31/1 - First Team GB Pin of 2016 Launched

As we move closer to Rio 2016, Team GB have issued their first pin in the Olympic Year. This is the third pin in the current set.

TS003 - Bring on the Great pin

The 'Bring on the Great' pin is limited to 2,000 pieces and is available to pre-order at Great British Collectables for £5. The pin should also be available from Fine Gifts and Pins and Things too.

25/11: Discount Offer from Fine-Gifts.co.uk

The guys at Fine Gifts would like to offer London Pins readers a discount code on their site. Click on the image to access their site and enter the discount code LPIN5 when you checkout.

The code can be used from now up until the Rio Games in 2016.

18/11: New Pride the Lion Christmas Pin Issued

The Pride the Lion Christmas pin announced last month was issued today.

Pin TSU002

The pin is limited to 500 pieces, is 45mm x 40mm and has two pins on the back due to its size.

The RRP is £8 and is available from Great British Collectables and FineGifts.co.uk.
As always, if you place an order, please let them know you heard about the pins on London Pins.

This is the final Team GB pin for 2015, but expect a range of pins in the run up to Rio 2016.

29/10: Rio Logo Pins - Olympic and Paralympic

For those of you looking for a range of Rio logo pins, Gary at Tragar Collectables has the following pins available

Rio 2016 Olympic Logo

Rio 2016 Paralympic Logo

Rio 2016 Olympic Logo - Gold, Silver, Bronze

Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Logo 

Rio 2016 Olympic - 4 Years to Go

These are all official merchandise and are prices as follows...

• Olympic Logo - £5 each or full set of 6 for £25
• Paralympic Logo - £5 each or full set of 6 for £25
• Olympic Logo - Gold, Silver, Bronze set of 3 - £15.99
• Olympic and Paralympic Logo Twin Pack - £10
• 4 Years to Go - £5

Postage is £1.90 regardless of order size.

You can contact Gary via email - tragar@blueyonder.co.uk

26/10: New Pride the Lion Team GB Pin Announced

The next in the series of official Team GB pins leading up to Rio 216 has been announced.

This time, Pride the Lion is driving a Christmas sleigh being pulled by Rudolph.

A picture of the artwork is available and the pin will be approximately 48mm x 40mm, so a fairly large pin this time.

Circulation is limited to 500 like the first pin and no word on pricing at the moment. 

I imagine that this pin will be available from the same retailers as the first pin. More details as soon as I have them.

21/10: New Team GB Pin Update

Here are a couple more details about the new Team GB pin launched last week.

TS001 on card

The pin is mounted on a white card with Union flag detailing. The card and in are enclosed in a clear cellophane wrapper to prevent damage to the pin.

The pin is approximately 32mm x 10mm and the card 55mm x 85mm.

The pin is marked on the back: Circulation = 500 TS001.

The back of the card is also printed with 'Limited circulation of 500 pieces'

18/10: New Team GB Pin

As Team GB prepare for Rio in 2016, the first in a new range of official Team GB supporter pins has been released.

TS001 - Believe in Extraordinary

The pin is numbered TS0001 and combines the Team GB logo and Olympic rings with the wording 'Believe In Extraordinary'.

I understand there will be a number of official Team GB supporter pins produced in the run up to the next summer Olympic Games.

This first pin is limited to 500 copies and over 50% have already been sold, so it seems likely that this first pin will sell out and be one of the harder ones to pick up nearer Games time.

It is available from

• www.greatbritishcollectables.com (the new name for Glamorous Living)
• www.fine-gifts.co.uk (the new name for Coin Bazaar)
• www.pinsandthings.com

If you order from any of these sites, please tell them you read about the pin on London Pins - thanks.

The next Team GB pin is planned to be a Pride the Lion Christmas pin with more designs to follow in 2016.

30/1: Sailing Pin Error

Gary from Tragars Collectables has contacted me to point out that the pin sets for Sailing sold during the Games contain an error. The date printed on the venue pin (1270) is '29/08 - 11/08/2012' whereas the correct dates were 29/07 - 11/08/2012.

It seems that all the sets sold at the time have the error. I've checked my set and the website photo and they are both wrong!

Pin 1270 - Original version with incorrect date

Pin 1270 - With correct date

It appears that the incorrect pin was the first version, Honav spotted it and had the reprint made, but these never made it to the sets.

Gary has a few of the correct version if you are a completist who needs to have the correct version!

Contact him at tragar@blueyonder.co.uk

23/10: Sports Pose Pin - Greco-Roman Wrestling

Scanning eBay this evening, I came across a pin which was rare to say the least during the Games. I think I only know of about 3 or 4 in the hands of collectors.

It's one of the sports pose venue pins - Greco Roman Wresting (1916)

This was one of the pins that seemed to appear at the Olympic Park for one afternoon in 2012 and was never seen again. I always thought that boxes of pins had been hidden at the back of a cupboard during the Games - maybe it was true!

Take a look at Tragars Collectables on eBay if this is one that you need for your collection. I see that the Archery pose in is there too - another rare one.

1/6: New pins discovered

Updated: 8/6 - correction and supplementary details to Indian language pins.

Even 2 years after the Olympic and Paralympic Games, there are still some pins only now coming to light.

New BA Pin Version
An alternate version of the BA Language pin for India has been discovered.

BA0005 (India) - Hindi (Top) and Punjabi (Bottom) versions

The original issued in 2012 was in Hindi (the text reads 'Namstey' - a Hindu greeting) and the new version is in Punjabi (the text reads 'Sat Sri Akal' - a Sikh greeting). At the time of its release, I was told that there were 100 of the original pins. The new pin has turned up on eBay and the seller states that there were only 20 of the later version made.

The new version has been added to the BA page on the catalogue

Two Prototypes

At the pin meet in April, collectors shared two pins we believe to be prototypes that never went into production.

A pin from Cisco stamped on the back as CIS0001. The actual CIS001 used a similar white design but on a shard shape background. This is a Honav pin.

CIS0001

A panasonic logo pin from Aminco

31/5: Pin Swapping - QEOP - 8 June 2014

As part of the Commonwealth Games baton relay, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is hosting a Festival of Sport on Sunday 8th June. Click here for details. The day runs from 9.30am until 5pm and one of our number has managed to arrange a pin swapping area. A few collectors will be there throughout the day hosting a small 'show & tell' of London 2012 Olympic pins as well as swapping pins with visitors.

If you fancy catching up with some collectors, seeing some London 2012 pins or trying your hand at swapping pins then come along.

I'm not sure where we will be based, but I'm told it should be in the south of the park in the vicinity of the stadium. Keep an eye on Twitter (@londonpins and @markkasspins) and Facebook (London Pins) on the day for news and location.

As usual when we get together, there is no selling of pins and there is no obligation on either party to swap pins.

Hope to see as many as possible there.

6/4: Pin Meet - Opening Day on the Olympic Park

Yesterday's pin meet was off with a shaky start thanks to QEOP security staff. I'm not going to say anymore about them or their actions here.

Thankfully, a couple in our group knew members of the QEOP management team and the latter were more than accommodating and were extremely supportive - thank you.

Once we had found a space on the main walkway to the stadium, about a dozen traders turned up.

The footfall at the pitch was quote good with many members of the public coming to take a look. All the trading was between the good unsurprisingly but overall a good day. As always it was great to catch up with collectors.

The Olympic Park looked fantastic - a very good transformation.

1/4: Pin Meet - Saturday 5th April - Olympic Park

It looks like we have more than a handful of people that are interested in meeting up in the newly  opened south section of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park this Saturday.

The weather looks ok-ish. Should stay dry if a little cool.

I suggest that we meet up at 'The Podium' near the Orbit. From what I can tell, this is the venue that houses the shop for the Orbit and where you can buy food and drink. I don't think we'll be able to take up tables/seats at the Podium itself, but hopefully we'll find a patch of grass nearby. It looks like it's in the same area that the Coca-Cola pin trading centre occupied - it's a sign!

My original suggestion was a picnic and pin trade - I'll let you decide if you feel like the picnic!

I suggest we meet at 12pm, to give people time to get there. The park opens at 10am, so it'll give a chance for any queues to disperse.

Click here to take a look at the QEOP news page describing the opening on Saturday.

Click here to view the latest park map - you can see 'The Podium' marked at the bottom of the map near the Orbit.

Please remember that we're only there to trade and swap pins - no selling!

Hope to see lots of you there on Saturday.

25/2: Potential Pin Meet - Olympic Park 5th April 2014

Who's up for an open air pin meet on the day that the south part of the Queen Elizabeth Park opens to the public - Saturday 5th April 2014. Read more about QEOP here.

Rather than go to a specific venue, I was thinking that we could meet up at an agreed location (for example at the Orbit) and then find some benches or a patch of the park, and set out a few bags of pins.

I think we'd mainly trade between each other, but you never know, if there's some interest, we could think about going back a month later or so. As the park opens that day, there should be some good footfall and maybe some press interest.

So, who fancies coming along with their pins, a rug, some sandwiches and an umbrella (essential British travelling items).

I suggest we meet at 12pm at a location to be agreed and then take it from there.

Please 'sign-up' by way of a comment below and leave any suggestions as to where would be a good meeting point - easy to find but fairly specific please.

If we get enough people, then I'll post something here nearer the date with specifics.

12/2: Team GB Sochi Pin - Official Team Pin

Thanks to a reader 'in the know', I can now share details of the official team pin given to Sochi athletes. Visually, it's almost identical to the retail one mentioned in the previous blog post.

Internal Team GB Pin

Retail Team GB Pin

The main difference between them is the internal pin does not have the excess metal around the rings and 'Sochi 2014'. The rear of the internal pin is marked 'Better Never Stops' just like the London 2012 internal pins issued to the athletes. The internal pin is also a gold colour. I have no information on the manufacturer of either version or issue sizes of each pin.

Many thanks to the reader who got in touch with the details and the image.

UPDATE: The retail pins available from the Team GB shop have the back stamp 'Better Never Stops' and not GBPINS14 as first thought.

9/2: Team GB Pin for Sochi 2014

For those of you London 2012 collectors who, like me, also collect Team GB pins, you may be interested to know that a new retail pin to support our team in Sochi has just been released.

Image reproduced from Team GB shop website

The pin is available from the Team GB shop (click here for the link) for £5. Whilst it is a retail pin, the style looks identical to the internal pin TGB0004 issued for London 2012. Presumably, the athletes in Sochi have a different design as their 'team pin'.

As far as I know this pin is only available in the gold colour with no silver variety as we saw in London 2012.

The back of this pin is marked GBBPINS14 I believe - the same as the product code shown on the shop website.

26/1: National Flag Pins

I'm pleased to say that, thanks to the hard work of one of the London Pins readers - Mike, all the 204 national flag pins issued to mark all competing countries at London 2012 are now on the catalogue. Mike has taken and edited photos of every pin and sent them to me.

You can view the entire set by clicking on this link for the Flags page.

Some of the pins were available individually, but the vast majority were only available as a framed set.

24/1: Prototype BBC Gold Pin?

A reader has contacted me about a prototype gold pin made by Aminco for the BBC. He was given them during the Games by a BBC employee. He was told they were made for approval but that the eventual pins were made by another manufacturer.

Photo (c) 007bond.jamesbond

The photograph shows the gold prototype alongside a standard white BBC pin for comparison.

Does anyone have any more information about this pin or any confirmation of its authenticity?

1/12: Documentary Request

I had and email from a television company asking if I knew of any collectors who would be interested in the chance of appearing in a documentary on Channel 4.

Here is the email...

I’m working on the next series of The Hoarder Next Door for Channel 4. This series looks at both hoarders and collectors, drawing a clear distinction between the two, and examines how people’s lives and homes can be affected by their habits or hobbies.

With hoarders, we take a psychological approach, working with individuals both on screen and off screen with a therapist to address the compulsion to hoard.

However, the reason I am contacting you is that we also look at the homes of avid and passionate collectors; people whose prized and carefully cultivated collections are competing for living space within their homes. We offer them the services of our de-clutter experts to help re-organise the collection, freeing up further living space, or perhaps room to display their collection in a more attractive way. The purpose is to take a positive look at collections and collectors; and through the process of providing practical help, celebrate the individual collections as something wonderful to have.

I was wondering if you knew of any UK based collectors or if you had a collection yourself?

My direct line is 0207 424 7710 should you have anyone in mind. Or alternatively it would be fantastic if you would forward my email onto anyone who you feel might be interested in hearing more about the series.

Thank you again for your time & best wishes.

Click to enlarge image

In anyone is interested, get in touch with them directly (please mention that you heard about them through London Pins) and take it from there. Just be sure to let us know if you make an appearance on TV!

18/11: Christmas Deal from Tragars Collectables

Gary from Tragars Collectables is offering a Christmas deal of a set of 12 Coca-Cola Paralympics pin badges for only £25.00 with free UK postage.

Plus any purchases over £35.00 will receive a Free Sailing Venue collection pin set of 3 pins.

Please contact Gary at tragar@blueyonder.co.uk