29/12: New EDF Internal Pins

News of 2 EDF pins which are internal to the company and unlike their previous pins, will not be issued to the public.

EDF0011

EDF0015

Pin EDF0011 is the Supporters' Club pin. I believe this club is an internal promotion of the Games within EDF. I have no information on pin EDF0015 but given there is a star in the design, I'm guessing it is some sort of award or recognition pin. EDF0011 is limited to 2,000 pieces and EDF0015 to 500.

Please remember these are internal pins and will not be issued to the public. EDF will not be responding to requests for these pins. EDF are one of the best sponsors for engaging with and supporting collectors and are happy to send out pins where they can, but these two will not be available.

21/12: Royal Mail Stamp Pin - Aquatics

For those of you waiting to complete your set of Royal Mail stamp pins, some good news. The Aquatics pin that has been absent since the original launch back in the spring is now available.

The pin is contained in the pin and stamp set and is now available from the Royal Mail (08457 641 641) -  code NB0036 I believe. I presume it will soon be available in stores, most notably John Lewis who stock the range. I understand that the final pin in the set of 30, table tennis, should be released early next year.

19/12: Merry Christmas and Thank You

I would like to wish all the London 2012 pin collectors and readers of my website and blog a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thank you all for your support, whether it's supplying news and pictures, passing on rumours, suggesting improvements or even correcting my spelling.

I never imagined that when I started the blog almost 3 years ago, that it would grow like this. That growth is down to you too with the support that you have all shown.

It's been great to meet lots of you and the pin events and email even more of you. I've made some amazing friends even if I've never met some of you face-to-face! I hope that I'll get to meet lists more people as we get to the Games.

I'm sure that next year will be manic. I'm not sure if I'll survive, but I hope I have fun trying!

And finally, for those of you, like me, who like statistics...

Since I started monitoring activity on the website (December 2009) there have been 69,389 visits from 23,264 unique visitors in 121 countries. In the last 4 months, the site is averaging over 5,000 visits per month. The blog has has around 35,000 visits  from nearly 10,000 unique visitors in the same time.

Thanks again for all your support and here's to 2012!

18/12: New Aminco Retail Pins Released

Some new Aminco retail pins have been released for the US market. These pins continue the pictogram series.

The latest pins cover the following sports...

• Water Polo
• Archery
• Road Cycling
• Track Cycling
• Dressage
• Hockey
• Judo
• Rowing
• Table Tennis
• Taekwondo
• Tennis
• Weightlifting

Further pictogram pins will be available in January.

The mascot sports series also continues. These seem to use the same images as the Honav set with the addition of the geometric shape background and the logo

As for the other Aminco pins, these are for sale only in the US and not for the UK market.

15/12: New Lloyds TSB Sponsor Pin

A new Lloyds TSB pin has been issued. This one is the result of a internal design competition and was won by a young girl - Katie Johnson.

Pin LLY0017 on card

Reverse of card

The pin shows a girl diving and being marked by three judges. The pin uses a print technique for the people and sparkly enamel for the 3 shades of water - a great effect. The new Lloyds composite logo is also shown

This is pin LLY0017 and comes on a special card which explains the competition on the reverse. There were 100 of these pins made and all have been issued to Lloyds TSB staff. This make it the rarest sponsor pin in the catalogue so far.

13/12: New NBC 'Mega' Pin

News from a reader in the US. A new 'mega-pin' will be released by NBC. I'm told it's a large 3D pin which weighs a lot and comes in a round metal tin. The retail price will be $65.

Pin NBC0012

It looks like the standard London icons such as Big Ben, Tower Bridge and a London Bus have been included along with an NBC London 2012 shield.

13/12: Coca Cola Update

A brief update from Coca Cola with a few more details about their plans for both the Coca-Cola Pin Trading Centres (CCPTC) and Olympic Torch Relay (OTR) next year.

Pin Trading Centres
The locations for the Olympic Park and Central London venues are almost finalised and they hope to be able to announce details in the New Year. There will also be a pin trading opportunity within the Athletes' Village. This will be a low key area in one of the spaces within the Village with access limited to discrete times of the day for a few pin traders.

Plans for the volunteers are still being finalised by Coca-Cola, but they have confirmed that there will be interviews next year to determine who will be offered a role as a Coca Cola pin ambassador. Successful ambassadors will be provided with a uniform for the times they are in the CCPTC. Initial thoughts are that trading hours will be around 10am to 10pm in the park and 8am to 10pm in London, so there should be plenty of volunteering opportunities. Coca-Cola will be working on more detailed plans for the centres next year and at that time will be talking with representatives from pin collectors in the UK and overseas in order to canvass their opinions on pin trading centres.

Olympic Torch Relay
As for the Olympic Torch Relay, there will not be a Coca-Cola retail pin for every stop on the route, but there will be pins to mark five locations where Coca-Cola are hosting an event on the relay. Merchandising and pin plans are still being discussed within Coca Cola, but the thinking seems to be that collectors will be able to pick up a full set of retail Coca-Cola OTR pins without touring the country. How and where the pins may be purchased is still not confirmed.

The first internal Coca Cola OTR pin has been issued (COC0007) and it is only available to certain employees, it was not distributed company wide.

COC0007

Finally, Coca-Cola hope to attend the pin meet in January to update us on their plans.

13/12: New Sponsor Pins

A few new sponsor pins were added to the catalogue this weekend.

These were the first pin from security firm G4S combining their logo with the 2012 logo. Two more pins from Rio Tinto and also another Panasonic pin showing Wenlock - this time playing basketball.

G4S0001

RIO0001

RIO0002

WWL-PAN0003

Take a look at the catalogue for higher resolution images.

13/12: New Regional Pin

Thanks to a reader, here's news of another LOCOG regional pin. Even though the North West region issued a pin (REG0005) back in 2009, it seems that another has appeared.

Pin REG0019

The pin shape and logo colour is the same as the previous version, but the text of "North West" has now been replaced with "England's Northwest". Not only that, but the same reader believes that 2 other North West pin exist too. There's no information as to whether this is a new pin or if it was issued at the same time as the original.

11/12: Mascots Try for a Free Pin!

Honav hosted a small pin promotion in John Lewis, Oxford Street yesterday. There was the chance to win a free Snowman or Snowflake pin on the roll of the dice. Wenlock and Mandeville were on site as part of a general London 2012 promotion and decided to stop by to try their luck.

In the end, Mandeville proved to be more successful than Wenlock, but both mascots enjoyed themselves.

A number of people stopped by to ask about London 2012 pins as well as choose their favourite mascot sport or pictogram pins.

We also had the chance to meet an Olympic Gold medallist! A lady approached the pin displays and asked if there were any shooting pins. After showing her the Wenlock sports pin, we found out that she was Chiara Caneiro from Italy who won gold in Beijing at Women's skeet shooting.

11/12: Pin Meet 5 - Sponsor Support

I'm very pleased to confirm that BT have kindly offered pins to collectors who register and attend the pin meet in January. The meet falls shortly after the 200 days to go mark and BT are issuing a 200 day to go pin which they have offered to those who attend the meet.

So, please make sure you register if you plan to attend as, if pins are limited, they will be offered to those who signed up on a first-come, first-served basis.

The BT pin is limited to 4,000 pieces (as the 300 day pin was) and follows the design of the other BT countdown pins. Image to follow soon.

Thank you to BT for supporting the pin meet yet again.

11/12: London Bridges

A new boxed set of 6 pins will soon be available. 'London Bridges' is a jigsaw set of 6 of the bridges across the Thames.

The six bridges are...

Albert Bridge

Pin 0455

Chelsea Bridge

Pin 0456

Westminster Bridge

Pin 0457

Waterloo Bridge

Pin 0458

The Millennium Bridge

Pin 0459

Tower Bridge.

Pin 0460

The river in each pin has a sparkle effect much like the London at Night set, but I'm not sure the Thames has ever been that blue!

The pins come in a boxed set and the mount card is a plan of the London Boroughs.

The pins are limited to 5,000 pieces each and my understanding is that they will not be available separately. The price for the set is £55 and will be available to all retailers from launch.

6/12: Aggreko Pin Removed From Catalogue

I have been asked by Aggreko, via a third party, to remove their pin from the catalogue listing.

Apparently, they are unhappy that collectors know about their pin and have contacted them to request pins. They do not have pins for collectors and will not be distributing them to the public.

I've tried explaining to them, that my site exists only to provide a comprehensive catalogue of all London 2012 pins. The website has never encouraged collectors to contact sponsors, not has it ever published information as to how to contact organisations.

Despite my arguments, Aggreko does not wish to engage with us and has actively sought to suppress information.

I should point out that at no time have Aggreko contacted me directly to discuss this or listen to my opinion.

Other sponsors have also been in the same position as Aggreko in that they are unable to issue pins to collectors, but these organisations have allowed their pins to be shown and managed the situation with a message on their website or emails to individual collectors. Unfortunately, Aggreko decided not to take this stance. There's is more of a "shoot the messenger" approach.

Apologies to collectors that, at the moment, I am unable to keep the catalogue as complete as possible, but I will endeavour to bring you as many pins as I can.

Should the pin appear on eBay, then I will republish the listing as at that time, I can consider the pin to be in the public domain.

5/12: Final Wellie Pins Issued

A few weeks ago, 6 wellington boot pins were issued. At the time, I mentioned that 2 more varieties were still to come. They are now available.

Pin 0975

Pin 0978

Both pins are limited to 2,012 pieces and price is £6.50.

2/12: More Countdown News

Some of you may have noticed, that when the 500 day to go pins were issued, there were only 3 varieties of the shard pin using combinations of the London 2012 brand colours.

These were pins 0480 - 0482. The combination of green shard and pink logo which should have been pin 0479 was never released.

Until now!

This pin will finally be released towards the back end of next week. But here's the important news. There will be less than 50 of them available for sale as individual pins. Overall, they are being limited to 1,000 pieces which makes them amongst the rarest retail pins, however as the majority are being held back for sets or have been sold to stakeholders, only a handful are available for sale. Not only that, but all of these pins are being sold by one retailer - Glamorous Living. 

So, my recommendation, if you want to get these pins individually, contact Glamorous Living as soon as their website launches them. These will probably be the most difficult pins to get so far.

Price will be £7

2/12: 200 Day To Go Countdown Pins - Updated

The next pins in the popular Countdown range have been announced. The 200 Day To Go pins will be available in early January, ready for the actual day on 9th January 2012.

There are 3 pins in the range - the standard shard pin and one pin each showing Wenlock and Mandeville. Mandeville's pin has the date 11/02/2012 as this is 200 days until the Paralympics.

No sooner are they announced, then one pin is out of stock. Yes, all of the Wenlock pins have been pre-ordered by retailers, so that means there are no more pins available to your favourite retailer once their initial allocation is sold. You may want to pre-order as soon as you can for this pin. Remember too, that previous countdown pins have been withdrawn form sale, so there is no telling how long this pin will remain on sale.

Pin 0927

Pin 0928

Pin 0947

Update: Each pin is limited to 2,012 pieces and the price of each will be £7

1/12: Message Board Issues - Updated

I'm getting reports that the message board has been corrupted and possibly hacked. I'm unable to check and investigate at the moment. Please do not attempt to access the message board until I have had a chance to take a look and post back on this blog.

The message board is hosted on by a free provider, so their levels of service are not fantastic. Please bear with me.

Updated 1/12/2011 @ 23:45

It looks like the board is unusable as I cannot access the administration section and many of you have seen the mess that comes up when you try to use the forum.

Although it's going to be inconvenient for everyone, I'm tempted to cut my losses on this forum and relocate to a new host. I cannot copy over the existing threads or user profiles. Anyone who wishes to continue to post (and I hope you do), will need to re-register on the new board. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but I cannot see a way forward.

I've set up a new board at http://londonpins.phpbbhosts.co.uk/index.php and have created the same forum structure as before. I have not set up the 'Wants & Traders' as we now have the pin trading lists or the 'Polls' as they haven't had much use for ages. If anyone would like to see either reinstated, drop me an email.

Please go ahead and re-register if you would like to and I will try to get all requests authorised as soon as I can. Hopefully before long, we will be back on our feet again.

Again, apologies for having to make you start again, but I cannot see a way forward on the existing forum.

Paul.

1/12: London Pins on Around The Rings

The world of London 2012 pins and collectables has spread a little further today. Around the Rings (ATR), the Olympic news website has asked me to write some articles about London 2012 pins. The first of these is published today - click here to read the article.

Although the site is subscription based, you should be able to read the full piece.

I was trying to summarise the 'story so far' with the pins issued (mainly the retail ones), and hope to follow this up with more features on their site.

I hope this will take our hobby to yet another new audience of the ATR readers.