[Airbornelawyer]

Please explain to me what is "just wrong" about this sale or that of any other decoration. There are thousands of collectors around the world who collect militaria - medals, uniforms, helmets, daggers, badges, documents, etc. The reasons why people collect vary, but most see themselves as preserving history. People collect baseball cards and beanie babies, but to me these are just baubles specifically made for collectors, while militaria is part of history.

I did not see the eBay entry, but based on the descriptions here, I would assume we are talking about an unattributed, unissued MOH. The contractor for the MOH, Lordship Industries, was given a contract to make a certain number of MOHs for the armed forces and was allowed a certain overage, which were sold to collectors and others. After a few frauds used these medals to fake being MOH winners, the government went overboard and effectively criminalized legitimate collectors, lumping them in with the posers. This was not only unjust, but an insult to these collectors, most of whom are as patriotic as you can get and many of whom are themselves veterans.

And these unattributed Medals of Honor are of no interest to museums, any more than the Bronze Stars and ARCOMs you see at Clothing Sales.

But even the sale of an attributed Medal of Honor ought not to arouse this kind of ire. Again, the buyer and seller are preserving history, and many buyers do in fact donate to museums (or even create their own). And in this context, an attributed MOH group is no different than an attributed VC group (although VCs, being rarer, go for astonishing amounts when they show up in UK auctions) or a DSC or Navy Cross group.

While it would be nice if there were lots of museums actually interested in preserving and displaying military history, that is not the case. The Smithsonian has drawers full of donated medals that will never be displayed because of space considerations and indifference by politically correct curators. However, if you visit my friend Seba's house in New Jersey, you can see a reverently displayed collection of militaria he has picked up over the years. Another friend has turned his home into a real museum, where he has displayed among other things one of Rommel's uniforms and a jacket and various items given to him by Dick Winters.

By the way, there is an attributed Medal of Honor group currently being auctioned in Sweden. It was awarded to a Swede who had immigrated to the US, fought and was honored in the Indian Wars and returned to Sweden. Because of US laws treating US collectors as presumptive criminals, the one thing we know is that this particular bit of American history will not return to the United States.

If I sound snippy in this post, it is because I take personally the implication that the buyers or sellers here are some sort of criminals, phonies, or whatever. Here are some of the items in my own modest museum in a couple of display cases in my living room:

1. US, Distinguished Service Cross, early World War Two issue (unattributed).
2. Austria, Cannon Cross (for service in the Napoleonic Wars) with attached miniature campaign medals.
3. Germany, 6-medal bar to a Bavarian aviator in World War One.
4. UK, 5-medal bar to a Boer War and World War One veteran of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.

I also have some other medals, badges and documents, including one of the largest private collections of propaganda leaflets in the world, and I have donated items to museums and archives, including the USASOC archive, as well as provided consulting services to other museums.