I symaphize somewhat with the concept of selling relatively recent duplicate
items like bottles and nails to help finance museums or research projects. Many
years ago when I was in England, I was  told of the finding of a huge hoard of
bronze nails at a Roman site. The nails were studied and a large representative
sample was kept. The rest of the nails were put in individual plastic bags with
an informative card explaining the site and the artifact and these were sold to
visitors to help finance the dig. I personally find nothing wrong with this. It
solves various problems like satiating people's hunger for old stuff, helps
finance a worthwhile project and reduces storage requirements. Unfortunately,
this sets a dangerous precedent. If you can sell a 1940s Coke bottle from an
archaeological site, why not a 19th-century slave ID tag or an 18th-century
crock or a Inuit harpoon head or Mayan figurine, all stuff we were recently
horrified to see evaluated on several Antiques Roadshows. Where does it stop?
Karlis