Armor was a new technology in World War One.  Introduced by the Germans, it took the allied French and British forces by surprise.  The Americans came into the world war in the spring of 1917 and had to play catch up.  US armored troops used the French Renault tank on the battlefield.  Enlisted ranks American Tank Corp personnel wore this collar badge (pictured right).  One inch round, die struck in bronze and darkened.  Artwork shows an early WW1 tank above the two dragons.  This insignia has a threaded post on the reverse side with a threaded keeper for attachment to the uniform. 

This is the Rare first pattern officer ranks collar badge.  It is an early style tank oriented as facing you.  1 inch tall by 1 1/4 inches across in size.  Pinback with a simple hook pin catch.  Made for wear on the officer's green wool field uniform. 

On August 26, 1903 George Keppler applied to have his newly invented stamping die patented. His method for stamping high relief images into flat metal was used to produce what are commonly referred to as pop-out coins. 

Also known as repoussé coins, the image of a face is stamped into the reverse of the coin making the obverse three-dimensional.

Several updated variations of this line taken from a Carl Sandburg poem were popular in the 1960s but the most common was "Suppose they gave a war and nobody came?"

Typically framed as a way to express opposition to the Vietnam War this phrase was used as a slogan on posters and patches that were sold in Hippie shops in the late Sixties.

In October 1966 Charlotte E. Keyes wrote an article for McCall's titled "Suppose They Gave a War and No One Came" which helped to further popularize this phrase and in 1970 it was used as the title for a movie making it more ubiquitous than ever. 

Like much of the Sixties, this once-popular slogan has become somewhat of a relic of the past and we were excited to find one of these patches as part of a recent acquisition of Vietnam-Era Protest Patches and memorabilia.

We'll be making some of the pieces from this collection available for purchase very soon.

Some other Hippie Protest Pins are available for purchase via my eBay store.

Some of the pieces from a recent acquisition of Vietnam-era protest memorabilia.