Across the River
WHAT A FIND! I’ve been doing a grand clean-up of my house. It’s like Spring cleaning on steroids. Downsizing that means business. On the top of the freezer is a cookie jar that belonged to my grandmother. It’s made of ceramic, I think. It’s likely about a hundred years old. It’s a female bear around one side and a male around to the other side. I took it down to wash it and discovered that it was full of old coupons. Hundreds of coupons. These were loyalty coupons that were part of the product wrapper. The coupons were collected and sent in to redeem for premiums. I have lots of one inch by two-inch Betty Crocker coupons. The Borden company had Red Scissors gift coupons on sweetened condensed milk, Luzianne coffee and tea, Mrs. Filbert’s Margarine, Grandma’s Unsulphured Molasses, Prince Spaghetti, Super Suds and New White Detergent. The “valuable premiums” they offered included coffee percolators, electric clocks, baseball gloves and baseballs, jewelry and other items. Also in my collection are Octagon Soap coupons, J. B. Coffee Coupon distributed by the Foltz Tea & Coffee Co., Blue Horse coupons, and B & W Raleigh Tobacco coupons. These loyalty coupons were offered in the 1950’s and 60’s. I’m going to put these back in the cookie jar in case I can redeem them later. I saw that coupons are offered for sale for nostalgic purposes on Ebay.
