Hubert LANZ
(Federation of European Numismatic Trade Associations, Munich, Germany)
Hauptanliegen: Die digitale Erstellung strukturierter Metadaten für Bücher stellt nicht nur einen eminenten Schutz der nachgewiesenen Objekte dar, sondern bildet auch die Grundlage von Digitalisierungsprojekten.
The Internet as a mean of trading coins and archaeology started about 12 years ago as a platform for private sellers, who sold their private holdings and small low value collectibles mostly on ebay USA. Suddenly archaeologists, who never attended coin shows or club meetings realised, that there are many more ancient coins in the open market as they ever could imagine and out of frustration suggested, that all these items must be stolen from somewhere. The legal situation for the trade in coins and antiquities was often misunderstood and while all countries with very restrictive laws face a huge illegal market, other countries with a democratic and liberal approach have a healthy and legal market for the same objects. Both markets have the same problem, there are no documentations of origin available. Of course the archaeological community tries to restrict the legal market by calling it illegal, which leads to a negative situation for collectors, but also for science, because collectors will go underground and scientists will get no information for their necessary work. The only way to solve this problem is to open up markets in so called source countries with restrictive legislation. It is absolutely necessary to report finds, single or hoards to the cultural agencies, but these have to be able to study these reported objects within a certain time frame, for which they need enough academic staff, and after concluding the scientific documentation, they have the option of buying the interesting items of high scientific value for a fair price and return the objects of limited scientific value to the finder and the land owner to sell them in an open and liberal market. The internet itself is a great chance for scientists to acquire objects for their studies, that are exposed to the worlds free market, which otherwise would be sold without a trace in a private market.