Merry Christmas

To all the readers of this Olympic Hockey Pin blog, I wish you all a Merry Christmas. Thanks for checking in on the blog so often in 2011, but now it is time to take a little holiday. I will be back blogging again in 2012, but until then stay safe and keep enjoying your Olympic pin collecting. Have a safe and happy new year!

2002 Coca-Cola Ice Hockey Pictogram Pin

This pin was available at Coca-Cola kiosks during the 2002 Winter Games held in Salt Lake City, Utah. It has a value of $6.00 USD.

1991 USA Hockey Stamp Pin Reproductions

Each of these Olympic hockey pins is a reproduction produced in 1991. The pin on the left commemorates the 1980 Winter Games held in Lake Placid, New York, and the pin on the right commemorates the 1984 Winter Games held in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. Each pin has a value of $5.00 USD.

2010 Visa Signature Set Hockey Pin

This hockey pin comes from an exclusive 3-pin set produced for Visa that were offered to Visa Signature cardholders by the Hudson Bay Company stores during the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The value on this pin is $10.00 USD, though the pin easily sold for two or three times that amount during the 2010 Games.

1968 Soviet Made Generic Olympic Hockey Pin

This pin was made in the Soviet Union for the 1968 Winter Games held in Grenoble, France, Japan. The pin is routinely available for $4.00 or less, and is a nice vintage addition to any Olympic hockey pin collection. In my years of pin collecting I have learned that, for some reason, the vintage Soviet Union era pins are usually sold for next to nothing. Very few countries, if any, produced Olympic pins in the numbers that the Soviet Union did from 1956-1992, especially in the area of ice hockey. The Soviet Union's ice hockey team completely dominated the sport for decades, and the country produced numerous pins in support of its hockey champions. Thus, I believe that the historical value of these pins is important to my Olympic hockey pin collection, and I love adding them whenever I can find one I don't already own.

1964 Polish Olympic Hockey Team Pin

I previously blogged about this pin on April 17, 2011, but having just recently obtained one for my own personal collection I was excited to post a better photo and provide the more detailed specs on the pin. It is the Polish NOC hockey team pin from the 1964 Winter Games held in Innsbruck, Austria. The pin has a value of $40.00 USD.

2002 Men's & Women's Hockey Silver Medal Pins

These pins were made to commemorate the United States men's and women's hockey teams silver medals won during the 2002 Winter Games held in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Of course, the Canadian men's and women's hockey teams crashed the U.S. party by winning gold on the Americans' home ice during the 2002 Games. Each of these pins has a value of $7.00 USD.

2010 CTV Media Hockey Pin

This pin was produced for CTV (www.ctv.ca) during the 2010 Winter Games held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was a very popular pin amongst both media and hockey pin collectors, and during the Games it often sold for over $50.00 USD. Now I would place its value at $9.00 USD.

2006 Generic Hockey Equipment Pin

This pin comes from the 2006 Winter Games held in Torino, Italy. It is one of a series of sports equipment pins made for the 2006 Games. There were 25,000 of this pin made, and its value is $8.00 USD.

1994 Generic Pictogram Hockey Pin

This pictogram hockey pin comes from the 1994 Winter Games held in Lillehammer, France. There were 30,000 of this pin produced, and its value is $9.00 USD.

2010 Canadian Olympic Hockey Team Pin

This is one of two Canadian hockey team maple leaf pins from the 2010 Winter Games held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The maple leaf design of this pin was a departure from the standard Hockey Canada maple leaf and skater logo that Team Canada used from 1998 through 2006. The reason for the change was a dispute that began during the 2008 Summer Games in which the International Olympic Committee prevented national sports federations from using their logos on jerseys worn during Olympic competition. This pin, which is not a cloisonné, has a value of $8.00 USD, but sold for up to $25.00 USD during the 2010 Games.

1972 Soviet Union Ice Hockey Button

This Soviet Union hockey button (not traditional pin) comes from the 1972 Winter Games held in Sapporo, Japan. The button has a value of $6.00 USD.

1994 Generic Olympic Sport Pictogram Pin

This pin comes from the 1994 Winter Games held in Lillehammer, Norway and features several of the official 1994 sport pictograms, including the hockey pictogram in the lower right corner of the pin. The pin has a value of $5.00 USD.

1992 Canadian NOC Hockey Team Pin

This NOC pin comes from the 1992 Winter Games held in Albertville, France. The pin was made for the Canadian Olympic hockey team and bears the classic Canada hockey maple leafs. The pin has a value of $10.00 USD, and is usually on of the easier NOC hockey pins to find.

2010 Coca-Cola Commemorative 1920 Hockey Pin

This pin from the 2010 Winter Games held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada commemorates the Canadian hockey team's gold medal at the 1920 Summer Games held in Antwerp, Belgium. The Winnipeg Falcons represented Canada in this 7-on-7 tournament (a "rover" was used during the introductory sport that year). This pin has a value of $5.00 USD, but during the 2010 Games it sold for around $15.00 USD.

1992 télé Media Hockey Pins

Here are two media pins from the 1992 Winter Games held in Albertville, France. Media company télé had these two pins produced, each of which depicts a hockey silhouette that is unique to the télé pins. Not many, outside of avid pin collectors, are aware that there are in fact two of these télé hockey pins. The pin on the left has a gold-hue base metal, while the pin on the right has a silver-hue base metal. The pin on the right is much heavier than the other pin, and is also a cloisonné. Each pin has a value of $7.00 USD.

1994 Top Media Hockey Pin

This pin comes from the 1994 Winter Games held in Lillehammer, France. The pin features three of the official sport pictograms from the 1994 Games, including the hockey pictogram on the right side of the pin. It's value is $7.00 USD, though I have seen it sell for up to $15.00 USD.

1992 Generic Participating Nations Pin Set

This set of 12 hockey pins comes from the 1992 Winter Games held in Albertville, France. Each pins includes a hockey pictogram atop the national flag of each country that participate in the 1992 men's hockey tournament. On July 2, 2011, I previously posted a picture of the complete framed set of these pins, but wanted to provide more detailed pictures of the individual pins here. This set generally sells for between $20.00 and $65.00 USD.

Blog Post Number 250!

Today I am posting the 250th post on this Olympic Hockey Pin blog site. This has been no easy task, and I wanted to say thanks to all of you who frequent the site for daily Olympic Hockey Pin blog updates. Also, I wanted to share some statistics of those that have visited the site. To date, there have been 4,576 page views which are spread across the months of 2011 as follows:

These page views have come from seventy-five different countries around the world, which are listed here in alphabetical order:
Of these many nations that have stopped by to visit the site, the following are the top ten in terms of number of page views per country:
And the number one all-time viewed blog post so far have been my April 28, 2011 post entitled "1980 Roni Mascot Hockey Pins", which has had 107 page views. The next runner up is the June 12, 2011 post entitled "2006 Bosco Sport Russian Hockey Pins", which has had 43 page views. And, finally, we have only one person that has signed up as a "Follower" of the site, which I really appreciate. Thanks to all of you for visiting so often. Please feel free to post your comments to share information or stories that you might have about the pins posted on this site.

1994 Generic Olympic Hockey Pin

This pin comes from the 1994 Winter Games held in Lillehammer, Norway. The text on the pin, "DeXVII Olympiske Vinterleker", translates to "The 17th Winter Olympics", and the pin provides the dates of the games: February 12-27, 1994. The pin also bears the official hockey pictogram found on numerous pins from the Lillehammer Games. The value of the pin is $7.00 USD.

2002 Pewter USA Hockey Pin (Dated)

For the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, Utah, there were more than a dozen USA Hockey related pins. However, this was one of the more difficult of the USA Hockey pins to find, and remains a hard one to locate to this day. It is crafted of pewter, and features the classic USA Hockey skater logo. I would place the value of this pin at $15.00 USD.

2010 Canada Hockey Venue Pin

This pin comes from the 2010 Winter Games held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was available for purchase during the Games at the Canada Hockey Place (or G.M. Place) which was host to the men's Olympic hockey tournament. The price of the pin at the venue was $12.00 Canadian dollars, though I saw it sell for nearly $20.00 USD during the games on the streets of Vancouver.

2010 Thunderbird Arena Hockey Venue Pin

This is a venue pin from the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The 7,200-seat Thunderbird Arena, located on the campus of the University of British Columbia hosted the women's hockey tournament during the 2010 Games. The pin does not include the Olympic rings or the official logo, but is nonetheless an official pin of the Vancouver Olympics. It has a value of $5.00 USD, but during the 2010 Games it commonly sold for $20.00 USD.

1968 Generic Grenoble Olympic Hockey Pin

This is a nice early Olympic hockey pin from the 1968 Winter Games held in Grenoble, France. You can usually get this item for between $5.00 and $7.00 USD, but I have seen one sell for up to $20.00 USD.

2006 Torino 3-D Generic Hockey Pin

This classy pin comes from the 2006 Winter Olympic held in Torino, Italy. I refer to the pin as "3-D" because the hockey skater cloisonne portion of the pin is affixed on top of the pewter based portion of the pin. The value on this pin is $7.00 USD, but during the 2006 Games I saw it sell for up to $18.00 USD.