PREV ARTICLE
NEXT ARTICLE
FULL ISSUE
PREV FULL ISSUE
MAN CLEARED OVER IMPORTING SCRAP EUROSPhil Mernick forwarded this interesting BBC News story about a man who bought Euro coins for scrap in China. -Editor
The €1 and €2 coins were collected from scrapped cars and washing machines sent to China from Western countries. The man, in his 40s, was detained in Austria earlier this year after police found 117kg (257lb) of the coins, worth €15,000 ($17,000; €13,000), in his car. However an Austrian court has now ruled that his actions were not illegal. The accused, referred to only as Mr H, had explained how he frequently travelled to China with cash to procure the coins, which he said were found in scrap metal items sent there to be destroyed. He said that because the euro coins were not used as currency in China, he could purchase large quantities by weight at a fraction of their value and return to convert them for notes at Austrian banks using coin-counting machines. His lawyer, Christoph Eberle, had maintained that the coins were not counterfeit, and that importing and converting the genuine old and damaged coins did not breach any Austrian law. To read the complete article, see: Earlier articles described a similar situation where U.S. coins were being bought for scrap and returned through a U.S. Mint program. There were accusations that the coins were counterfeit and that there was no was so many genuine coins could be found in scrap. A few months ago I decided to sell my old car. So I emptied out all my stuff and double-checked every nook and cranny in the passenger compartment. I was stunned by the number of coins I found - a dozen or so that I'd completely missed on the first go-round. So I think the story is at least plausible. -Editor To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:  Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
|
