This Bookseller Allowed a Buyer to Use a 50-Year-Old Token

We’ve all been in that situation where we receive a gift voucher or something similar, and tuck it away in a drawer or wallet, only to remember its existence a little too late. That sudden, sinking disappointment as we checked the expiration date, only to find it was last month or even last year.

But in the UK, for one lucky book shopper, this wasn’t the case. Despite the tokens the customer was using being over a decade old, they were still accepted, registered, and exchanged for stock!

We’re shocked, amazed, and, to be honest, jealous!

What Are National Book Tokens?

The National Book Token is a staple among Brits. They started in the 1920s when a publisher by the name of Harold Raymond noted that books were rarely ever given as gifts. To him, it made little sense. Many of the other gifts he received were much less enjoyable, he deemed, than a book.

He concluded, in the end, that one of the reasons people never gave books as gifts was out of fear of getting it wrong. After all, people’s books and reading differ so vastly! It can feel impossible to get someone a book you know that they’ll really love and dig their teeth into.

So he came up with the idea of the National Book Tokens to ensure that people felt comfortable giving the gift of a good book, and to take away that stress of ‘will they like it?’. With a book token, your friend or family can get whatever they want, and enjoy their own story of choice!

Now, the organization stands for much more than just book vouchers. They work with schools and other organizations to promote literacy and education and even work with Book Aid, an international project. Book Aid’s goal is to help get books out to students and readers in areas where people simply do not have access to books or reading.

The organization also works to promote and support high street bookstores and promotes World Book Day. It has worked with World Book Day for 30 years to promote reading for pleasure in schools and bookstores.

What Happened With the 50-Year-Old Tokens?

When a customer arrived at Waterstones in the Trafford Center in Manchester, we bet she wasn’t sure whether she’d be laughed out of the shop when she presented a series of National Book Tokens that were from the 1970s.

But, contrary to expectations, the Waterstones bookseller at the Trafford Center who was faced with the wonderful vintage National Book Tokens accepted them with a grin. The book tokens themselves have no expiry date, so the clerk took them and did his best to cash them in.

The bookseller, Brian Cohen, said that in his 22 years of working at Waterstones, he’d only been shown such vintage book tokens once before. Born in 1976 himself, Cohen took joy at knowing that there was a high chance that the book tokens he was handling were in fact older than himself!

It turns out that the customer’s elderly father had once been given the book vouchers, and had simply never gotten around to using them. As a result, they’d been left in a drawer to gather dust until she came around and saved the day!

Unfortunately, because of the difference in costs of books way back in the 1970s when the customer first received them, they didn’t quite get as many books as they might’ve done in the day. But, the customer did take away one book with them: The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy.

As it turns out, pretty much any National Book Token can be used and accepted by booksellers, so long as the booksellers in question know what they’re dealing with. Although, there is a bit of difference between the older and the newer tokens.

Modern National Book Tokens vs. Vintage National Book Tokens

A large number of the modern National Book Tokens are digital, not paper. This is the chief difference between the older and newer National Book Tokens. These digital tokens generally have an eight-year expiry date on them.

However, according to both Brian Cohen, an experienced bookseller, and The National Book Tokens, this balance can be moved. If a customer has an expired digital balance, it can be shifted over to another account for use, so long as the booksellers can phone National Book Tokens to do so.

So, in theory, other than the format, there isn’t much of a difference between old and new. They’ve just been digitized!

Where can you get National Book Tokens?

National Book Tokens are only available to buy and use in the UK. They can be bought online, or in one of the thousands of participating bookstores. Once bought, a National Book Token can be used in pretty much every major UK bookselling chain, including WHSmiths, Waterstones, Blackwell’s, Easons, John Smith, Foyles, and a number of independent bookstores, too.

You can also win tokens, signed books, and gift cards by signing up for the National Book Token website mailing list, speaking to booksellers, and engaging with their regular competitions.