I read this one story about a British hero who did a lot of heroic things as a private and up through the ranks. It was remarked how he had received a bounty from his home county for being the first to win the Victoria Cross from the town where he came from. Then at the end of the story the writer says this:
Medals for gallantry bought and sold. It's done today by a lot of Americans too. Shows you how little the medals are really worth in balance with the things men did to earn them. At least the guy writing the story loaned his collection to a museum.....in a gallery bearing the lenders name, of course.I purchased Bent’s gallantry and service medals at a Dix Noonan Webb auction in London in 2000. By then, I had been fascinated by bravery all my life, a passion partly inspired by my late father, Eric, who had served in the Army during the Second World War and had taken part in the D-Day landings of June 6, 1944. My passion for bravery, in turn, led to an interest in gallantry medals in general and the VC in particular. After making some money as an entrepreneur, I bought my first VC in an auction in 1986. Today I own more than 180 VCs and my collection, which includes Bent’s VC, is on display in the gallery bearing my name at the Imperial War Museum, along with VCs and George Crosses (GCs) already in the care of the museum.