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I was the guy who urged that these be marked as reproductions.
The difference between making high quality reproductions and forgeries is largely in whether the reproductions are clearly marked as such. That is the ethical thing to do.
Twenty years from now when a good quality unmarked reproduction has been bought and sold several times it will create unnecessary confusion as to whether it is real or not, and that will hurt the hobby of people who are interested in learning about WW I aviation.
For example, all of the high quality unmarked reproductions of WW I pilot badges have created so much confusion that many people have given up trying to learn about them or collect them since one expects all of them to be fakes.
All museums, these days, who do restoration of antique aircraft not only keep records of what is real and what is reproduction but they also mark every reproduction part in an inconspicuous location but in a way that it will always be easy to find by someone who is looking closely that it is a reproduction part.
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