Many of us hunt in local op shops. Recently looking in Cheltenham, Vic. Met a fellow collector who was wearing a cap with some nice badges and a few that are more like brooches, for example the coloured bird.
The collector told me that the front badge is from his service as a foot soldier in the Lancashire Fusiliers.
Is this a club or just a great badge?
What did I find? (I got there before my fellow collector.)
It looks like some badges cleared out from a drawer by a child rights’ activist. The badges are from the 1990s.
Four are from the Sudden Infant Death Research Foundation Inc (SIDs) Red Nose Day fundraising and awareness raising campaigns. Kaarene Fitzgerald commenced the formation of the SIDs the day following the death of her son Glenn on July 10, 1977.
The innovative ‘signature day’ fundraising concept of selling novelties was introduced into Australia in 1988 in the form of a simple red nose. From memory, in the first couple of years SIDs just sold red noses but then developed an alternative – badges for those who were embarrassed to wear the ‘noses’.
The teddy bear badge is dated 1990; it might be the first.
DATING
The echidna badge has a sticker on the back indicating that it was sold for $2 by a suburban pharmacy in Cheltenham. The telephone number is 583 2082. The change to a 9 prefix started in Melbourne on 5 August 1995. So it is likely that this badge dates from 1990-1995.
The backs of the badges might assist with dating. Not sure when the various pinning devices came in; but hope to find out. Sometimes the badges are dirty, dusty suggesting a bit of age.
Two of the badges are manufactured by a later version of the dominant local manufacturer, Patrick Bros.
DATING Both ‘I’m a super saver’ and ‘Fiji where the world begins’ were manufactured in Summer Hill, NSW by Patrick Badges and have a telephone number 02 757 0333. This means that they predate 29 July 1996.
We had hoped that the name would assist with the dating, but this name has been in use from 1937 to date (2016).
Here are the last few badges gathered in January 2016.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.