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Freddy von Solms with apologies to
Carvel Web |
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Many questions arise
when laws address items such as “What is collectable?”. Many would have it to be “old” or “scarce”
and thus “worth-a-lot”. Nothing is
probably further from the truth, if no one collected the “old” when it was
“new” how did it survive to even become “worth-a-mention”? I can already feel the readers’ response,
boy if you want to get one more opinion than the number of folk in the room,
touch on this subject! On a more serious note though, after many
discussions both internal and external to the fraternity, an attempt at
formalising the concept was reached when the National Arms and Ammunition
Collector’s Confederation of South Africa (NAACCSA) tabled guidelines for
determining the “Collectable” status of a firearm. The document is intended for use by all
shareholders, us and the SAPS included, to ensure an even playing field when
considering the subject matter of motivation around collections and collectable
arms. The following is the verbatim from the
NAACCSA ExCo meeting held on 13 November 2003 and it reads: NAACCSA
Rev 5 October 2003
Guidelines for
determining the "Collectable" status of a firearm
Background :
These Guidelines
have been prepared to address the requirements of Section 17(1)(a) of the FCA
which reads "A firearm which may
be possessed in a private collection is any firearm approved for collection
by an accredited collectors association". The FCA Regulations
July 2003 refer by implication to the "Historical, Technological,
Scientific, and Heritage value" of firearms, within a specific
"Theme or Field of Interest". When considering
the "collectability" or otherwise of a specific firearm, it is
therefore important to consider not only the item itself, but the context
within which it is being considered. (For example - a
certain handgun of which millions were made might not be considered
"collectable" in isolation, but if it had been the personal sidearm
of a famous person, and could be identified as such, it would be considered
to be very desirable from the viewpoint of a collector, with an interest in
that area.) Guidelines:
1. Age, plus an attribute of collectability. The Firearm should be at least 25 years old (moving
window), with one or more of the attributes alluded to in the above
definitions i.e. Historic, Technological, Scientific, Heritage. If the firearm does not readily conform to this
combination of age and one or more collectability attributes, then further
considerations may apply i.e. 2. Discontinued for at least 10 years, with
the likelihood of becoming of interest from a Historic, Technological,
Scientific, or Heritage perspective. 3. Commemorative issues (e.g. Mauser Gewehr
98 centenary). 4. Limited editions (e.g. "Last of the
Walther PPs" cased sets). 5. Part of a demonstrable theme e.g. a
collection of oldest to newest "xxx" (incl. origin, maker,
designer, user, type, design, style, usage, calibre, etc.). 6. Part of a demonstrable theme of
"future value", where the likelihood of such future value can be
demonstrated or motivated. 7. Proven (or generally accepted)
association with famous (or infamous) people or events. 8. Current scarcity or rarity (locally or
internationally) for whatever reason. 9. Unusual or unique design, materials or
method of manufacture of historic interest. 10. Custom or "one-off's" by well
known gun makers / gunsmiths, with significant value. 11. Prototypes. 12. Limited production runs ( less than 1000
). 13. Replicas of well known historical fire
arms. 14. Investment grade firearms of significant
value. Prepared by SAAACA (Gauteng) for the NAACCSA Committee” I have been approached by several people, and
been in many more discussions on the subject of “How do I motivate my
collection/keeping this or that firearm?”
It would be unwise to try and create a pro-forma or a “crib-sheet” for
members, besides the fact that it would be frowned upon by the powers that
may be, such an attempt can never really be complete. Such is the ingenuity of the human
mind. The following may help clear up
the statements made in the NAACCSA declaration. It is clear that a theme is
called for by the FCA. Thus set
yourself the goal of identifying and expressing that theme in your
collection. Note though that there is
no limit to the number of themes you may express. Thus you could state your theme(s) along
the generic lines of “I collect British classic sporting rifles and fighting
knives” or more specifically “English Double and single shot rifles and
Siamese fighting knives” or if you wish “Holland and Holland Double rifles of
the period 1900 to 1910 and Knives used in the filming of The King and
I”. Obviously a theme such as “I
collect guns” won’t fly. Neither will
a theme per firearm, unless you are proficient at turning out thematic proof! It follows from the first guideline that if
you collect items older than 25 years and it has connections to a specific
period it can be construed to be a theme(s) with age and
historical value. Examples
would be “Arms of the Belgian Congo” or “German Lugers of the Second World
War”. Neither would be typically seen
as South African heritage or even technologically descriptive yet worthy
subjects for collecting. Either could
have an SA connection, “granddad was there...” I’ll admit, but that would
only increase the number of areas of compliance to the guidelines. Likewise “Spanish Vest pistols until 1977”
would be a theme with age and technological compliance. They will typically not be all that
expensive, not be major or even minor role players in history (except for the
odd one which killed XYZ…) yet they encompass a complete range of innovative
designs from the sublime to the ridiculous. Age and scientific is obviously
very close to technology and will take some interpretation. Perhaps the techniques that make it work
or keeps it safe is more the science and the mechanisms and manufacturing
techniques the technology? At this
point one also enters also the realm of guideline 9 Unusual design or
manufacturing. The broad definition
of technology allows one to define a collection along the lines of “Actions
or actuators”, here a single example of a blowback, gas operated, parallel
rule, double and single action, toggle action etc. would be a theme. In this case I would assume the collector
has say a Walther PP, a very old Desert Eagle, FN HP, CZ75, Luger etc. It will be difficult though to justify a
second Single action parallel-rule pistol but if an item with say a rotating
bolt comes along, what an extension to the collection! Or with clear motivation one could justify
the second Luger (I need one with a flat mainspring and I need one with a
coil spring!). Age and heritage would apply in
the South African case to the collections which are similar to the historical
but where the items are of particular interest to the local history. These could include themes such as
“Matchlocks at the Cape 1652 onwards”, “Arms of the British Settlers from
1820”, Gunsmiths at the Cape such as Botha, Hayton etc. Arms of the Voortrekkers, Cape Mounted
Rifles, etc up to the South African involvement in the then Rhodesian
conflict (in 2004 the 25 year window applies!) Guideline 5 would apply if you collect one
(or more) particular demonstrable themes which
are not necessarily of age such as “arms of the Gulf War 1990s”. Although historical significance under
guideline 2 could in this example also be elaborated on. Collecting “Arms of the Iraq conflict
2003” will obviously be a theme along the lines on guideline 5 but one would
have to motivate additional “future value” under guideline 6 as
well. In this case any example of an
M16 say will not be a collectable item under this heading but a particular
one, which by serial number can be identified as a veteran of this conflict,
will clearly be collectable with certain future value. One could also say you collect Ruger
Semi-Autos under guideline 5. Or even
arms in 280 Ross etc, etc, etc. But
the onus will be on you to prove the demonstrable in
demonstrable theme, i.e. the knowledge of the subject matter, completeness of
research on the subject and even statements on what the whole collection
should contain and which “gap” or “hole” the item will fill, needs to be spelled
out. An example will be someone who
collects Vektor hunting rifles and has every possible calibre and action type
but a “Bushveld” in 7 mm Mauser and such an item becomes available. Although brand-new and not currently
considered an investment grade arm, the theme is clearly established and can
be motivated. I am getting long winded, so for the rest, it
is similar, if you claim it to be Buffalo Bill Cody’s Peacemaker, prove it,
or if an item is claimed to be rare in international terms indicate with
references to what degree this is locally or internationally accepted as
fact. In parting, to
quote one of our members actively involved in the legislative department,
Motivate, Motivate, Motivate. |
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