Vintage Abilene Police Special Police Badge 🦅 Tin Litho Pin-Back Button NOS Japan Card Mid-Century art_nouveau_label City-specific dime store police badges

City-specific dime store police badges from the postwar Japanese export era are a collectible category unto themselves — Indianapolis

That label arcing BEGGS

that satisfying tin-litho gloss

The cardinal rule for paper-backed tin novelties like this is to keep them away from humidity and direct light

the dome tolerances

Vintage Abilene Police Special Police Badge 🦅 Tin Litho Pin-Back Button NOS Japan Card Mid-Century art_nouveau_label City-specific dime store police badgesDoes a Toy Badge Know Something About a Town's Soul? Pick this up and hold it for a moment. Really hold it. A round tin button, barely bigger than a half dollar, dressed in red and black and gold and on its face, a fierce American eagle spreads its wings wide over an open book and a sword, rendered in that flat, graphic, unmistakable mid century lithograph style that makes everything feel simultaneously serious and mythic. Above the eagle, arched in