Vintage Punch Cards

A lot of times, while on my antique travels, I'd see these vintage punch boards.  I loved the graphics on them, some so bright and wonderful.  They often advertised cigarettes, liquor or casino games and you'd see them on counters in stores and at bars etc.  Here's a few old boards:

 Well, these brought back some memories of my childhood.  I remember coming home from school with something similar to these when I was a kid.  Not as complex or pretty, just plain ones that they would use for fund raising purposes.  I remember I was always in trouble when it came to that time of the year because before I could get my card home with me, I would have every hole punched out of them and then my parents had to pay the full amount of money.  :o)

Since I thought the punch boards were too expensive, I started collecting the smaller, cardboard ones that I call punch cards.

The first one I got is called Lucky Girl:

You pick out the name of a girl you want, write your name next to that girl's name and punch out the hole of that girl.  You would then have to pay the amount under that name, in this case, from 1 cent to 39 cents.  The money collected went to the source raising money.

Then, these attracted me:

Probably the clowns, who knows!

Next came these:

Recently, a friend of mine came across these at a thrift shop and I snapped them up!  I loved going through all these, complete with the original paperwork, letters, envelopes to return the money, inserts etc.  What fun it is to see some of the merchandise offered!

Now, come on, who wouldn't want these items?  LOLOL!  

For some reason, this one really appeals to me!  I would LOVE to have this ashtray to go along with all this paperwork and punch card!  Oh how I want to find this in a thrift shop some day!  It's just makes me giggle.

And for that lucky couple!  His and her watches!

And for the man of the house!  A 36 piece work saver!  The letters crack me up, the all read "It's Yours - - practically as a gift!"

I got about 12 of these, so I won't show them all, but you get the idea.  They are dated around 1959 and I can say that because one of them says 1959 on it!

If you'd like to read a great article about punch boards and cards, here is an article from Collector's Weekly:

Reformed Gambling Swindle Becomes a Punch Board of Love

Hope you enjoyed yet another collection of mine!