I can't believe no one has mentioned this yet....

If you peruse the MacLeay prints, you see very few pins at all. The few that you do see are affixed higher than is normally seen today...they look to be just below half-way from waistband to selvedge.

http://www.imagekind.com/GalleryProf...adf0879287&P=1

I myself use one about half the time. My favorite is a very heavy one I made with pewter and a stone lance point. This one lives on my Carolina box-pleat, and it is half-way down the apron edge. Any lower and it flops around annoyingly.