{"product_id":"vintage-sheridan-wyoming-chief-police-tin-litho-toy-badge-japan","title":"Vintage 1960s-1970s Sheridan Wyoming Chief Special Police 🦅 Tin Litho Toy Badge Original NOS Card Japan","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Em_hmXnyJZA\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 4 x 2.25 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e New Old Stock, still on its card. They vary a little one to the next.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🦅 Sheridan, Wyoming, Chief of Police\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere's a badge with a whole state seal packed onto it. It's a tin litho pinback, about an inch and a half across, on a red ground inside a navy rim, with a silver starburst behind the lettering. A gold eagle tops it, wings spread. Under the eagle, arched small, CHIEF, then SHERIDAN in bold gold across the middle, and POLICE along the bottom. The center is a blue disc reading STATE OF WYOMING around the state seal, shrunk down so small you can just make out its figures. It's still pinned to its yellow card and sealed in its sleeve, exactly as it hung on the rack. A toy, made for kids, and a good-looking one. And they're rare - carded or loose, a Sheridan one just doesn't come up for sale.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe card is half the fun. A cartoon motorcycle cop fills the left side: white cap, big goggles over his eyes, gloved hands on the handlebars, a city skyline behind him, under a red banner reading SPECIAL POLICE BADGE. Down in the corner, small letters: JAPAN. That's where these were tin lithographed for the American dime-store trade.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏔️ Sheridan, Wyoming — The Town on the Badge\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSheridan sits under the Bighorns in north-central Wyoming, and the man who laid it out is a story worth telling. John D. Loucks, a Civil War veteran, bought forty acres from a trapper named George Mandel for fifty dollars, then in spring 1882 sat on a hill above Goose Creek and platted the town - the story goes he drew it on a sheet of wrapping paper. He named it for General Philip Sheridan, the man he'd served under, became the town's first postmaster and first mayor, and saw it incorporated in 1884.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Burlington and Missouri Railroad reached town in November 1892 and Sheridan took off - local business paid off thirty thousand dollars in bank loans in the first month, and the population ran from 1,559 in 1900 to 8,408 by 1910, fed by coal mines at Dietz, Monarch and Acme. The Sheridan Inn opened in 1893, and Buffalo Bill Cody put money into it and used it as his headquarters during tryouts, auditioning local cowboys and cowgirls there for his Wild West show's European tours. It was said to be the finest hotel between Chicago and San Francisco, and it put up Will Rogers, Ernest Hemingway and Calvin Coolidge. A Sheridan cattleman, John B. Kendrick, went on to become governor in 1914 and then a US Senator from 1917 to 1933.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🦬 The State Seal on the Badge\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe seal the badge is copying is the real Great Seal of Wyoming, adopted in 1893 and revised in 1921: a draped woman holding a banner reading EQUAL RIGHTS - Wyoming Territory gave women the vote back in 1869, the first in the country to do it - flanked by two men standing for livestock and mining, a star marked 44 for the 44th state, and scrolls reading Oil, Mines, Livestock and Grain. That's a lot of seal to shrink onto an inch-and-a-half button.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🗓️ When These Were Made\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere's no date on the card itself, but the rest of the family gives it away. The same card design turns up with an NYPD button copying the patch New York adopted July 1, 1971, and a San Francisco button copying the patch SFPD added around 1970 - so these were on the racks in the 1970s. No maker or importer is printed on the card or the badge; whoever ran this line kept their name off it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e⭐ When Kids Really Did Get Badges from the Law\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mid-century American childhood this badge comes from was full of real badges given by real officers. Junior deputy programs let sheriffs swear in schoolkids as honorary deputies; school safety patrol programs, organized since the 1920s, put badges and belts on millions of children; police departments handed out badges at parades, fairs, and classroom visits as a matter of civic routine. Sheriffs gave tin badges just like this one out as prizes in their youth programs, too. A Sheridan, Wyoming Chief Special Police badge was the dime-store cousin of all that — the badge a kid could buy with pocket change. That documented world of junior programs is the backdrop this little survivor belongs to.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-suffolk-county-new-york-police-tin-litho-toy-badge-japan\"\u003eVintage 1960s-1970s Special Police Toy Badge 🚔 Suffolk County NY Tin Litho Pin-Back Button NOS on Display Card Made in Japan\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-florida-highway-patrol-tin-litho-toy-badge-japan\"\u003eVintage 1960s-1970s Florida Highway Patrol 🍊 Special Police Toy Badge Pin NOS Carded Tin Litho Made in Japan Mid-Century\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-blair-township-police-tin-litho-toy-badge-japan\"\u003eVintage 1960s-1970s Blair Township Police Tin Litho Toy Badge Native Chief Shield, Township Est. 1839 NOS on Card Made in Japan 🚔\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40769726283941,"sku":"VAG-7034821476517","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.3292502554_lymj.jpg?v=1785353791","url":"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-sheridan-wyoming-chief-police-tin-litho-toy-badge-japan","provider":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}