Beijing BC-Canada Pavilion pin

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: Beijing BC-Canada Pavilion pin

Trade value: Undetermined.

History: At the 2006 Turin Winter Games, the B.C. government experimented with an idea for presenting a Canadian face at the Games. It built a stereotypically Canadian building, a two-storey log house, on a little-used plaza in Turin. The idea was to generate attention for B.C.'s tourism and economic development programs, and to a lesser extent, for Canada.

But B.C. had trouble getting support from the federal government, which only bought into the idea at a late date, and only with value-in-kind contributions. Nonetheless, BC-Canada Place became a roaring success, with long lineups of spectators wanting to tour the building.

This time, however, B.C. has lots of support for its BC-Canada Pavilion for the 2008 Beijing Summer Games. It will be in an existing building, the entrance marked by 13 massive wood rings to symbolize Canada's provinces and territories.

To commemorate the event, the province has just produced a new pin to be handed out to visitors during the Games next August. It's not for sale, and right now only tiny quantities are being handed out in Vancouver at special events.

Of note to collectors: The pin doesn't have the words "Olympic," "2008" or other references to the Summer Games because the facility is not an official sponsor.