I suppose things come and go in terms of style, but whatever did happened to OA and Council pins? I always thought pins were a nice addition to collections but they seem to be mostly ignored. They appeared to be on a decline long before since I started collecting. I am always on the lookout for Black Eagle Lodge pins, Transatlantic Council pins, Chickasaw Council pins, and lodge 406 and 558 pins. I have been collecting them for almost as long as I have been collecting the patches to these lodges and councils.
(Click on Picture for Larger Scan if Available)
The first time I saw anyone collect pins with any certainty was at the 1997 Jamboree. I saw a few people actively looking for lodge flap pins; however, I saw more people trying to dump collections of pins at the 1997 Jamboree.
I rarely see people ask or offer pins for trade these days. I suppose they are like woven flaps. They are some of the most beautiful and yet simplest patches but wovens made today are not the same as those made from the past. Perhaps the same is true with pins...
1 comment:
The big first wave of pins in the US was in the mid-1980s. I was at the 1985 Jamboree and there were lots of pins (including OA flap pins and CSP/JSP pins); the "word on the street" was that someday pins would replace patches as the main collectible. Note that there are no subcamp patches for the '85 Jamboree--there were two varieties of subcamp pins instead.
I think it turned out that pins were too small to be interesting-looking and easily tradeable. If anything, the OA two-piece set phenomenon suggests that bigger is better when it comes to making something people want to get.
I've heard that pins are much bigger internationally than in the US. So I gather anyone going to WJ 2007 would do well to take a lot of pins for trading purposes.
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