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Glasgow Celtic FC CSC Enamel Pin Badges
by W Mulholland
History
The invention of the dropstamp machine around 1840 made mass production of enamel badges possible. They first appeared in quantity towards the end of the 19th century.
Manufacturing methods have hardly changed, enamel badges are still fired and polished by hand for the best finish.
Every sphere of human activity has had an enamel badge to celebrate it, and Glasgow Celtic is no different. I don’t know when the first Celtic supporters started wearing enamel badges on match day? Do You?
It certainly wasn’t until the start of the 70s that the craze really took hold and they appeared on a regular basis at home games, sold alongside the cloth patches.
 The badge on the left is from the Edinburgh No1 CSC is was one of the first club badges to be produced.
Identification
As many as 90% of enamel badges do not have any marks on the back. There are a variety of plausible reasons for this, but it seems odd that manufacturers did not take up the chance of free advertising.
The firms of Coffer and R.E.V. Gomm are the most well known in football badge making but I have been reliably informed that they sub-contracted the individual parts out, and didn't make enamel badges themselves.
 The badge on the right is from the Western Australia CS Association, it is a stick pin variety and was made in the early eighties in relatively low numbers.
If you have any information about the history of these or any other badges please E-mail me with the details and I will update and improve the site
What’s the Value of a badge?
Badges in the heyday of the 70s were 10-20p a badge and were much bigger, better and more kitsch than the modern ones of today. Match badges sold from vendors outside the ground will cost £2 with supermarket offers of three for a £5.
If you want to add to your collection of old or new badges then try the Internet, www.ebay.com will help you spend all your hard-earned beer tokens.
 The badge on the left was sold recently on ebay, the German based Continental Celtic Supporters Club produced the badge during the mid to late eighties. Designed by Joachim Hacker and Heiko Wolf.
This is an extremely rare badge and is roughly the same size as a 1p coin, They also produced a cloth patch 10 x 8 cm and collected as a pair would only increase there value.
Thanks to Mick McKernan for the photo and Info.
Supporter Club Badges CSCs
They have become very popular over recent years a way of raising money for local supporter clubs. The list is ever expanding and must now run into the mid hundreds.
Even a small club can have their own badge, as most good manufacturers will do a run of 100 for £1 a badge, manufacturers will do runs of 50 for small clubs. Below we have badges from The Jock Stein Melbourne CSC Australia, Vancouver CSC Canada and Chicago CSC USA.
  
I have split the site into locations for ease of use, there is also a A-Z of Supporter Clubs badges that have been made down the years, it is the closest there is to a definitive CSC collection so if you know of recent additions or old omissions please contact me to update.
Official Merchandise Badges
Unlike most other items on sale in the Celtic club shops/superstore they have been slow to pick up on the potential of selling enamel badges with just a few on sale over the years.
They seem quite happy to let the street vendors have it their own way, most other professionally run clubs have seen this item as an opportunity to make money and reward the fans with quality goods at a fair price.
My Own Collection 
My own collection (or as my son Kyle reminds me “his collection”) at present stands at over 900 match vendor badges and 400 CSC badges. I am always on the lookout for more badges especially CSCs for swaps or to buy, if you are interested and have just pulled out some from an old tin in the cupboard drop me a line Click here to E-mail or contact me through this web site.
If this article has rekindled your memories from years gone by and you have any information on badges of any form please get in touch and we can “chew the fat” just think there must be thousands of badges lying about in drawers etc, so dig them out!
 Finally if you are still unconvinced about the merits of collecting Celtic FC badges have a look at this 2 inch Celtic action man badge that sold on eBay recently. if you want to know for how much? Drop me a line!
Yes Action Man collectors drove the price beyond the normal value, but you wont guess for how much it sold for......
but in time and with more exposure CSC badges will rise and become more popular than this badge.
Hail Hail
W Mulholland
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