Mike's Hard Rock Cafe World

 

Pin Identification

In this hobby there is more then meets the eye. When your at a pinevent or surfing on ebay for good deals did you ever notice or understand what mesh, grid, eyeball or 4LC and 3LT mean? These are just a few of the pinback varations that are located on the back of your HRC pin. If your just starting out collecting these terms may get confusing to you. Let's start with the different types of backs that were made. In the early days pins mainly had four different varations.

 

This is a grid back, one of the most common backs. Gift Creations pins uses this pattern. This back is produced in small (shown), medium & large patterns.

 

One of the first patterns used by Gift Creations was this eyeball back. Used by Hard Rock America & International this pattern is harder to obtain for it was used on some of the original pins.

 

Very similar to the mesh back pins this weave pattern was used during the early days during transition from epoxy to cloisonne pins.

 

The most common for early pins is this mesh back made by Gift Creations. This pattern was also used on some of the later HRC Asian pins.

Even though Gift Creations made many pins for different locations, it not cover certain areas of the world completly. Below is information from other parts of the HRC globe.

 

Based out of London, FC Parry produced pins for several HRC restaurants over the years including London, Stockholm, Reykjavik, Tokyo, Cancun & Dallas. This version is known as a "large print" for the script is quite easy to read.

 

The other FC Parry pin back is known as a "boxed" for the script is contained in a very small box. The "large print" version is more difficult to collect.

 

Starting in 1993 Idea made pins were produced for Mexican cafes. In early 1995 HRC discountinued the production of Idea pins but still used them for Sterling Silver Staff pins.

 

This is a smooth back Idea pin.

 

All Reykjavik pins were produced from Thorncraft which is a Iceland based company. They are unique for all the pins are hand casted and painted. The word "Thorncraft" is written on the neck of the guitar.

 

Several Asian HRC's used Hi-Thi as their producer. Early pins like this one came w/o an enamel covering and phone number stamped on the back.
Hi-Thi back w/o any phone number.

 

Skyline produced some pins for Buenos Aires

 

The Israelian producer Zechovoy made pins for the Tel Aviv cafe in addition to some from Gift Creations.

 

Currently made by Gift Creations, this Hard Rock logo back is found on many pins worldwide today.

 

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Mike's Hard Rock Cafe World