Chelsea Clinton dropped by the huge white tent Sunday afternoon with Secret Service agents in tow. In a half hour, America's First Daughter visited seven trading tables. Chelsea Clinton has a lot of company. Between July 13 and August 4 at Coke's two trading centers, more than 850,000 pin enthusiasts are expected. They file in at 9 a.m., bartering and bargaining, bickering and buying tiny metal pins until the doors finally close at 2 a.m.
Pinheads come in all persuasions.
In addition to presidential progeny, there's the pinhead middle school teacher from Los Angeles, one of five California collectors who got hooked on the hobby at the '84 games and have trooped to Calgary, Seoul, Barcelona and Lillehammer in pursuit of pins. A Russian guy showed up with 13,000 pins, clearly having grasped the concept of free trade in short order. Going for the metal at the Olympic Games is as old as the hills. The hobby originated at the Athens Olympics in 1896, where people collected and exchange colorful badges used to identify the athletes and officials. The craze really exploded at the 1984 Games when manufacturers produced 17 million pins and 10,000 fans a day visited tents set up to accommodate trading and selling.