Trading stamps are small paper coupons given to customers by merchants. These stamps have no value individually, but when a customer saves up a certain number of them, they can be exchanged with the trading stamp company for other merchandise. In marketing a coupon is a ticket or document that can be exchanged for a financial discount or rebate when purchasing a product. ...

Gold Bond trading stamps are dispensed in strips at the time of purchase and pasted into books for saving.

The practice started in the 1890s, at first given only to customers who paid for purchases in cash, to reward those who did not purchase on credit. It grew with the spread of chain gasoline stations in the early 1910s and then the new industry of chain supermarkets in the 1920s, and merchants found it more profitable to award them to all customers. Trading stamps were at their most popular from the 1930s through the 1960s. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1296 × 972 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1296 × 972 pixel, file size: 1. ... The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the Mauve Decade, because William Henry Perkins aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion, and also as the Gay Nineties, under the then-current usage of the word gay which referred simply to merriment and frivolity, with no... For other uses, see Cash (disambiguation). ... Credit as a financial term, used in such terms as credit card, refers to the granting of a loan and the creation of debt. ... Modern gas station A filling station, gas station or petrol station is a facility that sells fuel for road motor vehicles – usually petrol (US: gas/gasoline), diesel fuel and LPG. The term gas station is mostly particular to the United States of America and Canada, where petrol is known... // The 1910s represent the culmination of European militarism which had its beginnings during the second half of the 19th Century. ... Packaged food aisles in a Fred Meyer store in Portland, Oregon A supermarket is a departmentalized self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise. ... The 1920s is a decade that is sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties, usually applied to America. ... The 1930s (years from 1930–1939) were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression, also known as the World Depression. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ...

An example of the value of trading stamps would be during the 1970s and 1980s where the typical rate issued by a merchant was one stamp for each 10¢ of merchandise purchased. A typical book took approximately 1200 stamps to fill, or the equivalent of US $120.00 in purchases. The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, also called The Seventies. ... The 1980s refers to the years from 1980 to 1989. ...

In the United States, the most popular brand of trading stamps was "S&H Green Stamps", sometimes informally simply known as "Green stamps". Other larger brands included Top Value Stamps, "Gold Bond Stamps", "Plaid Stamps", "Blue Chip Stamps"; "Texas Gold Stamps" were given away in their namesake state mainly by the HEB grocery store chain, and Mahalo stamps in Hawaii. S&H Green Stamps (also called Green Shield Stamps) were a form of trading stamps popular in the United States between the 1930s and early 1980s. ... For UK/Ireland operations, see Green Shield Stamps. ... Carlson Companies is a privately-held international company in the marketing, service, travel, and hospitality industries. ... Blue Chip Stamps started as a trading stamps company called Blue Chip Stamp Co. ... H-E-B or H.E. Butt Grocery Company is a Texas grocer with over 300 stores and 56,000 employees. ...

Merchants would pay a stamp company for the stamps, and then would advertise that they gave away stamps with purchases. The intent of this was to get customers to be loyal to the merchant, so that they would continue shopping there in order to get enough stamps to redeem it for merchandise.

Often customers would fill books with stamps, and take filled books to a stamp company store to redeem it for items. Books could also be sent to the stamp company in exchange for merchandise via mail order. Mail order is a term which describes the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. ...

At the start of the 1960s, the S&H Green Stamps company boasted that it printed more of its stamps each year than the number of postage stamps printed by the US government. A selection of Hong Kong postage stamps A postage stamp is evidence of pre-paying a fee for postal services. ...

It is generally presumed as a result of serious inflation starting in the 1970s trading stamps became less common as merchants discontinued offering them as a means to cut costs. Their role has been subsumed by rewards programs offered by credit card companies and other loyalty programs, such as grocery "Preferred Customer" cards. The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, also called The Seventies. ... Look up credit card in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Modern cultural references

The plot of a well known episode of The Brady Bunch ("54-40 and Fight", 1970) revolved around the children bickering over what to do with all of the trading stamps they had collected (many of which Alice had saved up) since the trading stamp company was going out of business and all the stamps needed to be redeemed that day. The boys wanted to trade them in for a row boat, and the girls wanted a sewing machine. A contest was held between the boys and the girls involving building a house of cards, which the girls won. After going to the store to trade in for their sewing machine, the girls returned home with a new color television, much to the delight of the boys. The Brady Bunch is an American television situation comedy, based around a large blended family. ...

The musical parodist Allan Sherman had a song "Green Stamps" (to the tune of "Green Eyes," on his album Allan in Wonderland, 1964) in which the singer describes buying immense quantities of unneeded groceries in the desire to collect trading stamps. Allan Sherman (sometimes incorrectly Alan and Allen), November 30, 1924 – November 20, 1973, was an American musician, parodist, satirist, and television producer. ...

An episode of the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris centers in part around Chris' father running to redeem the trading stamps before the Trading Stamp Company closes. {{Infobox Television | show_name = Everybody Hates Chris | image = | caption = Everybody Hates Chris title card | format = Sitcom | camera = Single camera | picture_format = 480i (SDTV), 1080i (HDTV) | runtime = 20 mins | creator = Ali LeRoi Chris Rock | developer = Tyler Perry | executive_producer = | starring = Tyler James Williams Terry Crews Tichina Arnold Tequan Richmond Imani Hakim Vincent Martella Travis...

An episode of The Simpsons Television show features a "Johnny Reb" figure that Marge cherishes as a family heirloom. The family visits an antique store to sell the figure. The clerk informs the family that it is not an antique, but a novelty liquor bottle, "two books of green stamps, if I'm not mistaking." Simpsons redirects here. ... An heirloom in general is any old item or antique passed down from one generation to another. ...