Official Summaries

This bill revises the standard for providing satisfactory evidence to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regarding the importation of numismatic material (i.e., coins, tokens, paper money, medals, and related objects) into the United States.

Current law generally prohibits the importation of designated archaeological or ethnological material that is exported from certain countries that are a party to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. Importation is allowed if the country issues a certification or other documentation certifying the exportation was not in violation of the country's laws. The United States implements its obligations through the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act.

Under current law, CBP must seize imports of designated archaeological or ethnological material unless the importer establishes by certain documentation or satisfactory evidence that the material is admissible into the United States. 

This bill specifies the standard for satisfactory evidence with respect to numismatic material. Specifically, the bill allows for the import of numismatic material with evidence that the numismatic material was acquired and exported lawfully, is of a known type, and is not known to be the direct product of illicit excavations within certain countries after the effective date for any import restrictions on such material. 

The bill prohibits CBP, when reviewing satisfactory evidence, from requiring other documentation unless there is probable cause to believe the presented evidence is false or fraudulent.

Current Full Text

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 595 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 595

To amend the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act to make 
   certain technical corrections to facilitate the lawful trade and 
                  collecting of numismatic materials.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 21, 2025

Ms. Van Duyne (for herself, Mr. Johnson of South Dakota, Mr. Amodei of 
Nevada, Mr. Owens, and Ms. Jacobs) introduced the following bill; which 
            was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act to make 
   certain technical corrections to facilitate the lawful trade and 
                  collecting of numismatic materials.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. AMENDMENTS TO CONVENTION ON CULTURAL PROPERTY IMPLEMENTATION 
              ACT.

    (a) Definitions.--Section 302 of the Convention on Cultural 
Property Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 2601) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating paragraphs (8), (9), (10), and (11) as 
        paragraphs (9), (10), (11), and (12), respectively; and
            (2) by inserting after paragraph (7) the following:
            ``(8) The term `numismatic material' includes coins, 
        tokens, paper money, medals and related objects.''.
    (b) Import Restrictions.--Section 307 of the Convention on Cultural 
Property Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 2606) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``; or'' at the 
                end and inserting a comma;
                    (B) in paragraph (2)(B), by adding ``or''at the 
                end; and
                    (C) by inserting after paragraph (2)(B) (as 
                amended) the following:
            ``(3) in the case of such material that is numismatic 
        material, satisfactory evidence that the material was acquired 
        lawfully, is of a known type, and is not known to be the direct 
        product of illicit excavations within a State Party,'';
            (2) in subsection (c)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1)(B), by striking ``and'' at the 
                end;
                    (B) in paragraph (2)(B), by striking the period at 
                the end and inserting ``; and''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(3) for purposes of subsection (b)(3), one or more 
        declarations under oath by the importer or the person for whose 
        account the material is imported, stating that, to the best of 
        his knowledge, the numismatic material--
                    ``(A) was acquired lawfully in one or more States 
                Party;
                    ``(B) was lawfully exported from a State Party in 
                which the numismatic material was acquired;
                    ``(C) is of a type known to exist in multiple 
                examples which has been published in a reference work 
                on numismatics; and
                    ``(D) is not known to be the direct product of 
                illicit excavations within another State Party after 
                the effective date for import restrictions on 
                numismatic material granted to that State Party.''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(e) No Other Documentation Required.--The customs officer 
reviewing the satisfactory evidence shall not require any documentation 
or statements additional to that which is set forth in subsection (c) 
unless the customs officer has probable cause based on documentary 
evidence to believe that the satisfactory evidence is false or 
fraudulent.''.
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