All,
There are certainly concerns to be had about forgeries of period artifacts. The perpetrators like the Strawberry Plains cartridge faker do us all damage and cause harm to everyone coming into contact with their "creations".
The other side of the story can be just as compelling if you recognize Steve's caveat that it isn't "bad" until someone tries to pass a replica off as "real". I have for some years now been asked to speak to various groups about topics related to the ACW. In the doing I have put together several different programs that are usually presented in a Power Point format. Supplementing projected images with a "hands on" replica - particularly something like the land mine fuses so expertly replicated by historian Mike Kochan - adds immensely to relevant presentations. Over the years I have accumulated a number of such items which serve well. While it is likely that somewhere and sometime some innocently replicated artifacts have been misrepresented to the naive buyer it is my humble opinion that such replications can and do serve a worthy purpose. The argument could be compared to the misuse of many many items - say firearms used for criminal purposes, or perhaps medicines misused by drug addicts, replica firearms "antiqued" for sale as originals, etc.
I agree, reproducing ANY artifact to purposefully deceive/defraud is wrong. But if I'm going to go to a presentation somewhere and hand out a "peterhead" Archer fuse or land mine fuze for "show and tell" I'd sure like for it to be a repro. For myself it is a service to our community of interest to have some of these items available. How they are used is a matter of character. And so the debate will continue.
