A HISTORY OF NOC PINS

By Craig Perlow
Lifetime Member - International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH)

(Reprinted with approval from the Sydney 2000 Kingpin Pin Guide Volume 2, 2000)

It is generally agreed that National Olympic Committee or NOC pins made their first appearance at the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens, but since the IOC has never recognised those as an official Olympic Games, we can consider their debut to have occurred at the 1908 London Games. Prior to this time, at the 1896, 1900, and 1904 Games in Athens, Paris and St. Louis, respectively, the only pins or badges that really could be seen were worn by athletes, judges, and officials and were utilised primarily as a means of identification.

Even at the 1908 London Games, there were very few NOC pins, and it was primarily just the athletes from the different participating countries who exchanged them with each other in their leisure moments. It wasn't really until the 1924 Paris Games that NOC pins started to become more prevalent and where the Olympic rings were seen on many designs for the first time. Made famous by the 1981 Oscar-winning film, "Chariots of Fire", it was also here that the first Olympic Village was built. Although it was rather crude and spartan, it acted as a further catalyst to facilitating greater interaction between the delegations and this, of course, included the exchanging of pins.

The 1930s to the 1960s were really the "heyday" for NOC pins. During this period, more were available than ever before, and, in general, their quality was such that many could really be considered like fine pieces of jewellry or little works of art. At the 1956 Melbourne Games, for example, the NOC pins from Great Britain, India, and Malaya (the precursor to Malaysia) were particularly noteworthy.

During the 1970s, the number of NOC pins brought to the Games by athletes and officials finally hit what could be called a "critical mass". According to veteran pin collector, Sid Marantz, who hails from the Los Angeles area, the 1976 Montreal Games were the birthplace of large-scale trading of NOC pins among "the masses", ie., those who were there simply as spectators and had no official affiliation with any of the teams that were competing.

In the United States, this phenomenon made its debut at the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid. Main Street was turned into a pedestrian mall and spectators to those Games freely mingled and traded with athletes, officials, members of the press, and anyone else who was fortunate enough to possess these little treasures.

During the rest of the 1980s and through the 1990s, NOC pins became extremely popular with the collecting public. In fact, knowledgeable and resourceful collectors besieged NOC offices around the world with letters requesting pins, and were often able to acquire them this way, and sometimes at relatively little or no cost.

Today, NOC pins have become a major source of revenue for many National Olympic Committees. As a result, they have also become "big business" and are now produced in much greater quantities for the benefit of the collecting public. In fact, at the Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta, a few NOCs had as many as 10 to 20 different pins which made trying to collect all of them a rather formidable task. And, not all of these were necessarily made by "licensed" manufacturers, but were sought, nonetheless, by avid collectors. If one includes NOC pins from previous Games that were also used at the 1996 Atlanta Games by the 197 NOCs that attended, then more than 900 NOC pins could conceivably be part of a 1996 Olympic Games NOC pin collection. And, as mind boggling as that may seem, with perhaps, 3 more NOCs competing at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney -- Eritrea, Micronesia, and Palau -- look for that number to be surpassed.

NOC pins come in basically two varieties -- generic and dated. Generic NOC pins are those that can't necessarily be identified as being from a specific Games because they feature only the NOC's logo in their design. These, therefore, are often used by many NOCs at more than one Games. Conversely, dated NOC pins are made to commemorate a specific Games, so their designs include the year, the Games logo, or the Games mascot(s) -- and often, in some combination. Some NOC pin collectors prefer the generic versions because of their non-specificity while others would rather have the dated versions so they know exactly where those pins fit into their collections. There's also another group of NOC pin collectors who don't particularly care one way or the other - they simply want to collect all of the NOC pins that they can find!

There have been only three NOCs which have competed at every Olympic Games -- both Summer and Winter -- since the first "modern" Games were held in 1896 in Athens. Those are France, Great Britain, and Switzerland. Therefore, perhaps, it isn't a coincidence that certain NOC pins from those countries are among the most highly sought by collectors. The symbol of the French NOC, a rooster, has been the primary design element on all of its pins going back to the early 1900s, and collectors seem particularly attracted to it. At the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, a special very limited version debuted which featured the rooster inside of a cut-out gold circle, and many collectors are still looking for it 4 years later! Likewise, since 1960, the British NOC has featured its Union Jack on a series of shield-shaped pins for each Summer Games, and round pins for each Winter Games, and collectors also seem to like the continuity and predictability of those designs over the last 40 years. And, since the 1988 Seoul Games, the Swiss NOC has produced a pewter delegation pin which is much more limited than its regular NOC or team pin, and has created quite a stir among collectors trying to get it.

If past is prologue, look for the NOC pins from various African and Island nations to be in high demand at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Many of these countries will have small delegations and even in the present commercialised environment, won't necessarily have the budgets to be able to make large amounts of NOC pins.

More so than collecting other kinds of Olympic pins, collecting NOC pins is a wonderful educational and cultural experience. Even without knowing it, one can't help but become more familiar with various countries' flags, languages, and customs. And, in the process, barriers of race, creed, and religion fall, and perhaps, this is the greatest benefit of all.

Just like the Olympic Games which they were made to commemorate, NOC pins have had a rich and interesting history, and, undoubtedly, the tradition of trading and collecting them will continue to be an intrinsic and ever-growing part of the Olympic Games of the New Millennium.

Footnote

Sometimes it is difficult to determine the background of a particular National Olympic Committee (NOC) pin. With 200 countries competing at Sydney, you may have a pin in your hands and need to identify it. The NOC spotters guide in the Sydney 2000 Kingpin Pin Guide Volume 2 will help you by showing the flag and Olympic logo of each country.