Fraternity and sorority pins

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This is a list of badges of fraternities and sororities, categorized by the organizations they belong to. Badges have become increasingly popular to collect, even by individuals that have no GLO (Greek Letter Organization) affiliation themselves. Groups such as the Fraternity Pin Collector Society have collected thousands of pins worth tens of thousands of dollars in individual collections while organizations such as Kappa Kappa Gamma's "Keepers of the Key" work to reunite lost or stolen badges with their original owners.^[1]

According to the preface in the Sixth Edition (1918) of The Sorority Handbook by Ida Shaw Martin, the primary fraternal jewelers of the late 19th/early 20th centuries were D. L. Auld Co. of Columbus, L. G. Balfour Co. of Attleboro, Mass., Burr, Patterson and Co. of Detroit, Upmeyer Company of Milwaukee, A. H. Fetting Co. of Baltimore, Hoover and Smith Co. of Philadelpha, O. C. Lanphear of Galesburg, Ill., Miller Jewelry Co. of Cincinnati, J. F. Newman of New York, Edward Roehm of Detroit, and Wright, Kay and Co. of Detroit. This is also the time period where American fraternity pins became popular with Greek letter organizations. Currently the most widely used jewelers are Herff Jones, Jostens, and Balfour. Jewelers' initials and stampings are typically found on the back of pins along with members and/or chapter information. The history of fraternal jewelers is important when determining age of non-dated jewelry pieces.

Since fraternity and sorority pins are used as the primary symbols for GLOs, licensing and marketing needs have developed in the use of these trademarks. As a result, many organizations have had to put a legal team in place either at on staff or on retainer as consultants. One of the largest Greek licensing firms is Affinity Marketing Consultants, Inc. ^[2] As of April 2008, they represent 25 of the largest women's GLOs and 34 of the men's. ^[3]