Green Shield Stamps

[poliphilo]

Sorting through the detritus of the ages with which this house is full, Ailz found a couple of books of Green Shield Stamps. For those who don't remember them they were "a sales promotion or trading loyalty scheme" which started up in the 1950s. You bought goods from certain stores and they gave you stamps with your receipt. You stuck them in books and eventually traded them in for consumer durables like- I don't know- electric egg whisks. The Company that ran the scheme went out of business in 1991.

I checked on e-Bay to see if they had any value as collectables and they don't. Plenty of hopefuls are offering them for sale them but nobody is buying. And why would they?

Comments

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

A local museum or archive might be interested.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Well, there are plenty available on e-Bay if they are.

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

Wow, I remember Green Shield and Co-op stamps from the 70s, but I'm surprised it was going up until 1991.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I was surprised too.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I remember them, and family evenings spent pasting the wretched things into little books.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Fun, fun, fun!

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

we had green stamps here, as well. I can remember licking them to put in my Mom's stamp book. There are a few pieces of furniture in my folks' house that were gotten with green stamps. They hold up surprisingly well!@

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I can't remember us ever getting anything with ours but I suppose we must have done.

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

We had Green Stamps and Gold Bond stamps, depending on which store you went to. I remember going with my mom to the redemption center and the man feeding the books of stamps through a shredding machine built into the table. I still remember the taste of the glue. Minty.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember there were blue stamps too.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

My mother was an assiduous collector of S&H Green stamps. It was my job to paste them all into the little booklets. I remember going to the redemption centres and getting things...those were exciting days! What would it be this time? Folding tray tables? A wall clock? A camera or a toaster? We got all of that and more and I think that there are a few items still being used by my sister who inherited the entire contents of the house.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I remember collecting them and pasting them in books but I don't remember ever actually redeeming them.

[kishenehn.livejournal.com]

My Mom was obsessive about collecting Green Stamps ... I remember licking stamps and putting them in the books for her, and looking through the catalogue of premiums the company sent out. It was a gimmick, but still kind of fun.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes. I wonder someone doesn't revive them. I know stores have loyalty cards and suchlike - but stamps were tangible things; you could watch your stash growing.

[mr-spock.livejournal.com]

Here in Kansas, we just called them "Green Stamps" but I'm sure they were the same thing. My mom collected them as faithfully as she attended church ( i.e. even when running a 103F degree fever). I got so sick of them I made excuses to leave before the coupon books came out.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The USA had trading stamps a long time before they were introduced over here. In fact as long ago as the 1890s. The American Green Stamps and the British Green Shield Stamps worked on the same principle but were issued by different companies. When the American company moved into the UK market it had to change the colour of its stamps to pink to differentiate them from the already existing Green Shield brand.

[happydog.livejournal.com]

You would post this and make Genesis start playing in my head. "Knights of the Green Shield stamp and shout!"

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That song is new to me. The first I heard of it was when I was researching the subject of Green Stamps a couple of days ago.

[charliemc.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, one of my first jobs was being the 'Green Stamps Lady' at a very upscale downtown store, decades ago. People were CRAZY about the damn things! They would wait in huge lines to have me add up their stamps (with an ancient, non-electric adding machine, no less). I'd nearly forgotten about them!

Hard to believe they were ever worth anything, yet hard to believe they're worthless, too...