Always check the rules....

[brooklyn digger]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/british-tourist-held-turkish-prison-083906839.html

 

[AlienLifeForm]

Pro-Tip: Don't visit countries where bacon isn't on the menu.

 

[ChampFerguson/TN]

In before Tom!


ALF said it best. My days of slumming the world are over. 1st world nations only for me now.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/british-tourist-held-turkish-prison-083906839.html

haha brooklyn digger (and champ-F ) I bet I can find a similar article about someone detecting and/or finding old coins in the USA too. There will ALWAYS be a fluke article on some overzealous airport person or ranger, etc... How about this one from the USA : Guy ticketed for driving while eating a Big-Mac.

Sure, some places you "don't throw caution to the wind". There's other ways to get coins shipped back home (if they don't pass off in your underwear compartment of your luggage, or in your change with your car keys). For example you buy something from a vendor (like a roll-up rug, an instrument, etc....). And you merely ask the vendor in that country "can you please enclose this with the package?"

It may surprise some that there is actually metal detector dealers in Turkey. A buddy of mine was wandering the streets of a big city in Turkey, and actually saw a sign in a shop window that they were a Whites dealer-ship. Anyhow, it's just like here: Just know the P's & Q's of where you are. The same can be said of anywhere. Even the USA. And there will ALWAYS be fluke stories, even in the USA, Britain, etc...

 

[washingtonian]

That is ridiculous and so sad. Let the poor man go, take the coins if you must. My goodness.

 

[Mzjavert]

He probably should have mentioned the coins at customs.

 

[Xraywolf]

 

[Tom_in_CA]

He probably should have mentioned the coins at customs.

Another easy way: There are coin dealers in Turkey. Just like in ANY country, there are coin-collectors who buy & sell. I just did a quick "yellow pages" type-search right now, and see several brick & mortar stores to-be-found in the bigger cities. Ok, if you bought something from one of them, the presto: lineage of existing , rather than "dug". I'm sure there's a buy-sell way to get a "receipt" for your stuff that you bought as souvenirs .

At one time I communicated with a seller located in Turkey, who had some ancient Turkish coins. I asked him if he could ship to the USA (posing as a potential bidder). He said "yes". Then .... playing the devil's advocate ... I asked "isn't there laws to forbid ancient coins from leaving the borders?" He said that as long as their "souvenirs", (and you're not "digging" them) them, then in that case, trinkets (aka souvenirs) come and go through the mail no problem.

I posted this Turkish coin-seller exchange on an old T'net thread on the subject of Turkey, and was told that the coins I was looking at are no doubt "replicas". And that *if* they were truly old coins, then the seller was mistaken. Ok, then what's so hard about having a coin-dealer write you a writ stating "replicas" , for in case anyone cares to scrutinize your luggage ?

Who knows ? I just know that a buddy of mine, walking the streets of Istanbul, saw a Whites dealer logo decal in the window of a shop. He peaked his head in the door and saw a few detectors on the wall. Thus locals can indeed buy detectors. Presumably for legal purposes. I suppose the argument could then be made that "yeah but you can't leave the country with anything" ? The debate would be endless.

 

[coinman123]

9 out of 10 people who found a jar of 1000 year old coins would have done what he did. I would have for sure. He didn't steal them or trespass, but found them. Fair game in my opinion. Just my two cent piece.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

9 out of 10 people who found a jar of 1000 year old coins would have done what he did. I would have for sure. He didn't steal them or trespass, but found them. Fair game in my opinion. Just my two cent piece.

And so-too was there the oft-circulated link of some dude who (supposedly) found a traveller trunk in death-valley, stashed in some cave. Dated to the emigrant-trail days when the desert SW CA trail had a fork/option that passed through death valley. Getting beyond the dispute of whether-or-not the trunk was true period or not: The finder got chastised for daring to have touched or disturbed it (he hiked it back down out of the hills at attempted to show it to historians/archies).

Thus as you can see, there is NO SHORTAGE of fluke "gripe" stories, from anywhere on earth. That ... if taken to it's logical skittish "what if?" extremes, can be construed to talk you out of md'ing just about anywhere. Yet as we all know (using the USA story as an example), that if you practice some easy P's & Q's (and don't make yourself the easy subject of flukes) , then ..... oh well.