BNTA Gag
The BNTA has requested us to remove a number of items from our websites, including our "Not the BNTA Logo" silver Britannia photograph
Since becoming an ex-BNTA member, the BNTA quite rightly asked us to remove any claim on our part to be BNTA members, this we have done, although not necessarily as quickly as we could, or perhaps should, have done. We did think they may have reconsidered their decision.
They have further asked us to remove all the pages on our numerous websites which include references to the BNTA. We believe this is an excessive and onerous request. Firstly, many of the pages which include BNTA references are beneficial to the BNTA, giving it free advertising, and secondly, we maintain a policy of retaining all our web pages, but editing them as appropriate with the passage of time, and with changing events.
One of the BNTA Council's requests is for us to remove our BNTA Ethics page, claiming breach of copyright. We are inclined to resist this for a number of reasons including, inter alia, public interest, fair usage, and our belief that we exceed them, and to claim this without stating them would be rather nonsensical.
Our name and shame pages also include a number of BNTA members, and they seek to have these removed, arguing that we are trying to discredit the BNTA. We believe the members so named have themselves brought discredit on the BNTA, and believe they or the BNTA should rectify the situation. We further believe that our information published is accurate, fairly reported, and in the public interest.

Gag Without Humour
One of the other requests from the BNTA is that we remove our beautiful photograph, as used as the top right of this page, of a 2006 selectively gold plated silver proof Britannia coin, claiming that it may mislead some readers to mistake and confuse it for the BNTA logo which is itself copied from the image of Britannia on various coins, and that it may mislead some members of the public to believe that we are still members. This is despite the fact that we clearly stated in its caption and also its "Alt tag" that it is "Not the BNTA Logo", and that we make quite clear that we are not current members. They acknowledge these facts but claim that some people may still be misled. While there will will always be a small minority of people who believe the improbable, such as the earth being flat, being only 6,000 years old, or that the 1969 lunar landings were fictitious and filmed in a studio, we think that only a very small minority of people would be stupid enough to be misled by any content of our web pages.
It appears that the BNTA Council do not have enough sense of humour to appreciate our small gag. Perhaps they are taking themselves a little too seriously. In the past, we have defended the BNTA against comments by at least one well known non-BNTA member dealer who described who describes them as having their heads in an anatomically impossible "dark place".

Copyright
We happily ackowledge that the BNTA logo is the copyright property of the BNTA, and have removed it from other parts of our websites, but reproduce it here to illustrate that their claim is unreasonable. We believe this constitutes fair use.

Further Information
If you would like to order the next edition of the BNTA Membership directory, please contact the General Secretary enclosing a first class stamp.

BNTA British Numismatic Trade Association
Mrs R Cooke
Rye, East Sussex, PO Box 2, Rye East Sussex TN31 7SB
Tel: 01797 229988
Fax: 01797 229988
E-mail: bnta@lineone.net