The Opening Ceremonies of the XXII Olympic Winter Games are underway in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia. But through the miracle of television, we won’t be seeing it here on the west coast of the United States for another 10 hours or so. Since I have some time to kill, I thought that I would update everyone on where the Authenticity Project stands as we head into the Olympics.

Our efforts to acquire images of legitimate pins prior to the start of the Games is paying off. As of this morning, we have pictures of 139 NOC pins that are either new or in use in Sochi. 101 of those pins are dated and 38 are generic. 106 are verified authentic and 7 have been repudiated by the NOCs. Here are the unauthorized pins:

New pins are appearing nearly every hour and it will be some time before our authentication process begins to catch up. Our recommendation is that collectors concentrate on the authenticated pins first and give us some additional time to get feedback on the ones that are currently in the Not Yet Rated category. Please check our Authenticity Project website frequently as we are updating ratings and adding new pins constantly. If you happen to see a pin that we don’t have listed, please email us an image at Illegal_Pin_Comm@comcast.net and we will post the picture and attempt to authenticate it.

Until later, enjoy the Games and, as always, stay tuned.

Steve