

Green Shield Stamps originated in the UK but did have an Irish operation which had its own Irish catalogue and a handful of stores in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford. When you bought groceries or petrol at special stores you would get stamps. Stick the stamps in the book and then redeem your prize from the Green Shield Store. The books I’ve scanned above contain 1,280 stamps. To get one stamp, you had to spend 6d (half a shilling). It took my parents years to fill just one book whilst during all the saving and licking and sticking us children would crave all the tempting gifts in the catalogue. When we managed to fill one book, we made a day of it and headed to the Mary St branch in Dublin1. There was a massive queue. And our preferred gift, the record rack, was out of stock! We ended up going for one of those rubber hose fittings that squeeze onto the taps on your bath. I’m not too sure when the operation ceased in Ireland (anyone?) but in the UK its owner had long moved into simply selling goods via catalogue and started Argos long before Green Shield became defunct in 1991. All the images above scanned by Brand New Retro. Additional info on Green Shield Stamps from wikipedia.