S&H Green Stamps was a line of trading stamps popular in the United States from 1896 until the late 1980s.  They were distributed as part of a rewards program operated by the Sperry & Hutchinson company founded by Thomas Sperry of Cranford, New Jersey and Shelley Byron Hutchinson of Ypsilanti, Michigan.  They made money by selling the stamps to retailers who would then give them to their customers.  10 stamps for every dollar spent. Consumers would save up their stamps and then exchange them for products from the S&H catalog or at S&H redemption centers which numbered 600 nationwide by the mid-1960s.  The variety of products that Green Staps could be redeemed for was amazing!  By the 1960s, the S&H "Ideabook" catalog contained 178 pages of items from dish towels and ash trays to fishing poles, bicycles, furniture and applicances.  In 1966, Pennsyvlania school children even collected 5.4 million stamps to buy a pair of gorillas: one went to the Pittsburgh Zoo in Highland Park while the other one, a female named Samantha went to Glenwood Park Zoo in Erie, Pennsyvlania to serve as a mate for their male gorilla, Lonesome George. 

During the 1960s, the company issued more stamps than the U.S. Postal Service and distributed 35 million catalogs a year.  Customers received stamps at the checkout counters of supermarkets, department stores and gasoline stations among other retailers, which could then be redeemed for products from the catalog.  Top Value Stamps ceased operations in the early 1980s after which S&H accepting savings books for those who had unredeemed Top Value books, before S&H, itself, ceased business. 

Newspaper ad for the program shows the stamps and gives a description of the programs and offers.

Circa 1910

S&H Green Stamps were so popular they were mentioned in songs, movies and television shows.  The Beatles and Pat Boone are just two of the many who mentioned S&H Green Stamps in a song or movie.