Sponsor pins tend to be valuable because they are often available only to employees of the sponsor company. But they may make their way onto the pin market if employees sell, trade, or give them away. They are highly coveted by collectors.
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Delta Airlines, being Atlanta-based, was one of the more significant sponsors of the 1996 games. Vi traded for this pin, which is about the same size as many of the other sponsor pins but has a more interesting shape. It is dated, with the logo of the Atlanta games on top and the Delta name and logo at the bottom. |
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Not only was Borg-Warner Security an official sponsor of the Atlanta games, but they were also the company which employed Richard Jewell, the guard who was investigated by the FBI in conjunction with the Olympic Park bombing. Vi traded for this pin, and though Jewell has since been cleared, the story behind it may make it more valuable. A tiny Atlanta games logo appears in gold above the horse. |
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Another Olympic sponsor was Champion Sportswear, which issued this simple pin. Instead of the Atlanta logo, it has the Olympic rings with "USA" above and a notation below that they were the official outfitter of the 1996 US Olympic team. |
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AT&T had a calling center not far from the Olympic Stadium, and on an especially hot day we stopped in to enjoy the air-conditioning. A very nice employee gave us each one of their sponsor pins on the sly, and we later learned that these pins were hard to come by. It is dated but doesn't have the Atlanta logo or the Olympic rings. |
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Another of Vi's excellent trades was for a Blue Cross and Blue Shield sponsor pin. It has "USA" above the rings, and while it does not have the Atlanta logo, it does have the number "100" in the background - 1996 was the 100th anniversary of the start of the modern Olympics. |
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This Bausch & Lomb sponsor pin was one of David's trades. He made several very wise trades and ended up with a nice variety of pins as a result. This particular one is a bit smaller than many of the other sponsor pins of a similar rectangular design. It includes the Atlanta logo. |
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The students at David's school were given Sports Illustrated sponsor pins before summer vacation, and somehow David got 2. He kept one and traded for the other. It is a simple layout in which the sponsor's logo is surprisingly small (necessarily so on a pin this narrow) and the Atlanta logo relatively large. |
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This Coca-Cola pin bears only the Coke logo and gold Olympic rings, no mention of the year or host city. Because it was purchased from a pin trader rather than a retailer, there is no way to know when it was issued. Coke is a significant Olympic sponsor and has issued pins for years. |
...or return to Kelly's Olympic pin page
