What ARE the pins for?

I assume it will play into the Around the World event coming sometime next week.

I think it was suggested that they are for the coming international event.

Yes, after jumping the gun and making this thread, I thought about it for 3 minutes and decided that was probably the reason too.

Has anybody seen the actual pins in inventory or in Springfield or are they just on account somehow?

I just looked everywhere trying to find them. Nothing.

Nothing is awarded so don't go looking for them in your inventory like I did. I re-read the walk through and they are only a hint about the next event.

Purely a guess here: You stick pins in a map.

I did notice that the colours on the pins are the same as the French flag.

Why so many of the same pins? Will we earn pins from different countries to collect prizes from those countries? Hmmmmm.

Edited because political correctness.