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**desantnik** · 03-07-2007, 05:28 PM

Gentlemen, I just received an unsolicited catalog from a Finnish firm "Medal House" for an auction to be held MAR 17 - maybe from my OMSA membership (yet another reason to join OMSA). The publisher's address is Medalhouse Auctions Ltd. - Orders & Medals worldwide and email is listed as [email protected].

Mr. Tiainen makes the claim "...most of the Soviet items in this catalog were shown to Paul McDaniel and received approval." I'm running down Paul's involvement now, but after fifteen years I know Paul well enough that he issues certificates of authenticity, NOT general "yeah, looks good" to a box of medals.

From the catalog the photos are not the best, but at cursory glance I do not like the following:

402 - s/n and overall appearance - no wear, star on tower, etc.
406 - Nevsky s/n #1860 and a 1980-dated document
414 - strong s/n and face of Ushakov
423 - Republican order 'P' added - could be good, but I doubt it
434,437,438 - OPW stickpins and s/n for 437,438
480 - s/n and brushed reverse
483 - hand/engraved Monetnii Dvor, messed up rivets and lead solder on post
498 - "Dublikat" engraved on numbered labor medal
521,522,523 - any of the serial numbers and reverses of these pieces

I'll keep you posted as to the nature of Paul and Mr. T's interaction, but I don't like the looks of this.

Laurent · 03-07-2007, 05:52 PM

495 - the rivets (very strange)
496 - bad "N"
489 - MM

Tretov · 03-07-2007, 06:26 PM

I have met mr. Tiainen and I have the impression he is a "good" guy, but as for the catalogue and the McDaniel involvement in the authentication process, I cannot say anything further.

I would love to go to the auction in Helsinki but I am booked for a uniform event in Gothenburg, Sweden that weekend.

They also issue this "guarantee":

If you buy an item from our auction and, later, obtain a certificate from
this authority that the item was not original you would receive you money back.

Sergei · 03-07-2007, 07:31 PM

Does anyone know Mr Tiainen well enough to ask if he or his colleagues have been approached by the Russian authorities directly? And if so, do they want to retrieve all awards (which I suppose should mean that everything on the auction is genuine Wink

) or just those few mentioned in Lapa's post on another thread?
And by the way, is Mr Tiainen on this Forum, by any chance?
Sergei

**desantnik** · 03-08-2007, 02:21 AM

Tretov Wrote:I have met mr. Tiainen and I have the impression he is a "good" guy, but as for the catalogue and the McDaniel involvement in the authentication process, I cannot say anything further.

They also issue this "guarantee":

If you buy an item from our auction and, later, obtain a certificate from
this authority that the item was not original you would receive you money back.

Paul said he received a copy of the catalog AFTER the OMSA show, otherwise he would have had a few choice words with Klimovich and Tiainen in person. He's not real happy with them right now. Paul's words - if it doesn't have a COA, it doesn't mean anything.

Despite Medal House's "guarantee" and the fact there are good pieces in the auction, I would steer clear of this entire operation. The collecting community must police itself and despite Mr. Tiainen seeming to be "a nice guy", this is at best, a gross misrepresentation with plenty of guaranteed fakes.

Mr. T's conditions of his "guarantee" are also not specified. Will he return the cost of the COA verifying the item is a fake, for example? How about the 18% "buyer's commission"? His own conditions stated under returns "Under no circumstances the return will be accepted once the consignor has been paid."

A fool and his money are soon parted.