Bike receipt from 1937.

[Globalti]

Going through the late MIL's stuff and we came across this old receipt. A "what's it worth today?" web calculator says it would cost £420 now.

I wonder why they stuck postage stamps on the receipt?

 

[Dirk]

Going through the late MIL's stuff and we came across this old receipt. A "what's it worth today?" web calculator says it would cost £420 now.

I wonder why they stuck postage stamps on the receipt?

It was a legal requirement.
Basically, it was a tax (stamp duty) on legal documents, paid to the Government through stamp sales.
Receipts over £2.00 were charged at a sliding scale starting at 2d.
The stamp had to be cancelled by franking, or being signed over, to prevent it being used again.
This type of stamp duty was abolished sometime around 1970, if I recall correctly.
The name still lives on with regard to house sales.

://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamp_duty_in_the_United_Kingdom

 

[Globalti]

You learn something every day.

 

[I like Skol]

Interesting piece of family history. You are keeping it I hope?

 

[Illaveago]

Interesting piece of family history. You are keeping it I hope?

It would be best to keep it in case they need to make an insurance claim.

 

[Sharky]

Like the phone number (Newport 156). They probably never expected the number of phone users to exceed a thousand! What would they make of today's technology!

And the bike - THREE gears! must have been the envy of all his mates.

 

[Globalti]

I'll certainly be keeping it. I don't know who the customer G Hasely was though.

I have something like that - a receipt for a Mamod steam roller that I bought with my pocket money in about 1966 - it cost something like £4/7/6d. I still have the roller and it still works well.

Edit: on the phone numbers, when we used to go ski touring we used to stay in the raffish and venerable Hotel de la Couronne in Argentière, France. The telephone number is 50 54 00 02.... "Argentière deux". The town hall is 50 54 00 01. Some history, eh!

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I thought a Coventry Eagle was a motorbike, I remember an old friend of my father's having one

 

[shouldbeinbed]

Like the phone number (Newport 156). They probably never expected the number of phone users to exceed a thousand! What would they make of today's technology!

Telecoms explosion has been a recent thing. I was a kid in Cambridgeshire in the mid 70s, our 1st home phone number was Earith 795.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

+1 to Skolly, I do hope that you make a feature of it, a lovely piece of family history.

 

[Globalti]

Didn't lots of bike manufacturers turn to motorbikes later? Another edit: Wiki says that CE started out making bikes then made motorbikes, some of which were fitted with an engine made by Sturmey-Archer. Who'd have thunk it!

I reckon the family connection could be that my FIL was the town's undertaker and I believe lots of bike shops also did funerals. Is this correct?

 

[biggs682]

shame you dont have the bike to go with the receipt

 

[Sharky]

Telecoms explosion has been a recent thing. I was a kid in Cambridgeshire in the mid 70s, our 1st home phone number was Earith 795.

My parent's number was 3213 around the same time and in the days of the old call boxes, we used to be able to "tap" out the numbers on the cradles and get free calls back home.

 

[Smithbat]

Telecoms explosion has been a recent thing. I was a kid in Cambridgeshire in the mid 70s, our 1st home phone number was Earith 795.

Mine was Whitchurch 596 and that is how we used to answer!

 

[shouldbeinbed]

Mine was Whitchurch 596 and that is how we used to answer!

That's how I remember ours. It took until caller display for my mum not to quote the phone number on picking up.