Collectibles

My husband was a traveller so we had loads of Green Shield stamps from petrol. Got tea service and dinner service, toaster etc. Maxwell house used to come in glass storage jars and I still have many of them. Soap powder gave Pyrex dishes. Still have those. Collected gollywog stickers from marmalade for a gollywog brooch.

Does anyone remember the fiasco from , I think the Hoover promotion, when supposedly, you could get flights to USA?

Easter 1962 I needed a tennis racket for lessons in my grammar school. Parents couldn’t afford one so green shield stamps to the rescue. I was useless at tennis but remember the racket well!!!!

I think we got a double sided carving/bread knife with some sort of tokens---which I still use daily after at least 40 years.
What I definitely remember is that we were given a set of 4 rather nice chunky glass fruit bowls bought with green shield stamps for a wedding present. Sadly the last one broke about 20 years ago

When my children were small, the craze was for Thunderbirds figures. Blue Peter even made a papier macho model of the island! We could not afford to buy the toys or the island so I collected weetabix coupons and got all the figures. My husband made the Blue Peter island ( he improved the design by using chicken wire to frame the mountains as other people found that solid papier mache did not dry and went mouldy!). The figures and island were wrapped up and became my youngest son's main Christmas present, it was played with for many years and I still have some of the the figures.

Green Shield Stamps collecting was very well organised, with shops where we could take our filled books and exchange them for gifts. I was very hard-up then and buying toys was difficult, so I got a blue teddy-bear for my 1 year old Son which he loved and took to bed. Another few books and I got a cutlery set including fish forks and knives. (Who uses those, I don't ever recall using them.)
I was quite sad when petrol stations and shops stopped giving G.S. Stamps.
Margaret

My mother got me an ironing board from Kensitas cigarette coupons in 1964 and also an Addis brush and bowl set too. The ironing board is still going strong,although not much used nowadays and I still have a couple of small brushes and a scrubbing brush and also the sweeping brush.In the 60's we did a lot of miles by car and we had millions of greenshield stamps as my husband would only stop at garages that gave stamps ,and we also shopped mainly at Tesco ,who gave stamps too

Necklaces and jewellery boxes for my bridesmaids !
Towels for my best friend when they got married !
This was 1970 and we were pretty broke ....

I always did my main shop in Tesco on a Thursday because it was double stamp day for Green Shield stamps. I used the stamps to buy small things such as Pyrex ware and other kitchen bits and pieces when we moved to our own home after living with my mother.
The embassy coupons (we both smoked at that time) bought a step ladder and an ironing board and we saved for ages for a Danish teak nest of tables which I've still got.

We got lots of stuff from Embassy coupons. DH smoked 40 a day at the time. Thankfully he stopped many years ago.

I was desperate for a good paintbox during the 40s/ 50s and so persuaded my mother to buy Trex so I could collect the tokens thereon. I weas extremely disappointed when I collected a full set, minus one particular token, almost twice over.
I wrote to Trex to explain and to offer any of my duplicates to complete the set. To my surprise and their credit, within a very short time a high quality water-colour paint box had arrived
I still have it 70 years later
Well done Trex.... an excellent recommendation but I no longer do any baking

My Mum collected Kensitas cigarette coupons. She saved them all year to put towards Christmas presents.
When DH and I were married 40 years ago he had a huge collection of drinking glasses collected from petrol stations - he did LOT of mileage. The last one finally expired last year.
MIL collected Green Shield Stamps but I don't think she ever used them. After she died we found carrier bags full of them all over the house.

We used to collect Green Shield stamps from Tesco too. I got lots of baby stuff including bedding and a bath/bucket and potty set for our first baby.
We also smoked and collected cigarette coupons from various brands.
As an Army wife I then spent years collecting NAAFI stamps. WE bought all sorts of household things with them, including a toaster and a Kenwood mixer..
Later I shopped at Co -op and collected their stamps too.
We have also collected all kinds from petrol stations too. We still have tartan car rug that is over 30 years old.

We collected Green Shield stamps when we bought petrol. When we bought our first house 43 years ago, we exchanged them for a small set of wooden steps, which are still in use today, although slightly shaky!

25Avalon, the pink stamps were run by a company called Pink Stamps, based in Manchester. I still have a full book of them, but I can't remember which shop(s) they came from. They had places where you could redeem them in towns all over the UK.

We have a couple of Christmas tree decorations which came from petrol stations. I remember (and probably still have somewhere) picture cards in several different series from different tea brands, and how exciting it was sticking them into the albums. Don't think I ever filled one though.

lots of green shield stamps saved but cant remember what mum used them for she also had pink shield stamps
from the petrol station we had silver coins to put into a cardboard display space travel and animals
daz powder had tins placemats and plastic flowers
isnt it a shame these days you dont get the same gifts the breakfast cereal always had brilliant things to collect

We were lucky enough to get free return flights from Glasgow to Malaga with Hoover . A lot of the folks who got the free European flights didn't actually use them so they then extended the promotion to American flights but we were very happy with our chosen ones. It was in the early 1990's.

I’m still Using the dinner service My mum got with green shield stamps.. gotta be 50 years or more. Still using two big glass dishes I got at petroleum station ...use them for salad and trifles.

I remember Mum & Dad getting blue suitcases with Green Shield stamps. We used them to go on family holidays to Majorca & Ibiza when my brothers & I were kids. Definitely not still around today though, perhaps we should have gone for the Pyrex or glasses!

I managed to collect enough Green Shield stamps for a whole six place setting of cutlery which us still in use today.
Then the school mouse that we were looking after in the holidays got out of her cage and chewed up a whole book of stamps! Never bothered again.
Collect nectar points now and use them on eBay.

I don't remember collecting Green Shield stamps, but I do remember getting a dinner service, bit by bit, week by week, from Key Markets. It was a sort of mustard colour, thick, heavy crockery with a pattern of some sort on. Still see them about sometimes, mostly in charity shops.

We got a pushchair from Green Shield Stamps ...we were really proud of it.

When I first got married in 1968 my grandmother and mother presented me with 2000 green shield stamps saved from petrol stations. I fitted out my kitchen with kitchen containers, bread bin (remember those ?), knives, bread board and knife, Tupperware type stuff, mixing bowl and kitchen scales. I still had some left which I added to in time.

When we were courting we had a friend who worked in an Esso garage and used to sneak us extra glasses, crockery and sundae dishes. I still have a lot of them. We used to collect pink stamps with petrol and saved enough to buy a double bed by the time we got married.
All my OH's family were heavy smokers and when we married several of his relatives asked us to choose a wedding present from the Embassy voucher catalogue! I still have the rolling pin and several Pyrex casserole dishes.

My Mum used to save up coupons and get things like tea towels and biscuit tins. Bless.
The very best thing I ever collected vouchers for was my Dairy Home Cookbook (you got them for buying extra milk from your milkman) which is absolutely my day to day cooking 'bible'. Every single recipe that I've used is a success.