Vintage Military Wings Pinback

SDIceMan

SDIceMan

Sr. Member
Nov 12, 2013
367
418
Southern California
Detector(s) used
Minelab Safari
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Estate Find - Vintage Military Wings Pinback?

Good morning all. I posted this on the 'What Is It?' forum and one member had the great suggestion that I try contacting the company, and I plan to, but I thought I'd take one more crack at it here.

This pinback was an unexpected bonus in a bag of mixed costume jewelry that I picked up at an estate sale on the weekend. It appears to be some sort of military wings insignia, but admittedly, I'm a little ignorant on the subject. The back reads "GEMSCO, A.G.O., G-2", and the wingspan measures 1.25" with the pin's total height of .75". I've spent an hour or so perusing various collections of wings insignia online, with no luck. The football type thing in the middle of the pyramids has me thinking it could be something to do with a military school's football program, like Army or Navy?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Image.pngimage.jpeg
 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Agony and Death on a Gold Rush Steamer: The Disastrous Sinking of the Side-Wheeler Yankee Blade - Grab it through Amazon!
Last edited:
Absolutely love that find! Congrats
 

To me, it looks very non-military. But, I can't say for sure. Every wing type insignia I have seen would be for something to do with wings, like pilot, jumping out of planes, etc. good place to start maybe. Nice find.
 

The center piece on these usually resembles something associated with they crew they were worn by (e.g. a bomb for bombardier or snake staff for medical air crew). This might be for surveillance - maybe it's reconnaissance like awac crews or something. Maybe radio propaganda or submarine detection. Could be super rare and valuable!
 

Morning everyone,

Great input from all, as usual. The comments above gave me new avenues of research to explore, but I'm sorry to say that my searches have been fruitless so far.

Most recently, I reached out to a website specializing in collectible militaria, and the gentleman was kind enough to respond, but alas, I'm no closer to solving the mystery - His response, "You have me stumped on this one! I've never seen that." :icon_scratch:

I suppose that could wind up being all well & good for me, because like randazzo1 says above, it could be rare. I could put it on Ebay and let the market decide it's value, but I hate not being able to first put the appropriate keywords in the title to direct traffic to my listing.

My next step is to reach out to Gemsco directly today as mackaydon suggested in the 'What Is It?" forum. I'll keep you all updated. Again, thanks for all the great input.
 

randazzo1 said:
The center piece on these usually resembles something associated with they crew they were worn by (e.g. a bomb for bombardier or snake staff for medical air crew). This might be for surveillance - maybe it's reconnaissance like awac crews or something. Maybe radio propaganda or submarine detection. Could be super rare and valuable!
Click to expand...

I think this is the right answer, but I cannot find this symbol. The 1960s date would put it cold war, too!! Probably one of the insignia / wings collector forums would be a good bet.
 

Source: http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/insignia-flags-regalia/wwii-era-senior-pilots-wings-gemsco-g-2-a-65336/
The code number G2 was used by Gemsco, Miford, Ct. and this code was used only from the 1950's-the present
 

Let's play a game of "What would you pay for it?" if you came across this particular unidentifiable pinback for sale somewhere. A better phrase might be "gamble on it".

I would probably go $20 if I found it at an estate sale. Maybe $10. It would depend on how it felt to me in my hand and the other items at the sale -- whether it was clearly a vet's estate and from when, etc. I would be hoping I could get 5X my money but ready to eat the cost if it's something really common.
 

Last edited:
Not sure what it is but that is not a pinback it is a clutchback. The G2 designation is normally used on military insignia but it may be an unofficial item.
 

Paleo_joe said:
Let's play a game of "What would you pay for it?" if you came across this particular unidentifiable pinback for sale somewhere. A better phrase might be "gamble on it".

I would probably go $20 if I found it at an estate sale. Maybe $10. It would depend on how it felt to me in my hand and the other items at the sale -- whether it was clearly a vet's estate and from when, etc. I would be hoping I could get 5X my money but ready to eat the cost if it's something really common.
Click to expand...

Yeah. Probably 20.00. I don't think I would pay more
 

Latest reply from the staff at an online museum/resource seems to echo Diggumup's and Randazzo1's suspicions that it may not be military at all:

"I did some searching around and came up with nothing. I have no idea. I really do not think they are military in anyway. Sorry we could not help you more."

Still haven't received a response from Gemsco. I will continue to update. Thanks again for the interest and contributions.
 

I can't get to ebay at work, but this seems to have a lot of the info.

The link Gemsco Wings

What I saw.

Gemsco AGO C2 Pinback.jpg

As I said, I can't get to eBay from work, but could be a lead for you.
 

Good news and bad news! The good news is I have identified the pin, and the bad news is it doesn't appear to be worth very much.

Credit to the contributors at U.S. Militaria Forum for the I.D., which they made in literally a matter of minutes.

The pin is a United States Navy Occupational Rating for Photographer's Mate.

In 2006, four previous U.S. Navy ratings: photographer's mate (PH), journalist (JO), illustrator/draftsman (DM) and lithographer (LI) merged to become Mass Communication Specialists. Much like the Photographer's Mates of yesteryear, the Mass Communication Specialist's role is to present the U.S. Navy to naval and civilian audiences, through a variety of media.

Again, not much value, but it is always nice to solve a mystery.

Thank you all for the contributions, and be sure to add U.S. Militaria Forum to your list of resources when attempting to I.D. or value military articles.
 

So it is military related! I almost asked if I could post it there for you. I am a member there. Thanks for the update.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

This Weekends Auction Finds

⬅️ Previous Thread

Last weekend I found...

Next Thread ➡️

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Simplex Metal Detector

Latest Discussions

Back
Top