I am looking forward to traveling to Europe latter this year, particularly Italy and Greece, and will be spending 99% of my time on a beach relaxing to the sounds of the beautiful Mediterranean.
The other 1% may involve visiting a couple of coin dealers, my cousins are keen coin collectors in Greece and they have informed me that there are a couple 'good' coin dealers from Greece they know of.
I was wondering if anyone knows if it may be illegal for these 'dealers' to actually be selling coins in their countries, i would of thought the laws would be quite tight.
I can't find much on the net either and i am very skeptical to accept the advice of relatives who can't grasp the concept of a legal system to begin with.
Anyone have any experiences that might prove insightful for me here?
The problem isn't with
buying coins - you can, theoretically, buy and own coins as a private individual living in
Italy (not sure about
Greece). So you've been advised correctly by your relatives on that score. There do exist coin dealers.
However you will NOT be permitted to export the coins, and customs WILL check for stuff that looks like old coins if you try, and the
Italian post WILL screen for such items in relation to what you say on the customs declaration, and even if you, through some shady means, evade all this, it will be illegal to import
Greek coins to the USA, or coins of demonstrably
Italian origin to the USA (
ref. the endlessly discussed and well publicised MOUs entered into by the US government). That is, without export permits, which I very much doubt you will get (knowing something of the process).
Enjoy the beach and avoid the coin dealers. Or stay and live permanently in
Italy and then you can keep your coins there.