One of the nights at the Jamboree TOR Bob Salcido of California and I were comparing patches. Some of the JSPs are hard to separate from CSPs. We were looking at a pair of Minsi Trails patches and concluded they were CSPs for the 100th anniversary and not JSPs. Upon closer inspection, we noticed that we had different troops. Over the next week I looked for them and came up with four. Talking with Bob later he said he ran into their Exec and the Exec said he was not aware of these. Does anyone know any more specifics? Is this a new trend?

Here are the four I found (Bob’s was one of these troops):

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Marin Council did Star Wars again (they were the ones behind a Yoda set a few jamborees ago that were the rage of the Jamboree). They have three troops that each have a JSP and then each patrol has their own patrol medallion (a total of 12). Below is a picture of six of them. Some are confusing these as their JSPs but their JSP is a standard shape and is also a dye-sub patch.

These patches were priced at $200 for the 12 before the Jambo and $250 per set after. I don’t have a production quantity yet.

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I’m now woefully out of date as about two weeks ago I was talking with Bill Loeble. Bill along with Steve Austin are the primary authors of the Council Shoulder Insignia book, the standard catalog for CSPs and other shoulder patches. Bill said they have over 400 different CSPs listed for 2010/100th anniversary of Scouting. The reason I’m saying woefully out of date is that after this conversation we had a Scout-o-rama. In talking with one of our DE’s he figured that our local council, Great Sauk Trail, is up to seventeen (17) CSPs for 2010. Ouch! If you have information about your or other councils, please post here or e-mail Bill (ask me for his e-mail as I don’t want him to get spammed by web-bots).

Bill also reported that he’s figuring there will be over 2,000 JSPs. I mentioned that we thought that the number of JSPs was going to top out back in 1997 after all of the council mergers. Boy were we wrong. Bill figures there were around 1,200 JSPs at the last Jamboree even though we were down to 310 councils.

There will likely be over 5,000 council/lodge issues for 2010 between CSPs, JSPs, and OA patches. One could spend their lifetime collecting this year alone (although it would make for an interesting collection).

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Last week I was at my Scout office for a meeting and stopped by the trading post. They have the new boy rank patches out commerating the 100th anniversary year of the BSA. I think these are neat but the quality control is poor. There are at least three major varieties in this group alone. Some appear to have been made by the BSA. Others have ‘Made in China’ stickers on the back. The latter is a separate sore point but we’ll leave that for another blog. Anyway, variety collectors are going to have a field day figuring these out. I’m told there’s an Eagle patch as well but I’ve not seen it. I’ve also been told that Scout shops are to have returned their inventory of the regular items so as to be replaced with these 2010 pieces.

Then Destry and I went to the Indy TOR this past weekend. Their hospitality was great as always (except for the 9″ of snow.) Several councils now have out 2010 patches. That got me asking around how many items do you think we’ll have for the 100th anniversary? By “items” I mean regular issue pieces - CSPs, JSPs, OA items. I’m figuring it will be up to 5,000. Could be more. And this is not counting camp and camporee items or Jamboree staff items. One could spend a lifetime just to collect this year. Also, I was hearing quotes for “rare, limited edition” varieties at huge prices. Councils and lodges could kill a good thing. If you know of some egregious abuses, please pass on the comment. Thanks.

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Scouting Magazine has started a new column called “This Old Patch”, sort of a take off on the PBS series “This old house.” Collector Kelly Williams of Krelman Co. provided them with an interesting patch, the JSP for the 1960 contingent from Yosemite Area Council, CA. Kelly just sent me an e-mail that was sent to him with the pictures below asking, tongue in cheek, if I’d seen them. Its amazing what Photoshop can do.

This is for the part of the story that shortly after this patch came out, the tree had fallen over (actually as I understand it the top came down, the tunnel remained.)

The article made mention that the tree was in Yellowstone Park which it was not.

These did cause a bit of a double-take for me but they were doctored images. Cute.

It looks like it will be an interesting column. They contacted me about some ideas and material for future columns and we’ll be helping them out. I see it as being good for the hobby as Scouting Magazine goes out to nearly a million registered Scouters. If you have some ideas for what you’d like to see, pass them on to me.

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A friend just forwarded a link from eBay of the sale of a khaki and red strip for Grand Teton Council. After looking at it, my first thought was “Give me a f’ing break.”

The description says “This Auction is for a Grand Teton Council Thank You patch. Old School Khaki and Red Full Strip”

Now I don’t know what a “Thank You patch” is. I’m not sure what is meant by “Old School”, but khaki and red strips (KRS) were discontinued in 1953. He also has a red and white strip like this up that he also calls “Old School”.

More importantly, this council did not come into existence until 1993 as a result of a merger with Tendoy Area Council and Teton Peaks. Further, one can’t tell if this was issued by the council or not. As for “Thank you”, I’d certainly say that to anyone who would pay me $49.99, what he’s asking, for a patch that cost $1 to make.

Time to move on, and not bid….

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An eBay seller out of Malaysia has surface with some red and white and khaki and red strips that are modern, over-seas manufacture. Here’s one:

That he titled “IMPERIAL YUMA COUNCIL STRIP RARE”. Its a buyer beware world on eBay. I still liken it to the wild, wild west. Ebay has limited ability to police this so know your seller!!!!

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Got a question in that comes up from time to time. Is the patch in the following picture a red and white council strip?

The answer in this specific case is no. Here’s why. The convention is that if the city exists and the strip does not say “Council” or some variation then it is a community strip. There was a Kit Carson Council headquartered in Albuquerque, NM that changed to Great Southwest Area in 1976. But there are also two “Kit Carson” cities in the U.S.. One is in Colorado and one is in California.

As with any rule, there are a few exceptions but it is hard to think of them. For a long time, the “GREENWICH” half strip has been associated with Greenwich Council and probably is from there but there are other Greenwich cities so it really should be considered a community strip. The “BOSTON” half strip is considered to be a council strip as there is not another Boston other than in Masachusetts.

P.S. Thanks to Roger Schustereit for bringing this to my attention.

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Nearly two years ago Don DeYoung took a poll of state strip collectors and identified five Cub strips unknown in any collection: DEL HAWAII MISS SDAK and WYO (one collector said he had seen a WYO Cub but could not identify the owner). Note that Hawaii and Alaska were not states when these strips were used, but full ALASKA state strips exist in both khaki & red and Explorer colors. The two known Alaska Cub strips say ALAS. I am not aware of full HAWAII state strips existing in any colors but red & white, althought there is a TH khaki & red strip (Territory of Hawaii).

We were able to locate a South Dakota Cub strip and get an image of it, but it was not owned by a national state strip collector. Then in March of 2006 a WYO Cub strip was discovered for sale on eBay in a large frame with other Scout and Cub insignia. The entire frame sold for over $500 and the last bidders were after the state strip only. In May of 2006 a South Dakota Cub strip appeared on eBay with a Sturgis town strip, and this lot sold for over $460. The remaing three unknown Cub strips have not been found to my knowledge. A third South Dakota Cub strip was offered on eBay just recently in August and brought a high bid of $405.

 A gauze back PA Explorer strip was sold by TSPA in September of 2007 for over $134. We think gauze back strips of any kind were locally made in small numbers to meet limited demand. It seems strange that there would be a need somewhere for PA Explorer strips, which are not otherwise rare. There is one other PA Explorer gauze back known to me and one IOWA Explorer gauze back known.

State strips are a different animal to collect when you consider that no one yet has completed a set of states in any non-red & white color, unless you accept the TH for Hawaii in khaki & red. There are several unknowns in Explorer (at least DEL and HI), and about half the states are unknown in Sea and Air Scout colors. Several of the known Air Scout strips are unique (one known to exist), including IOWA KY RI VA. The only known Virginia Air Scout strip has a rolled edge, which also is unique.

Part of the fun of state strips is coming across ones previously unknown, but that has gotten harder over the last two decades. EBay has revealed several previously unknown. Two others that have popped up in the last few years that were unkown to me include IOWA Sea Scout (winter) and SC Sea Scout (summer). Some believe they exist in every variety for every state, I am very skeptical.

Bruce Shelley

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