Ancient Coin Collectors Guild v. United States Customs and Border Protection

698 F.3d 171 (2012)

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Ancient Coin Collectors Guild v. United States Customs and Border Protection

United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
698 F.3d 171 (2012)

Facts

In 2007, acting on an earlier request by the government of Cyprus under the Cultural Property Implementation Act (CPIA), United States Customs and Border Patrol (customs) (defendant) prohibited the importation of certain Cypriot cultural artifacts, including coins. In January 2009, customs similarly prohibited the importation of ancient Chinese coins. In April 2009, the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild (guild) (plaintiff) purchased ancient Chinese and Cypriot coins from a London dealer who provided documentation stating that the provenance of the coins and where they were found were unknown. On April 15, the guild attempted to bring the coins into the United States. Customs detained the coins because importation of Chinese and Cypriot coins was prohibited under the CPIA. At that time, customs informed the guild that it would release the coins if the guild was able to produce evidence showing that the coins were exported from China and Cyprus prior to their dates of prohibition under the CPIA. The guild sued customs arguing, among other things, that customs’ prohibition on importation of Chinese and Cypriot coins was unlawful because neither China nor Cyprus specifically requested that the importation of coins be prohibited, and because the prohibition was not limited to ancient coins first discovered in Cyprus or China. The district court granted customs’ motion to dismiss, and the guild appealed.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Wilkinson, J.)

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