27/1: Regional Pins - Classification

As I mentioned earlier, the website has been updated today with the Regional pins. Whilst going through the catalogue today, it struck me, that we can now see a classification of the regional pins and I have therefore slightly amended the names. Hopefully the following explains.

The original issue in 2009 from the regions was 12 pins  - one for each of the Nations & Regions committees. However, not all 12 of the regions were actually prepared to pay for their pins to be issued, so only 8 were ever manufactured. London, Scotland, South West and West Midlands pins were never taken past the prototype stage.

Version 1 pin - No shards on the main panel

Each of these pins featured a coloured Olympic logo against a plain silver geometric shape and the name of the region in the same colour as the logo. The 'London' and Olympic rings in the logo are metal. On the catalogue I now refer to these as version 1 pins an they are numbered REG0001 - REG0012.

Then, closer to the Games in 2011 and 2012, more 'regional' pins were issued, but this time they were aligned to towns, cities or counties who were hosting events as well as the regions. It seems that some areas embraced pins and issued multiples with both Olympic and Paralympic varieties. Others were more modest with a single pin.

These pins have been classified as version 2 in the catalogue and start with pin REG001. These pins once again combine a logo with a silver geometric shape containing the host name, but this time, the silver shape contains coloured shards in the London 2012 branding in the colour of the logo. The 'London' and Olympic rings in the logo are printed.

All of the version 2 pins can be sub-divided into one of 5 designs as shown below...

Version 2 - Design 1

Version 2 - Design 2

Version2 - Design 3

Version 2 - Design 4

Version 2 - Design 5

From what I can tell, all the version 2 pins fall into one of these designs. It's worth noting that design 2 and 5 are very similar, the only difference I can see is that design 2 contains 2 small shards top left and one large shard on the right, whereas design 5 has all 3 shards at the top of the pin.

Check out the Regional page on the website and please let me know if you have any pins that are not listed - either new towns or different colours of existing pins.