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Miscellaneous items

Match for cash - information
article by Mark Knowler

Printed on the flaps of 1/4 lb packets of PG Tips loose tea in 1970 these 'cards' had to be compared with full notes which appeared on leaflets given out in grocers and stores and the winning prizes ranged from 10/- to £100. Both the left and right sides had to be identical in every way - but to make it difficult deliberate changes were applied to the majority of cards, some of which are very subtle.

Match for Cash information

1/4 lb tea packet
Left hand image courtesy of David Hart

It should be noted here that being tea card packet flaps they are quite small and don't resemble standard tea cards in any way and typically the backs will be an off white colour.

Match for Cash information
Size and style comparison showing Prehistoric Animals cards that were in packets of tea at the same time as this promotion.

Match for Cash information

Leaflet given out at grocers and stores.
The above side details the competition rules
and the side below was for checking the packet flaps.

Match for Cash information

 

Winning cards had a red dot in the top left corner on left side cards - and in the bottom right corner on right side cards.

Match for Cash winning notes

A winning £100 pair of notes

If you weren't aware of this however it was very easy to mistake altered cards for the winning ones. Up to 15 variations for either side are believed to exist.

To date no card has been observed
to have more than one alteration.

As the checking sheet above shows the winning values were;
£100, £25, £10, £5, £1 and 10/-

However they did also print values that couldn't win, such as
£2, £00, £0, 0s and a blank card.

Non winning cards observed to date, including £2 so far appear to have no alterations other than the non winning amount and the red dots.


The alterations identified so far can be seen below;

A left hand card showing the possible differences on pound cards as well as common differences also shown on the shilling cards


A left hand card showing the possible differences on the shilling cards as well as common differences also shown on the pound cards


A right hand card showing the possible differences on pound cards as well as common differences also shown on the shilling cards


A right hand card showing the possible differences on the shilling cards as well as common differences also shown on the pound cards


In some cases the quality of printing on the tea packets does appear to suggest further possible variations but it is assumed these colour saturation and print registration issues are coincidental.


The following images show the variations on the actual cards where left and right cards do exist or are thought to exist

Table cloth with black vertical stripes

 
Table cloth with no stripes (white)
 
Solid green dot with no outline or decorations
 
Green circle missing bottom two decorations
 
Top and bottom of £ symbol missing
 
Bottom of £ symbol missing
 
£ bars missing
 
£ bars solid black
 
Last top swirl on £ missing, 2 showing not 3
 
Part of shilling symbol outlined (b&w image only available)
 
Part of shilling symbol missing
 
Last swirl above /- missing, 8 showing not 9
 
All swirls around /- missing
 


The following images show the variations on the actual cards for either left or right cards where there is no equivalent on the opposite side

Left card showing red chair leg
 
Left card showing cup with missing top band
 
Left card showing cup with missing middle band
 
Left card showing cup with white handle
 
Left card showing teapot with missing bottom line
 
Right card showing table with missing table brace
 
Right card showing jug with missing top band
 
Right card showing jug with missing bottom band
 
Right card showing jug with white handle
 
Right card showing jug entirely white
 
 

So what does this all mean?

No definitive information is available for these cards so a final exact list cannot be published.

It is possible that all variations are available for each note value, for left and right side cards but this is only speculation. If all variations below do exist this would indicate 188 different cards.

To date, many dozens of images have been studied and the following tables show what has so far been seen (in green) and what might exist. There may of course be further varieties that come to light.

£100 LEFT SIDE   £100 RIGHT SIDE
Winner   Winner
Chair leg red   Table leg brace missing
Cup top band missing   Jug top band missing
Cup middle band missing   Jug bottom band missing
Cup handle white   Jug handle white
Teapot bottom line missing   Jug completely white
Table cloth with vertical stripes   Table cloth with vertical stripes
Table cloth with no stripes (white)   Table cloth with no stripes (white)
Solid green dot with no outline or decorations   Solid green dot with no outline or decorations
Circle missing bottom two decorations   Circle missing bottom two decorations
Top and bottom of £ symbol missing   Top and bottom of £ symbol missing
Bottom of £ symbol missing   Bottom of £ symbol missing
£ bars missing   £ bars missing
£ bars solid black   £ bars solid black
Last top swirl on £ missing, 2 showing not 3   Last top swirl on £ missing, 2 showing not 3

 

£25 LEFT SIDE   £25 RIGHT SIDE
Winner   Winner
Chair leg red   Table leg brace missing
Cup top band missing   Jug top band missing
Cup middle band missing   Jug bottom band missing
Cup handle white   Jug handle white
Teapot bottom line missing   Jug completely white
Table cloth with vertical stripes   Table cloth with vertical stripes
Table cloth with no stripes (white)   Table cloth with no stripes (white)
Solid green dot with no outline or decorations   Solid green dot with no outline or decorations
Circle missing bottom two decorations   Circle missing bottom two decorations
Top and bottom of £ symbol missing   Top and bottom of £ symbol missing
Bottom of £ symbol missing   Bottom of £ symbol missing
£ bars missing   £ bars missing
£ bars solid black   £ bars solid black
Last top swirl on £ missing, 2 showing not 3   Last top swirl on £ missing, 2 showing not 3

 

£10 LEFT SIDE   £10 RIGHT SIDE
Winner   Winner
Chair leg red   Table leg brace missing
Cup top band missing   Jug top band missing
Cup middle band missing   Jug bottom band missing
Cup handle white   Jug handle white
Teapot bottom line missing   Jug completely white
Table cloth with vertical stripes   Table cloth with vertical stripes
Table cloth with no stripes (white)   Table cloth with no stripes (white)
Solid green dot with no outline or decorations   Solid green dot with no outline or decorations
Circle missing bottom two decorations   Circle missing bottom two decorations
Top and bottom of £ symbol missing   Top and bottom of £ symbol missing
Bottom of £ symbol missing   Bottom of £ symbol missing
£ bars missing   £ bars missing
£ bars solid black   £ bars solid black
Last top swirl on £ missing, 2 showing not 3   Last top swirl on £ missing, 2 showing not 3

 

£5 LEFT SIDE   £5 RIGHT SIDE
Winner   Winner
Chair leg red   Table leg brace missing
Cup top band missing   Jug top band missing
Cup middle band missing   Jug bottom band missing
Cup handle white   Jug handle white
Teapot bottom line missing   Jug completely white
Table cloth with vertical stripes   Table cloth with vertical stripes
Table cloth with no stripes (white)   Table cloth with no stripes (white)
Solid green dot with no outline or decorations   Solid green dot with no outline or decorations
Circle missing bottom two decorations   Circle missing bottom two decorations
Top and bottom of £ symbol missing   Top and bottom of £ symbol missing
Bottom of £ symbol missing   Bottom of £ symbol missing
£ bars missing   £ bars missing
£ bars solid black   £ bars solid black
Last top swirl on £ missing, 2 showing not 3   Last top swirl on £ missing, 2 showing not 3

 

£1 LEFT SIDE   £1 RIGHT SIDE
Winner   Winner
Chair leg red   Table leg brace missing
Cup top band missing   Jug top band missing
Cup middle band missing   Jug bottom band missing
Cup handle white   Jug handle white
Teapot bottom line missing   Jug completely white
Table cloth with vertical stripes   Table cloth with vertical stripes
Table cloth with no stripes (white)   Table cloth with no stripes (white)
Solid green dot with no outline or decorations   Solid green dot with no outline or decorations
Circle missing bottom two decorations   Circle missing bottom two decorations
Top and bottom of £ symbol missing   Top and bottom of £ symbol missing
Bottom of £ symbol missing   Bottom of £ symbol missing
£ bars missing   £ bars missing
£ bars solid black   £ bars solid black
Last top swirl on £ missing, 2 showing not 3   Last top swirl on £ missing, 2 showing not 3

 

10s LEFT SIDE   10s RIGHT SIDE
Winner   Winner
Chair leg red   Table leg brace missing
Cup top band missing   Jug top band missing
Cup middle band missing   Jug bottom band missing
Cup handle white   Jug handle white
Teapot bottom line missing   Jug completely white
Table cloth with vertical stripes   Table cloth with vertical stripes
Table cloth with no stripes (white)   Table cloth with no stripes (white)
Solid green dot with no outline or decorations   Solid green dot with no outline or decorations
Circle missing bottom two decorations   Circle missing bottom two decorations
Part of shilling symbol outlined   Part of shilling symbol outlined
Part of shilling symbol missing   Part of shilling symbol missing
Last swirl above /- missing, 8 showing not 9   Last swirl above /- missing, 8 showing not 9
All swirls around /- missing   All swirls around /- missing

 

Non-scoring cards LEFT SIDE   Non-scoring cards RIGHT SIDE
£2   £2
£00   £00
£0   £0
0s   0s
Blank   Blank

This page will be updated with variations as they are identified, if you have any photos or scans of these cards they would be gratefully received.

 

Many thanks to Mark Talbot for encouraging the development of this page and for supplying many of the images used on this page.

Thanks also to Peter Beer and Judith Towersey for several of the images used on this page.

Please note that some of the descriptive information used in this article is based on that published in the now defunct TEAMS magazine.