Coin collectors of Germany are asking for our help to joins their petition against ‘onerous’ proposed German law. Coins older than 100 years or worth more than 100 euro will be forbidden from 2016, as the german government is working on a new law in order to protect their national heritage.
The new German law, instituting an export license on German cultural objects — which could include coins, art and a variety of other collectibles — requiring dealers to provide a 20-year history of an object's provenance.
So far, only 22,974 signature has been collected and 47 days remaining. They need 120.000 signatures to make parliament listen to them.
Click here to sign the petition:
https://www.openpetition.de/petition/online/fuer-den-erhalt-des-privaten-sammelns
The Reason why the petition were made:
The stipulations of the amendment of the law on the Protection of Cultural Heritage threaten the collecting of cultural objects by private individuals. This law will effect everybody specialized in traditional collecting fields, such as books, stamps, furniture, ceramics, coins, classic cars and paintings. Retroactively, this new law will impose due diligence guidelines that are impossible to follow even for the most meticulous collector. When it comes to a dispute, the law will require, by reversing the burden of proof, the owner of a “cultural good” with a value of at least 2,500 euros to provide proof as to the item’s provenance for the previous 20 years; this affects “archaeological cultural goods” with a value as low as 100 euros.
This is an unrealistic demand which misrepresents most of the objects that are currently traded on the domestic and the international art market in full accordance with the law as being illegal, and will result in a considerable decline in value of the objects in question.
We therefore demand a law on the Protection of Cultural Heritage that observes the following principles:
•No retroactive effect of the law
•No reversal of the burden of proof
•A clear definition of the term “national cultural heritage” and a limit to claims by the state to “national cultural heritage” only
•Free movement, unimpaired by bureaucratic obstacles, of cultural goods which are not classified as “national cultural heritage”, EU-wide, according to the free movement of goods
•An appropriate participation by the parties representing collectors and dealers in the law-making process
For centuries collectors have protected cultural heritage. Private collecting adds to national efforts and promotes the tradition’s preservation in all its variety, in a way museums alone could never accomplish. Collecting is an immaterial cultural heritage that is currently threatened by the latest drafts of the new German law on the Protection of Cultural Heritage.
Our coin collector friends need your help to sign this petition and keep this legislation from becoming law. Please help them and spread the news. you only need to type your name, address and give your email to join the petition.
We don't know, it might be our turn next time to ask for their help.
