Gene Berman recently responded to a question on Patch-L with what constituted a name or number collection and some of the variants.
Take it away Gene…
Traditionally, for number collectors who seek a number once to fill that number’s slot.
However, traditionally almost all “name collectors†came from people who were already number collectors and wanted all different names associated with a number which usually meant a new lodge and its superceded lodge (the merged higher number did change but was not vacant). That was the original definition of a name/number collector. Therefore, while I suppose there could be people collecting OA by name, there would not be many. Number collectors who got near the end of the set traditionally morphed into name/number collectors as they started collecting the names associated with each number as well. And some started from the get-go to collect the numbers and the names.
Since each person tailor’s his or her collection to personalize it like picking the components of your new car on line, many sub-groupings have emerged. Some collect what is called a “Classic†name/number set. That is a set where the patch required to fill the slot is the original patch from the lodge originally assigned that number. For the most part this discounts the reissuance of numbers beginning circa 1972. For example, a Classic set collector would need a 155 Michikinaqua and a 219 Calusa but would not want the modern lodge patches that took those numbers, 155-Nisqually or 219-Kayanernh-Kawa. A number collector (not classic) would accept either. A name/number collector would want both.
Some people tailor their collection to only collecting flaps so if a lodge never issued a flap shaped patch such as 182 Lone Wolf they would not want anything from Lone Wolf and the 182 slot would be only for the flap from White Beaver.
Some folks will accept any shape patch to fill the number and some will only take a non-flap shaped patch if the lodge never issued a flap. Some only want first flaps and some only want first solids. Others only want first issues regardless of shape.
My name/number collection which I deem complete has a representative flap from every name and number that ever existed if the lodge produced a flap. This includes after merger the superceded lodge, the new lodge and the merged lodge. If there was a restricted flap and trader such as 90S1 and 90S2 I wanted and collected both. If it did not, the slot is filled with the patch they did produce. If they never had any patch my collection accepts a neckerchief such as 32 Tahawus or 261 Missituk. If there never was a patch or neckerchief I will accept a “flat neckerchief slide†such as leather such as Ne-Pah-Win, such that it can fit into a book or frame. Your collection may be different and I am sure it most likely is just as our cars built on the internet from scratch would be.
It is likely that every lodge that ever existed for a reasonable period of time had some sort of memorabilia. How far an individual collector wants to take it, likewise is up to him or her. Horned toads (mummified I assume, wooden or metal talisman, lots of stuff out there for those that want to go to that extreme).
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“A few short weeks will determine the political fate of America for the present generation, and probably produce no small influence on the happiness of society through a long succession of ages to come.” –George Washington (1788)
