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Posted By: Paul Muchinsky

Aaron,

Not a bad question at all, as the answer is more complex than the question seems, especially given the pin of Chico that prompted this discussion. A direct answer to your question is 1955. W&H was bought out by Bastian Brothers of Rochester, NY. Hoag died in 1935, and Whitehead died in 1940. I think the passion for crafting the artwork embodied in their pins co-incided with their founding legacy within the company. However, for pure artistic beauty, I would give the Gold Medal (it's Olympics season) to Bastian Brothers, with W&H a close second. In what breaks my heart, part of the purchase of W&H by Bastian was destroying the manifest of all pins ever made by W&H. That is, the "master list" (not specimens of the pins themselves, of which there were probably few laying about given the sheer magnitude of items they produced) went to an old furnace or a newly invented shredder. Think about that. While at one time over 500 companies made pins, imagine if the manifest of Topps had been destoyed. How big of a blow would that have been to the card collectors in our hobby? Since I know nothing about cards, perhaps little. But at least a manifest tells you what there is to collect, and when you would have a "hole" in your collection.

Back to the Chico pin. If the pin was made after 1955 (and I think it was), obviously it was not made by W&H. Another interesting question is when did W&H abandon paper inserts into the backs of their pins for advertising purposes? I don't know. Another way to identify a pinmaker is an imprint on the curl. Andy's Chico pin represents the epitome of the joy (and frustration) of being a pin collector. We don't know:
1. When it was made.
2. Why it was made (part of a test set or a special day for him at the park).
3. Who made it (a paper insert and a soft-tipped pair of tweezers or delicate fingers can insert a paper disk promoting one pinmaker inside the back of a pin made by another pinmaker without damaging the paper).
4. What exact manufacturing technology was used to produce a pin with such rich texture.
5. How did this pin enter our hobby, and why are there so few of them known? Their scarcity (not value, per se) would lean in the direction of some test set. If 40,000 of these were given out at Comiskey Park one day in the past 25 years, where are the other 39,997 of them (Andy has one, I have one, and another member has one).

The only interrogatory left unposed is "where". If we know the who, we would know the where. There you have it. Pin freaks love things that many times we don't know the who, what, when, where, why, or how of the stuff we collect.

Since a few members are sharing stories about The National, I have one to contribute. I saw a pin being sold by a dealer that was 100% fantasy. Not a repro, just a pin made with a modern day manufacturing technology of an old player. There never was an "original" to this pin. The dealer told me it wasn't vintage, so there was no attempt at deception between buyer and seller. The dealer (somewhat) mistakenly said if the pin were vintage, it would be worth a fortune. That part is true, but there never was a vintage version of this pin. I bought it as a memento of the amount of work some people will put into producing an item (not much), and then altering the item to deceive (more effort than it took to make the pin itself). This procedure is called "distressing" an object--creating flaws to suggest age. This was a work of art. The pin was of Tris Speaker. It must have been made off of some product he was endorsing in a print ad (thus the source of the original image). Let's forget the pin was oval-shaped. Some baseball team pins were oval, but designed that way to accommodate the shape of the image, as a team seated for a photograph. The 1929 Cubs pin would be a prime example. But this was an individual player pin. Tris was showing his age. The creator of this gem doctored the re-re-re-produced ad copy, probably with harsh lighting, to create an uneven (differentially faded) background to the paper. The image was clear enough to see his face, read his name, and read the product he was endorsing. But alas, you would have to read this from a distance of 6 inches from your nose. Not exactly what a company has in mind when they commission a pin to advertise its product.

But the best was saved for the reverse. Small scratches were made in the metal, and a chemical was added to promote rust, which was duly abundant. Not so much as to make you scream "This is junk", but just enough for you to conclude, "Wow, this sure is old--you can tell--look at that rust"! Please don't ask me why I bought this piece of pure fool's gold. I kept telling myself one day I might do a piece on repros and fantasies. This pin was so bad it was "good". The wacko who made it is happy, the dealer who sold it to me is happy and guilt-free since he told me the truth, and I'm happy (but can't quite figure out way). Perhaps from a sense of premature altruism when I show the hobby something that has no odor but stinks to high hell.

Aaron, can you imagine the length of my answer to a long, complicated question?