Fans Pin Hopes On Olympics
Newcastle Herald
Wednesday March 3, 1999
AS the Olympic movement enters a state of flux, at least one related tradition remains constant and hundreds of that tradition's zealots will make a pilgrimage to West Wallsend on Sunday.
They will be in town to participate in the global obsession that is buying, swapping and bartering for Olympic pins during the Hunter Region's inaugural Olympic pin swap meet at the West Wallsend Workers Club Auditorium.
The swap meet will also include a vast array of police and emergency service badges and patches and has been organised by Holmesville collector and former policeman Rob Beath.
Mr Beath has one of Australia's most impressive Olympic pin collections.
He caught the bug while attending the Atlanta Olympics as a member of a security advisory team.
Mr Beath, who has collected about 500 Olympic pins along with 4000 badges and patches, said thousands of different Olympic pin designs had been released over the years.
Factors such as rarity and design dictated that some pins fetched only a few dollars while others attracted hundreds.
`Just the other day I was offered $320 for one of my pins,' Mr Beath said.
`SOCOG has strong rules about the pins they put out and this one was released, then they thought it was too big, so they stopped making it,' he said.
`It ended up that only 50 were made so that's why it's considered more valuable than others. Mintage errors can add value.'
Mr Beath said he enjoyed collecting Olympic pins because it was such a specific practice, an element that fostered comraderie between collectors around the world.
An Olympic memorabilia display will accompany Sunday's swap meet to be held between 10.30am and 4pm.
© 1999 Newcastle Herald