In 1968 in France the BP gas stations (British Petroleum) started an advertising operation called "Treasure of the Kings of France". For each fill of min. 20 liters of gas they gave a mystery pocket in which there was a reproduction of an historical coin. There were 20 different ones, from the ancient Gauls to Louis XVI. The reproductions were of one-side only, the other side just displayed the coin identification, some were gilded with real gold, and you could insert them in a cardboard collector. The success was incredible and 2 years after, in 1970, BP launched another similar promotional operation called "Treasure of Ancient Coins". This time, for each fill you got reproductions of famous Greek coins like a Croesus' stater, an Attic owl, decadrachmas of Syracuse or Carthage, a Roman republican as, etc. Needless to say that many kids begged their parents to refuel only in BP gas stations. They already had 4 Ptolemy tetradrachmas, 3 Attic owls, 2 Philip II staters, etc. but the demarateion or the Croesus' stater was still missing in their collection. Did they do it also in UK (BP is a British company, after all) or in other countries? and the Greek coins of 1970:
BP and Shell petroleum both always targeted the children of their customers. The game of the states Shell's gave out coins from different states to collect. BP had plastic mold machines that for a quarter one could make their own green dinosaur.....and how I know this ...is yes Im a dino ! Very cool piece of numismatic history tied into fossil fuels.
Those are really neat! I know a couple of kids (and a kid at heart) who would have loved to collect those Thanks for sharing!
I have one of those BP sets-- a wonderful gift from @Andres2 a few years ago . https://www.cointalk.com/threads/my-lucky-day-an-awesome-gift-arrived.317856/ The coins these tokens represent, top to bottom and left to right: Croesus AV stater; Neapolis AR stater; Athens owl tetradrachm; Syracuse Demareteion tetradrachm; Syracuse decadrachm (they didn't get the relative size right on this one); Philip II of Macedon AV stater; Ptolemy I Soter tetradrachm; Carthaginian 5-shekel; Carthaginian di- or tri-shekel (reverse says tetradrachm; not the correct lingo); Roman Republic As. The tokens are uniface, with a brief description and company name on the reverse. Here are both sides of the Croesus AV stater:
Yes, I remember similar coin or metals promotion at gas stations in Detroit back then. I guess nowadays, if there were such a promotion, it would be of Pokémon cards or something along that line.
As a kid (I would be 8 at that time) I was mad about them. But my parents were very kind to me. Sadly, I've only kept one or two (stored somewhere in my mess). Q
Similar, really? You mean reproductions of ancient or medieval coins? In France other gas stations tried to imitate BP's promotional operation. The French company Total noticed that those Brits with their "Treasure of the Kings of France" celebrated French history up to Louis XVI, not later. In 1969 (Napoleon's 200th birthday) Total replied with an advertising campaign of their own, a collection of small gilded medals illustrating the greatest episodes of Napoleon's life. That collection was entitled "Voici l'Empereur". But these medals were not reproductions of old coins, and in my opinion were 1) ugly, 2) not interesting at all. And in the following year 1970 (100th birthday of the IIIrd Republic), Total distributed other gilded medals and even also tiny plastic busts showing the portraits of the IIIrd Republic great figures (politicians, generals, artists, authors, scientists, a collection entitled "Glories of the Republic"). There was even a tiny bust of Maréchal Pétain, I let you imagine the reaction of parents, who all had known WW2, when their kid on the backseat opened his pocket and said: I've got a bust of Pétain! All this was even uglier than the Napoleonic medals and, in my child opinion, was no match for the staters and tetradrachms BP was offering in the same time.
Children of that day and a few decades before were more inclined to olden days 'history' than fantasy and more likely to be impressed by old things than the fictional world. When I was a kid, the fashion in Indiana was Knights of the round table (it did not bother us that the factual history might not have included the court of King Arthur - they were old and real to us). We all knew the names and character of several knights and played as them. No one ever played as Arthur but each boy had his favorites. My grandson knew Pokemon instead. Boys of my time collected things - usually several types of things. We would have liked those coins but, by the time they came out, I was out of college and wanted the real ones.
Wow! and it is in Flemish... I suppose BP had the same promotional operation in Belgium and the Netherlands. Thanks for sharing !
In the US, all we ever got were little wax replicas of the Earth along with instructions to pop them in the toaster over and watch them slowly melt. I'm pretty sure both Exxon and Shell gave these away with each fill up. If you check eBay, you can probably still find some for sale, although unmelted ones are getting harder and harder to find.
@TIF sent me one that originally came from @Andres2 a couple of years ago. It is so cool! It hangs in my apartment. Thanks again for the fun gift! I’m still working on my niece and nephew, trying to convince them that ancient coins are the coolest. Unfortunately, clothes and lego and their top priorities right now. I won’t give up, though! Erin
It's all well and good to try and attract their naturally inquisitive interest, etc...but to "make them interested"...no can/should do. The oil companies here in the states did the same thing in the 60s-70s with plates, glasses, mugs...all sorts of things that indeed attracted the attention of many adults and sold lots of gas...but can't recall any coins in the promotions.
Well, similar in that they were medals, but as I recall they were for individual states, not ancient coin types.
unless it involves a CELLPHONE or VIDEO GAME good luck getting a kids attention to anything now a days
