S&h Green Stamps

I don't have any S&H Green Stamps but I remember them well and can still recall images of my parents sitting at the kitchen table putting the loose stamps into the booklets.

I've been going through my father's stamp collection and came across an envelope containing this booklet and about 150+ loose trading stamps.

Golden Rexall Drug was the local drugstore in our Chicago suburb and, if I remember correctly, for every dime you spent you got a 10cts stamp. To claim the $2.00 reward, you had to spend $144 -- a 1.39% rebate on your expenditure.

During Margaret Chase Smith's 1964 campaign, volunteers solicited donations of S&H Green Stamps, and sold the redeemed merchandise to raise cash for her campaign.



http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show ... Relevant newsreel & reporting video was featured during the second five minutes of The Rachel Maddow Show on Wed/08/Jun/2016 ... hint: select [Full Episodes]

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I like the S&H stamps brings back memories of the fishing rod my mom bought me 40 years ago at least, still have it. Just picked up 3 books of Top Valu stamps at the antique store for $1 and a King Korn book for $1 will probably soak them off and break up to sell.

Finally got all of these trading stamps together for a group shot.
Probably not much value , but the perforations are interesting

I rescued this one from a dollar box last month. It reminded me of the story posted on the previous page.

Food Stamps.

I am unaware if these stamps qualify under this thread of "Green Stamps"

The American Journal repository has just released this study, for any members of "JStor"

Food 'stamps' are more money than stamps.

https://www.coincommunity.com/forum...IC_ID=237517 ... USDA Food Coupons

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Ah! Right. Thank you IP.

Which brings us to an interesting question, rod222:

Q/ Why were food stamps called 'stamps'?

The 'food stamps' we are most familiar with were from the program instituted in 1964; these were clearly labeled 'food coupon', and were closer to the size of dollar bills than stamps.

But in the original Depression-era program, 'food stamps' were not only the size of postage stamps, they were even perforated ... and, just to confuse things, they were clearly labeled 'food order'.

Go figure.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Here's another merchants' trading stamp used as postage.

LaSwabbie:

I think the S&H Green Stamps (Sperry & Hutchinson) were the original trading stamp, originating in 1898.

The Piggly Wiggly, however, gave a different green stamp, the Greenbax. Greenbax were, if I recall correctly, distributed exclusively through Piggly Wiggly, as it was a product of Piggly Wiggly Carolina Company.

Other stamps were often outside entities, selling stamps to merchants. This included S&H. I think Plaid Stamps were given by Colonial Stores and Gold Bond by A&P. Where I grew up, S&H was given by the Winn-Dixie.

Piggly Wiggly ("The Pig") continued giving stamps long after all the other stores quit. They did a mini-sheet that you filled with stamps (1/4 book of stamps, to be exact) and could redeem at the register for weekly specials, like 5-pound baggs of sugar. Eventually, by the late 90s or early 2000s, they migrated the stamps to electronic through the "PFC" Card ("Pig's Favorite Customer"), and trading stamps thereby ended as I knew them.

I still have lots of Greenbax stamps. A few years before they went digital, they even updated the look of the stamps. Very cool!

I LOVE trading stamps! I lament the "card-based" nonsense that passes as impossibly hard to redeem dubious discounts these days. I often complain that stores should just issue stamps and be done with it. Everyone knows how they work, etc. etc.

Remember the SubWay "Sub Club??" Those stamps. And a record store in Charleston, SC gave Harbour Records stamps too.

We need to bring back the trading stamp!!

Josh