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16 August 2010

The Number 73 Coin...

Get down to 73! Neil Buchanan, Dawn Lodge (Andrea Arnold), Ethel Davis (Sandi Toksvig) and Harry Stern (Nick Staverson) provided Saturday morning TV fun in the 1980s. The series ran from 1982 to 1988.

I've had an interesting e-mail from Ian, regarding my favourite Saturday morning kids' show ever - No 73.

Ian was a No 73 viewer in 1986, and watched an episode in which a guest demonstrated how coins were made and pressed.

Ian recalls that around one hundred special No 73 coins were made, and offered to the first one hundred viewers to write in.

Ian tells me:

I was lucky enough to get one and it originally came in a small red gift box with a letter signed by the crew, unfortunately the box and letter have long gone but I have held onto the coin for all these years.

The coin was inscribed with the initials of the No 73 occupants of the time - N for Neil, K for Kim, D for Dawn and H for Harry, and the year it was produced - 1986.

Ian writes:

I have looked a number of times on the internet for anything to do with the coin but have never found anything, if anyone else out there still has one it would be great to know

So, if anybody has a No 73 coin like Ian's, please drop me a line.

I have been in touch with a very kind and helpful contact of mine who has access to the No 73 archive to ask if the coin episode still exists, and he informs me that all the seasons from 1982-1985 are intact, but after that it becomes very patchy, with many gaps. The episode won't exist on any professional format.

If anybody videod the coin episode, or any other No 73 episodes from 1986-1988, we'd love to hear from you!

Both sides of the No 73 coin - images provided by Ian.

Read all our No 73 posts here.

2 comments:

Adam R - Punchboard Reviews said...

I had a Number 73 badge, from the era when the logo was on a pair of saloon doors (the T in middle). I seem to remember we wrote letters to them at school and we had them sent to us.

I now have the theme music stuck in my head for the rest of the day, thanks for that ;)

Drew said...

Well, Adam, at least it's a cheerful tune! We have the front door and saloon door badges here. Thanks for writing :)