. Prusias II
AE Unit 20.5mm 6.41g 12h
c. 180-150 BCE
Laffaille430 var. - Cop.- - Aulock6886 var. - RG.26 - BMC.- - HGCS. 7/629
0avers : Buste imberbe, juvénile et drapé de Dionysos (Bacchus) à droite, couronné de feuilles de vigne.
0revers : Le Centaure Chiron à droite, la tête de face, jouant de la lyre, sa tunique flottant derrière.

 

[Curtisimo]

I brought an ancient coin back from Israel in 2016. The shop I bought it at in Jerusalem worked up export documents at the point of sale. I’m still not sure how official those documents were but it didn’t matter anyway. I had no trouble at the airport and Israeli airport security is among the strictest in the world. My bags were searched on the way out and I got no questions about the coin.

I would not attempt to move all or most of my collection across international borders unless I was moving and had no other choice. I do keep all of my invoices but to be honest they are haphazardly stored in multiple places. One of these days I really need to get those organized.

[Parthicus]

I traveled to Spain in 2005 and brought back a couple of ancient coins.  I packed them together with some modern coins I'd bought (including a Spanish mint set) in my carry-on, and on the Customs form wrote down "collectible coins" and a reasonable estimate of the value of the whole group, including moderns and ancients (which wasn't much, maybe $100 or so total).  Had no problem with Customs in either Spain or the US.

[Ursus]

I moved from California to Germany in 2020 and took my entire coin collection (c. 600 ancient and medieval coins) with me on the plane in my carry-on bag. As far as I understood (and as far as my lawyer had told me before), the collection constituted "personal effects" and thus was customs-free. I had a large folder with purchase receipts with me that I planned to show to give proof of legal purchase if the customs officers asked. They didn't.

[Deinomenid]

This only applies  to moving to the US but when I did, I was warned that there was risk of "use tax" being  imposed on my Byzantine collection. This was to New York, which has a slight tendency to treat its residents as somewhat akin to  milch cows, so maybe not an issue elsewhere. This was a warning from  specialist emigration accountants, and the risk was the risk of  being caught, not the risk they may choose to do it. If they  knew, they'd tax. 

So I left it behind, which was slightly cutting off my  nose to spite my face,  but  I thought it grossly unfair.

 

Edited September 29, 2023 by Deinomenid
To clarify they thought the main risk was taking inflight.

[DonnaML]

7 hours ago, Deinomenid said:

This only applies  to moving to the US but when I did, I was warned that there was risk of "use tax" being  imposed on my Byzantine collection. This was to New York, which has a slight tendency to treat its residents as somewhat akin to  milch cows, so maybe not an issue elsewhere. This was a warning from  specialist emigration accountants, and the risk was the risk of  being caught, not the risk they may choose to do it. If they  knew, they'd tax. 

So I left it behind, which was slightly cutting off my  nose to spite my face,  but  I thought it grossly unfair.

 

I think you received poor advice. "Use tax is generally not due on taxable property or services purchased while you were a nonresident of New York State (that is, items purchased before you moved to New York State)." See https://www.tax.ny.gov/pubs_and_bulls/tg_bulletins/st/use_tax_for_individuals.htm . Otherwise, anyone who moves to New York would have to pay the equivalent of sales tax for every item of personal property they bring into the State. Rather, it's meant to be charged to New York residents who go out of state to make purchases, or order goods from outside New York State, in order to avoid New York sales tax. However, except for items bought from Internet sellers who automatically add New York sales/use tax to the prices paid by New York buyers, I don't know anyone who's actually ever paid use tax.

Edited September 29, 2023 by DonnaML

[Deinomenid]

2 hours ago, DonnaML said:

I think you received poor advice.

Would that that were so , but I'd already been deemed resident based on days, and now was immigrating. The relevance  to this thread though is  only that I was warned against bringing on a flight as the state would be aware if  customs  had had an issue.

[DonnaML]

3 hours ago, Deinomenid said:

Would that that were so , but I'd already been deemed resident based on days, and now was immigrating. The relevance  to this thread though is  only that I was warned against bringing on a flight as the state would be aware if  customs  had had an issue.

I see. So you were already deemed a NY resident by virtue of the 184-day rule at the time you bought all your Byzantine coins. In that case, I suppose their advice was good, given the risk of your collection coming to the attention of the taxing authorities via Customs.

[Kaleun96]

I've thought about what I would do if I were to move outside the EU. I'd definitely take paper copies of the invoices as I think it would have more weight in the initial moment than telling the customs agent "I have digital copies" (great, please follow me to this room and we can spend 5 hours going through them while you wait). But at the end of the day, customs generally have a lot of power to confiscate anything coming in to the country and I imagine they could hold items for some time before releasing them.

The issue, I think, is where the laws are somewhat vague about how a country enforces the 1970 UNESCO convention if they are a signatory to it. For getting my collection out of Europe, I think the laws are fairly clear. However, bringing them into NZ could be difficult as I don't think NZ's laws are as clear-cut on ancient coins vs antiquities and whether you need proof that they were acquired prior to 1970 or the like. But it's something I'll worry about when the time comes.