COCA-COLA COMMISSIONER OF PIN TRADING EDWARD PLAYFAIR Edward Playfair is a leading expert on trading Olympic pins. He's seen here displaying the wide variety of pins people are trading during the Olympics in Salt Lake City. (PRNewsFoto)[AS] SALT LAKE CITY, UT USA

    SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Anything showing the American flag
and any one of the hundreds of different law enforcement pins will be the
hottest items among pin collectors at the 2002 Winter Olympics, according to
Olympic pin trading expert Edward Playfair.
    (Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020208/ATF006 )
    Playfair, who was global Olympic expert at Sotheby's Auction House in
England for a decade and is now the Coca-Cola Commissioner of Pin Trading,
predicts that September 11th will have significant impact on what is hot and
what is not when the two million spectators descend on Salt Lake and start
their pin trading.
    "Any pin that has anything to do with security will be hot," he said.
"There are literally hundreds of different law enforcement agencies from the
FBI to local sheriff's departments that have been brought in to help out with
security at the games.  Each has produced its own pin."
    He noted that he traded for a pin from the Enid, Oklahoma sheriff's
department as well as one for the Kansas City FBI office earlier in the day.
    "Only the local Salt Lake area law enforcement agencies have the actual
Salt Lake Olympic logo on them," he continued.  "The others simply say '2002
Winter Olympics,' but all of them are very popular."
    As for the American flag, Playfair said that a series of pins produced by
Coca-Cola show a snowflake along with the flag of a participating nation.
"The ones with the American flags sold out the first day they were available,
and we had to order more," he said.
    Other popular pins at the upcoming Olympics will be "anything with a heart
on it" on Valentines Day and pins associated with whatever sport captures the
imagination of the public during the games.  Pins with movable parts and
flashing lights, as well as a Coke pin with a cowbell, are predicted by
Playfair to be popular with more novice pin collectors.  The serious
collectors, he says, shy away from the gimmick pins.
    Olympic pin trading is far and away the most active competition at any
Olympic Games.  More than 200 million pins have been traded since souvenir
Olympic pins were first sold in Stockholm in 1912.
    The biggest Olympic pin year was 1996 in Atlanta when 30 million pins were
traded over the 16 days of the Games.  The ten million in Salt Lake will be a
Winter Olympic record.
    "Olympic pin trading is not really something for serious collectors,"
Playfair observed.  "It is mostly what Olympic spectators get into when they
attend the Games.  Since most spectators don't go to all Olympics, they make
the most of their opportunity to build a collection of Olympic souvenirs."
    While millions of people trade Olympic pins, Playfair said there are no
more than 2,000 ongoing Olympic pin collectors in the world.
    Playfair will be at the Olympics making daily appearances at the Coca-Cola
Pin Trading Centers in Salt Lake City and Park City.  He will also conduct
daily competitions for novice pin traders as well as a more serious "world
championship of pin trading" during the Games.
    Coca-Cola, an Olympic sponsor since 1928, has produced 120 different pin
designs for Salt Lake out of a total of 3,000 different designs that will be
introduced.  The popular limited edition "Coca-Cola Pin of the Day" has become
an Olympic tradition.
    To contact Edward Playfair, email Allison Overton at
aoverton@hopebeckham.com or call 404-452-4775.

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