Berne Switzerland 2010 Bid Pins

The Vancouver Sun runs a sidebar in its Road to 2010 weekly feature called Collectors' Corner ... and it seems tailor-made for this blog. Enjoy.


What: Berne, Switzerland, bid pins

Trade value: $30 to $50


History: On Sept. 27, 2002, the Swiss Olympic Association withdrew from the race for the 2010 Winter Games. It was an end to a troubled candidacy, one that had started out almost a year before.

With a lukewarm endorsement from association members, they voted 145 to 121 to support the country's third consecutive bid for the Winter Olympics. Switzerland made it to a final four, including Vancouver, Pyeongchang in South Korea and Salzburg, Austria. But voters around Berne dealt a killing blow when they rejected the cost of funding the event.

In the short life of the bid, organizers produced at least five different pins. The first two were of a Swiss flag with Olympic colours. The other three were of a dancing bear wearing sunglasses.

Craig Perlow of Olympian Artifacts says about 5,000 pins were made of one of the flag varieties. It is unknown how many were made of the others. However, all are considered scarce because, when the bid was withdrawn, the remaining pins were destroyed.

Perlow estimates that flag pins run about $30 US, with bear pins closer to $50 US.