Hunting for coins for gas/electric/TV meters.


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I remember traipsing rounds the shops when I was a kid in the 60's living in the Meadows asking if they'd got any shilling (5 pence) coins for the gas & electric, & 2 shilling (10 pence) coins for the telly, often they'd say they didn't have any, but you knew they did. Sometimes we'd be sat in the dark until we found a bob for the electric or have a perfectly good telly we couldn't watch because we couldn't find a 2 bob. Glad we don't do that now...

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This is the new £1 coin. It's designed like this so it can be extracted from a Yorkshireman's hand with a spanner.

According to the news, there are 200,000 £1 coins recently put into circulation that were actually a trial run, and subsequently are dated 2016, although the official release date is 2017. I've just c

I love being one of the bad lads.

I used to love it when the 'meter man' came and poured all the coins on the table, then counted them really quickly, filling his hands and stacking them up in front of us amazed kids. Then the man would take his share and give Mum and Dad their 'rebate' (never a fortune IMMSC)

My Mum would always leave a couple of 'bobs' on top of the meter 'for emergencies' , so we never had the problem of scouring the neighbourhood for shillings, (until the day 'someone' discovered that you could take one of these bob things and buy sweets from the corner shop with them. (My bums still sore!!)

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I used to love it when the 'meter man' came and poured all the coins on the table, then counted them really quickly, filling his hands and stacking them up

I remember that. The particular bit that fascinated me was the way he counted the coins. He'd start by piling them up on the kitchen table, and then to count them he'd flick/drag each one with his finger into a small bag in his other hand. And it was speed he did that which was impressive.

For a long time when I was a kid, I wanted to be a meter man because it looked glamorous and cool.

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2 Shillings (10 pence) coins for the telly,

That is something I had forgotten about untill now... That is one good thing about this forum, from time to time it jogs my memory

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This all seem a bit pathetic to me , Work all week & cant afford electric

Always seemed to have enough money, just the wrong coins, I was usually traipsing round with a half crown or 10 bob note. :)

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When staying in the Hotel Hamburg in Berlin in the 1980's, they had coin operated showers, it cost 1 DM for a hot shower, a cold shower was free..

I also came across them in South Africa, and Sudan...............

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It was old style pennies for our gas meter, this would be in the late 50s.

When the meter man called he would spread them over the kitchen table, quickly count them into 24s (2 bob) and make them into rolls by wrapping them with stiff paper.

Colin

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Stayed on a caravan site at Brean Somerset a few years ago, it was 20p coin for a shower, £1 for a bath, £2 for the washer, 50p for tumble dryer, you needed a pocket full of coins. It was £1-25 a day for electric but that was not metered. Oh yeah the iron was free...

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We used to have a filed down one side coin,i think it was a halfpenny to use for the meter when money was scarce it always came back in the rebate and a blind eye was turned it was done by most people round our way.

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and were was moses when the light went out in the st looking for a bob

remember people saying that

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Do you know Piggy and Babs i had forgotten that one ,you made me smile i can hear my mam saying it now,well i wish i could,and my mammar come to think off it,thanks for that miducks.

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glad i made you smile carnie dose anyone else remember or was it just or prhaps just carlton netherfield and gedling area.

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and were was moses when the light went out in the st looking for a bob

I remember a variation on that from my grandma........Where was Moses when the light went out, down in the cellar with his shirt hanging out.

God, they talked some rubbish in those days.

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When staying in the Hotel Hamburg in Berlin in the 1980's, they had coin operated showers, it cost 1 DM for a hot shower, a cold shower was free..

I also came across them in South Africa, and Sudan...............

IMMSC an old bob was the same size as a DM and worth about a quarter of one? When we went there in 1979 it was about 60p for 20 fags over here or 5p in a vending machine in Munich. Fortunately we had been tipped (can you see what I did there?) off and we all went with as many 5ps as we could gather, then came back with a few hundred fags each !

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When I was based in Munster-lager in Germany (late 70's) we were threatened with big trouble if we fed 5p's into the jukebox in the Naafi, mind you some naughty soldiers did it with civvy fag machines, :) not me though I never smoked..

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We used to call the old 5p English Marks, in Germany they used to work in cig, chocolate machines and phone boxes. (so i was told)

I did the same but I was too ashamed to say it in my post

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When I worked building Broad Marsh Coop in 1974, the German Shopfitters scrounged everyone's 5p's.

Thats why then

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There was a coffee machine in Plessey, Beeston, that took 5p coins. It was discovered that if you used a lead 5p you could get your coffee and a sharp tap on the front of the coin slot at the correct moment would return your lead coin too ;)

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