Expert: Ralph Salier - 5/30/2004

Question
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Followup To
Question -
My question is this, I have recently found a company called the Seven Seas Trading company which sells historical artifacts. Of course none of these artifacts are of HUGE value but I find the concept very interesting. I am what you could call a misguided history buff, from my elementary years to my high school years I always would need help if not extra tutoring for anything to do with history. I think it is because of that I find myself now a few years later very interested in history. I cannot not fool myself and say I will be a history teacher or an archaeologist but still I am very interested and find that some one can buy a piece of history that one may normally only find in a museum. With your back ground do you know of any other places or people that you can purchase genuine items like these without paying HUGE prices?
Answer -
Chris,  Please define "historical artifacts",    I could send you to most any Antique store to find items going back some hundreds of years or perhaps even up to 2 or 3 thousand years depending on the items.  Coins, lamps, and other objects from Roman times can be found in the right places without huge prices.  Also please define "huge prices".

There are those however who would sell items which are of cultural importance which should be in a museum.  These items are illegal to sell on any market and you can be heavily fined or even jailed .

Ralph

What I mean by historical artifacts are Egyptian Amulets,Carved Wooden Artifacts - Mummy Masks, Statues and also Egyptian Ushabtis, Egyptian Scarabs. Medieval Manuscripts,Coinage Medieval to Renaissance, Medieval Intaglio Ring, Original 14th Century Medieval Athame Dagger, 1826 Congressional Report. Things of this nature. Saying what I mean by HUGE prices are that I would not like spend several hundred dollars on one item. What I have found so far are these items that I listed are on the Seven Seas Web site and priced around 50.00 for coins and up to 300.00 for some perhaps harder to get items. Is this the only company to go to for such things? Also I did not know some historical cultural items were illegal to sell, has anything I listed thrown up any red flags?  

Answer
there is a lot of and I mean a LOT of fake Egyptian stuff on the market.  So don't trust any of it at least not at anything under thousands of dollars.  Midievil manuscripts if authentic go for Tens of thousands of dollars so what they have is probably fake.  Coinage can be in this range if the quality is not the greatest.  I have purchased Roman, Arabic, Early Italian Renaissance and Middle Kindom German coins for under $300 so these are possible.  But there are fakes out there too.  Sounds like an out fit to avoid. If they say they are authentic and can prove it then these may be coming from pillaged sites (stolen) in which case they should be turned into the authorities.

Send me the URL of this outfit and I will check them out.
my email is rsalier@hotmail.com