posted 06-02-2017 02:07 PM
   
I'm posting this under the pins category since many pin designs were often issued as charms as well, but for my current question I have more material in charm form that might help with my underlying question.I know many here don't care as much about retail souvenir type items, but I'm interested in them as examples of popular culture interest in the space program. First off, what is the company indicated by what seems to be a Greek or Roman soldier in the bottom corner? I see them on lots of souvenir items (not just space programs).  I'm also trying to sort out the time period these were issued. Particularly sorting out whether the white or pink cards were issued first, or just an indication of a different vendor or different retail outlet specs. There are white and pink accent cards from programs ranging from Apollo through the shuttle. Obviously souvenirs continued to be produced for earlier missions, but I can't figure out a pattern yet. The two different Apollo program charms are made notably differently. For Skylab, there's both a white and pink carded version with what I'd consider a higher quality cloisonne design, plus a white card version that is on a card noting hard enamel,but it's a very thin coating and not nearly as rich in colors as the others. Besides the KSC charm with the "Sterling Setting" label, all the shuttle charms I've seen on this company's cards have the "Finest Quality" heading and not "Hard Enamel." I'm interpreting that an indicator that they're made later than the Apollo and Skylab items. These may all be later 70s or early 80s, although I've seen enamel charms from the same company that go back to at least Apollo 8. Was this company making things back to the 60s, though? — Todd | 
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