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On the original topic, I think it matters where some badges are made. I know a lot, if not all, Sig Chi badges are made by Tiffany's, and one of those with no jewels, i've seen go for more than a jeweled LCA badge.
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Corbin is right in that value sometimes depends heavily on the manufacturer. Tiffany&Co is obviously a premium jeweler, so their pins (whether GLO or not) are much sought after. I have seen a lot of pins from several manufacturers, and there is no question the Tiffany workmanship and quality is exceptional.
Like most groups, Sigma Chi has had quite a few “official” and semi-official jewelers over the years. I don’t believe Tiffany was ever an official jeweler for that group. I have seen hundreds of Sigma Chi badges on ebay and on the market over the years, and out of that large group I have only seen about 5 that were made by Tiffany. All of them were from the 1920s. So I assume that Tiffany simply did a little marketing work with the Sigma Chis and managed to get a few sales. But it doesn’t appear they were producing pins for Sigma Chi for very long. I have also seen Sigma Chi pins by Auld Patterson, and of course the majority are from Balfour (remember that LGBalfour was a Sigma Chi). Balfour Company sold the GLO pin division to Masters of Design in the early 1990s. Now the badges are mass-produced and of questionable quality.
When you think of Tiffany badges though, Chi Phi comes to mind. Every badge I’ve seen from this group prior to around 1920 is by Tiffany, and then Balfour started making them. My personal theory is that Tiffany lost the Chi Phi contract around 1920, and to offset this substantial loss of revenue they decided to go after other GLOs’ business. After a few years of only limited success, they gave it up altogether. I have not seen any Tiffany GLO pins newer than about 1925.
Tiffany also made badges for some of the old Yale and Wesleyan societies like Skull & Bones, Wolf’s Head, and possibly Theta Nu Epsilon. No surprise there. Those young men were from affluent families.
Remember that in the 1800s and early 1900s, it was pretty much up to the individual GLO chapter and the individual member to find a local jeweler to make the badge. That’s why you see such glorious variation in the handmade pins of the 1800s. Making a GLO badge at that time required either handworking each piece from a lump of gold or creating a uniform mold, both of which were incredibly labor intensive, expensive and time consuming. So it was only natural that local chapters and eventually entire GLOs began to consolidate their business with official jewelers in order to take the cost benefits of volume business. It appears there was heavy competition for the GLOs’ business among jewelers because every fraternity, sorority and college publication from that time period is full of jewelers’ advertisements.
Anyway, this is an interesting topic because I know some people wonder why there are so many subtle differences among a given GLO’s badges. This is easily explained when you consider that several different manufacturers likely built the badges over the years – each using a different mold, different techniques, different clasps, etc. These things also evolve over time. Jewelers often tailored the badge design to conform to current fashion trends of the time. Some badge “fads” include minis, large sizes, nugget styles, various gem arrangements (opals), sweetheart and mothers’ pins, white gold badges, retro (founders) style and dangles.
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