Legal issues for moving internationally with fossil.

[thelivingdead531 409]

Hi all, I hope you don't mind but I want to piggy back some questions off of a couple of other posts I've seen recently about transporting and buying fossils legally and going through customs. To make it simple, my husband is US military and we are stationed in England. I've bought several fossils while here and discovered a few (very minor ones, so far) on my own. After seeing a few posts, I'm beginning to get a little concerned that I may not be able to take them back with me, or to another overseas location. I want to keep collecting but I'm hesitant if I can't bring them with me. If anyone has been in a similar situation or knows a good answer, I'd love to hear about it. Thank you! (And sorry if it's already been covered before)

[ynot 6,586]

If You are stationed at a US military base, then You are under a different set of laws and regulations concerning customs. 

 

[JohnBrewer 1,574]

Not sure if this of help but living in the UK I've regularly traded with my American friends and never had a problem. Everything I've sent has been correctly listed on a CN22 or CN23 customs form. If it was something of major importance exporting would be an issue but you could check that out first. 

[thelivingdead531 409]

JohnBrewer, have you had to provide any documents besides customs forms for transport? A few of the fossils have been bought at a local market and I wasn't provided anything with them. 

[JohnBrewer 1,574]

No, never. I'm sure you won't have any problems. What are the fossils? Maybe post images. 

[taj 77]

I think it will depend strongly on your target country for next move .And hope for a bit of luck . As they are international conventions protecting fossils and antiques , you're never sure an overzealous or bored custom officer won't take this a an opportunity to  get under the spotlights for doing good work, even if there is no ground for action .Only thing I can say is that moving from France to Canada ( QC) proved very easy .

[Seaforth 48]

I've sent and received many bits & pieces from all over the globe and nver encountered any prolbems.

Altough I DID hear about US customs being fuzzy about Mammoth fossils

But to be on the safe side, its ofted advised to keep the reciepts if bought in a shop as that show you didnt dig the fossils yourself from a possible closed location.

But for the average small fossils it should be no problem at all

 

Pat

[thelivingdead531 409]

I bought a trilobite, a spinosaur tooth, a knightia fish, and a mosasaur tooth with fish fossils in the matrix. I brought coral fossils from NC here with me before knowing they were fossils. I'm currently trying to get answers on the ID page as to what I found at Walton on the Naze, but since I found so much it might take a bit, and I'm still fairly clueless. 

[thelivingdead531 409]

Thank you all. At the time I didn't see the need to keep receipts for this obvious reason, but now I'm wiser and will make sure I do so. We still have a few years before moving again, but I was trying to get ahead of the game.

[Seaforth 48]

4 minutes ago, thelivingdead531 said:

I bought a trilobite, a spinosaur tooth, a knightia fish, and a mosasaur tooth with fish fossils in the matrix. I brought coral fossils from NC here with me before knowing they were fossils. I'm currently trying to get answers on the ID page as to what I found at Walton on the Naze, but since I found so much it might take a bit, and I'm still fairly clueless. 

Trilobites & the other bits you described are NO problem taking back to the USA.

I also replied to your other posting about the Walton finds :-)

[thelivingdead531 409]

Outstanding! Thank you so much, everyone! 

 

Thank you Seaforth! I can't wait to try Folkestone. I want to spend a weekend around the Jurassic Coast soon, and hopefully make a few trips before we leave.

[Flx 90]

The only problem I encountered once:
I bought a dino tooth online and the seller specified "tooth" when sending it to Switzerland. At the border they opened the package and a veterinary examined it. 

The vetenary decided that it is not dangerous (any more). The not so fun part was that they charged me 50 USD for the examination... 

[thelivingdead531 409]

18 minutes ago, Flx said:

The only problem I encountered once:
I bought a dino tooth online and the seller specified "tooth" when sending it to Switzerland. At the border they opened the package and a veterinary examined it. 

The vetenary decided that it is not dangerous (any more). The not so fun part was that they charged me 50 USD for the examination... 

 

Yikes! I hope that doesn't happen to me, but I'd also rather not lose my fossils so I suppose it's a risk we take. If I wanted to ship them ahead of me, is there something specific I should write on the customs forms? 

[Flx 90]

7 minutes ago, thelivingdead531 said:

Yikes! I hope that doesn't happen to me, but I'd also rather not lose my fossils so I suppose it's a risk we take. If I wanted to ship them ahead of me, is there something specific I should write on the customs forms? 

 

Not quite sure. I think "tooth fossil" instead of "tooth" would maybe have been better.

[ynot 6,586]

6 hours ago, thelivingdead531 said:

, is there something specific I should write on the customs forms? 

I would be as vague as possible. IE ... "Fossils"  would be enough information for the idiots in the customs office.

The more specific You get the more fodder for them to chew.

[JohnBrewer 1,574]

4 hours ago, ynot said:

I would be as vague as possible. IE ... "Fossils"  would be enough information for the idiots in the customs office.

The more specific You get the more fodder for them to chew.

My brother in law certainly isn't an idiot and neither is a friend I'm meeting later tonight who was very high in the UK Customs and Excise before he retired. He, and his colleagues, are apparently more likely to open a box that has a vague description.

 

@thelivingdead531 you'll be perfectly fine with what you have

[thelivingdead531 409]

Thank you all for your responses. I hope to collect more while I'm here and hope to not run into trouble down the line when we (very sadly) leave. Thankfully we have a few more years to go!