Each of the officers at my chapter have a special pin (except Social Chair and I think House Manager) that I assume was donated to the chapter. I remember the Secretary's pin was very old with lots of detail on the shaft and tip of the arrow, but because the crest guard was stubborn I rarely wore it. We also have a pin for highest New Member GPA.

We had a Heritage Ring that was given each quarter to the Most Active Active. We had a pin that they gave to the member with the highest GPA but several members would make a 4.0 at the same time so they started giving out the little recognition pins with a tiny ruby in the middle of the shaft.

If I don't have any Pi Phi daughters, I mean to leave my opal pin for an honor pin.

I should restate this.

Anyone who's willing to pay the over $1,000 price tag for an I.C. pin is certainly going to take care of it, and probably knows how special the pin is both to the Pi Phi sisterhood and to greeks in general. And I'm starting to realize that RESPONSIBLE pin & ritual collectors actually have a lot to add to the Greek community... it's not all about hoarding pins and giving away secrets. Having a few concientious, mature scholars out there could be a boon for us, as Greeks, as we try and establish bonds with each other and make a place for ourselves at colleges in the future -- and understand our place in the past. So, I don't really hate all collectors.

That said.... I still wish a Pi Phi could've landed it. :)

are you sure...
 

that the buyer wasnt a pi phi somehow?

Here's another one...this one has opals on it and it is gorgeous.

no........ do you know something I don't?

That one is really beautiful. I haven't seen anything like that one before.

Me neither. I tried bidding on it but to no avail. *sigh*

What I'm trying to do is get a jeweled badge for less than they cost online, but I don't know if that's gonna happen. I'm lucky enough to get to wear an IC Badge whenever I want, but I really want a jeweled badge when officer turnover happens in January!

oh cool! how do you have an IC badge? :)

Well, not a "real" IC badge. The chapter president gets to wear a replica of the IC badge (which is owned by the chapter). So I get to wear the IC badge for Virginia Theta. :)

They don't make the all-opal badges anymore and based upon the fact that the member number is engraved (but no chapter or initials), I would guess it's from the 60s-70s. Still a gorgeous badge and the picture doesn't do it justice. I've seen the opal badge and opal/emerald (neither of which are made any more) and they are soooooooo pretty. At the time I bought my sapphire/pearl badge, the all-opal one cost ~$150.

:( Why don't they make opal badges anymore? Do they restrict our jewels now? I have seen some beauties with colored stones, including a pin with all turquoise and another with all amethysts.

Seems like you could special order what you wanted.

Found another pin on Ebay.

This one's beautiful too, but not like the Opal one.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...920817491&rd=1

When the 'official jeweler' was changed to Masters of Design, the 'standard' choices of jeweled badges changed. You can special order badges with stones other than what is listed (and they are priced accordingly), or have a local custom jeweler change out another stone with whatever you want. They don't list the opal as a standard badge like they did at one time. I've never seen one with turquoise or amethyst. I bet that's pretty!

It is not that we are restricted by what we CAN put in our badges, but rather that there are fewer options than there once were for the badges that can be ordered directly. Anything else is custom.

Having a stone in the point is the other thing that makes Balfour badges different from most of the current jeweled badges.

I looked on both the Official site and the Masters of Design site and I can't find any information on customizing pins. Do you know exactly where I can find this information? I am not planning on it any time soon but I would like to know for when I have the money to. :)