Collecting and Heritage

My Favourite Pin Story - Chris Miller

Name: Chris Miller

From: Louisville, USA

How long have you been collecting? 2 years

How many pins do you own? About 30

Chris Miller_-_pinsI was attending the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, and was on a ferry heading over to North Vancouver to go to Whistler to watch the luge competition.

I had on a knit cap with the logo of a local university (the University of Kentucky). Then one of my fellow passengers came up to me and asked if I was from Kentucky, and I said yes. It turned out he was there as part of a student media group from Asbury College (a private school near UK here in Kentucky).

He said he wished he had a cameraman with him so that he could interview me, but what he did do was give me two of his pins - one was an NBC/Asbury College pin, and the other one was for the OBS (Olympic Broadcasting Service).

My favourite of the two is the OBS one; it's a pretty nicely detailed video camera with the OBS logo on it. And I got it just for wearing the right hat!

Good News 1 - Shamrock Pin

Shamrock pinJune 18 - Honav have confirmed that they have been reading the comments on the blog regarding the Northern Ireland pins and that they have been able to find some Shamrock pins for collectors.

International Flag Pins

Brazil pinJune 14 - Some international flag pins seen at the London 2012 shops in Stanstead and St. Pancras have been seen by insidethegames.biz.

New Pictogram Pins

Olympics pictogram_pinJune 14 - So far, we have seen metallic pictogram pins and pewter pictogram pins, now it's the turn of gold pictogram pins.

Northern Ireland pins

Titanic pinJune 14 - In keeping with the Emblems of... pins issued for other countries in the UK, London 2012 have issued 5 pins celebrating Northern Ireland.

New Faith Pin

Faith pin_-_newJune 14 - Following on from the hard-to-find Diversity pin - Faith, comes the should-be-easier-to-find Diversity pin Faith version 2.

My Favourite Pin Story - Ed Dickson

Name: Ed Dickson

From: Canada

How long have you been collecting? 4 years

How many pins do you own? 1,200

Ed Dickson_-_pinI started collecting pins for my seven grandchildren leading up to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics seeing as how the Games were on our home soil.

While collecting mainly sponsor pins I came across one on a website put out by the Government of Canada with a small Canadian and Russian flag across the bottom of it.

When I contacted the Government and a local MP, I was told that these pins were made for a trade trip to Russia which had been cancelled and that these pins were not available. I was later told in a response from a Government Security person that these pins did not exist as they were destroyed.

I then saw this pin on another Canadian pin site and sent the information for them to the Government for them to see. I was thanked for the information with no follow up. In a last ditch effort I wondered if there was a cover-up going on but still received no answer.

Alas, about ten days later a few were sent to me with no return address. To this day this is still my favourite pin and I felt a little like James Bond after finally getting some. Scary too!

Torch Relay Pins from Lloyds

Lloyds TSB_Olympic_Torch_Relay_pinJune 12 - Keeping on the Lloyds TSB theme, we have seen the Olympic Torch Relay pin from them last week, but there also appears to be a Bank of Scotland version of the pin too.

My Favourite Pin Story - Debbie Randall

Name: Debbie Randall

From: Canada

How long have you been collecting? Since Vancouver 2010

How many pins do you own? About 75

Debbie Randall_-_pinI travelled to Tromsø in Norway in 2007, a little town past the Arctic Circle. And I fell in love. The landscape splays out before you, open and airy and full of the saltiness of the sea. The city is ringed by mountains. In the centre, a vibrant community, a university, cultures collide.

The town was undertaking a bid for the 2018 Games while I was there. I picked up leaflets, which told me all the reasons they deserved to host the world. They were the highest latitude that had ever bid on an Olympic games before. You could ski on any mountain anywhere around the town, in the middle of the night by the midnight sun. I was sold even after these two reasons but, as many glories quickly fade, the bid was eventually withdrawn due to funding and support issues.

I came back to Canada and reminisced about the daydreams of Olympic potential in the hills and fjords of Tromsø. Years later, in a tiny room at a pin traders meet outside Vancouver, I stood holding a meagre bag of 10 or so pins that I had acquired. Flipping through books of trader pins, my heart stopped. There - a Tromsø bid pin. Two, in fact, one gold and one silver. I ask about them. I realised I have nothing anyone could want in my bag. The man sees my enthusiasm. I offer him two pins for the bid pin. He obliges. I ask about the second Tromsø pin, but he has all the other pins I am holding. I thank him and walk away with my bid pin, dancing as if I had just bought a million-dollar home.

A second later, another man calls me over. He makes a deal with me. He takes one of my unnoticeable traders and offers me something he knows his neighbour does not have. I go back to the first man. I stick out my hand with the new pin. He smiles, and I smile, and I walk away with the new mate in my pin pair of two Tromsø bid pins. And that sense of community was the very reason I think the Vancouver Games did so well, and the very reason I would have given anything to see them go to Tromsø.

My Favourite Pin Story - Samantha Crawford

Name: Samantha Crawford 

From: Leicester

How long have you been collecting? On and off for a few years

How many pins do you own? 50

Samantha Crawford_-_pinsI started collecting pins in 2004 when I attended the Athens Olympics. I met a few Americans who introduced me to the idea of trading.

Since then I have traded pins at training camps and have continued to collect pins from sporting events.

As a 2012 Games Maker I have already started collecting Olympic pins and I am looking forward to trading with others.