Soviet/Russian Medal collecting being ruined

[Henry Sakaida]

I just came back from a large military show. To protect myself, I will not mention the show nor the location or any dealers. The show was well attended, strictly military and military-related. More than half the dealers were German/Nazi militaria dealers. And IMHO, half the stuff were of questionable authenticity, fakes, copies, and/or restrikes. One dealer who was selling "unissued" SS cuff titles, had a disclaimer on this table: "We are not the experts, you are."

In talking with alot of collectors on fakes, I learned alot. Alot of high end collectibles are being faked in China. The Chinese are making copies of high end Soviet orders and medals, as well as German/Nazi medals.

But it doesn't stop there. They are also making superb and hard-to-detect copies of US Morgan and Peace silver dollars, gold coins, and gold bars. When counterfeiting gold medals and coins, the base metal is tungsten, which has almost the same weight as real gold, and can be gold-plated. They have been selling "gold" coins and bullion bars on ebay. You have to be nuts to buy such items from dealers.

The word in the US coin collectors world is that Chinese copies is destroying the coin collecting hobby all over the world. They have master craftsmen who can produce near perfect or perfect copies. Tourists in China think they are buying real antiques in shops when almost all of them are fake. The government doesn't care. Best place to unload fakes? Online auction.

But the biggest shock of all came when I talked with a guy waiting at the airport, who was going home. I told him about a certain dealer there who was selling Nazi medals for $$$$$$$$. He took me aside and said, "I used to work for him. Not all of his stuff is real. He gets them made in Israel by a master jeweler and they are perfect copies. He will melt down real German medals to get the correct silver/gold content.

How do you protect yourself? Simple. Do business with only the people you trust, and study your specialty! Know how the fakers do it, real vs fake patina, etc. If you plan to spend serious money, you better become an expert! Anyone can become an expert...all you have to do is study, study, and study.

Good luck out there.