Another impulse buy

To feed the irrational urge to collect things. This latest acquisition can be added to:

~ The Zippo lighters
~ The folding knives
~ The undated 20p coin
~ The gold 1/4 dollar from the 1800s
~ And of course watches which is where it all started


I knew little to nothing about these when I brought them. It really was an impulse buy. Saw them in the Sales Corner of the watch forum and heart said 'buy' before brain had a chance to realise what was happening. I'm two short of a full set (literally and metaphorically) so will need to hunt them down and browsing through the sets produced, the 'Battle' set looks worth a punt if I can find one in good condition at a sensible price. Oh my kids are going to have so much fun sifting through my junk when I'm gone.

A little bit of history of A&BC Gum:

 ‘A&BC Chewing Gum Ltd. formed in 1949, and folded in 1974. In its 25-year history it produced some of the best bubble gum and collectors cards ever seen in the U.K. The company has become a favourite amongst card traders and collectors for the quality, variety and imagination shown in the design and production of their gum giveaways. Their range covered film stars, the Beatles, the Monkees, Man from UNCLE, War cards and banknotes, as well as an impressive range of English and Scottish football cards, pennants, pin-ups, emblems and crests. In the history of gum and trade cards, they will go down as one of the greats. Using the letters of their names the owners had wanted to call the company ‘ABC’, but the Aerated Bread Company (a company which existed from 1862 until 1955 and which was known as the A.B.C. Company) objected. Instead, the partners decided on the name A&BC Chewing Gum Ltd.
Their gum was made of chewable plastic, not chicle (a natural gum from a tree native to Central America). Since sugar was not available without a licence, A&BC produced one of the first ever-sugarless chewing gums using an artificial sweetener. They worked in this way so that the product did not require sweet rationing coupons. Since the children of the time had difficulty obtaining sweets, A&BC’s chewing gum, and therefore the company, took off fairly quickly.’

And for boys of my age, this may ring a bell:

A popular playground sport in the mid-to-late sixties. Cards were exchanged by swapping and by playing card flicking games played in the playground. For example, you would line a number of cards up against a wall and if you could knock any down by flicking another card at them then you win those knocked down cards. Another one was just flicking the cards onto the ground, and every time you landed on top of another card then you would win all of the cards that were already on the ground. Fun eh?!