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It is amazing how many clues a simple
little Smarties lid can hold to its history.

 

Rowntrees started making Smarties in 1937
and added plastic lids in the 1950s.

 

Just answer a few simple questions to find out
how old your Smarties lid is.

 

1. Does your lid have ROWNTREE
written on it?

 

 

 

 

2. Does it have a letter on it?

 

 

 

 

 

 Is it a capital letter?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is it bigger than
other Smarties lids?

 

 

larger

 

smaller

 


A diameter of 2.4cm suggests that this is a larger lid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Does it have smarties written
on it?

 

 

 

 

3. Does it have a lower case letter?

 

 

 

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SMARTIES LIDS
who knew there was so much to know about these discarded bits of plastic...?

 

Rowntrees started making Smarties in 1937 but did not introduce tubes with plastic lids
until the 1950s. In 1965, the UK went metric
so lids shrank from being an inch in
diameter to 22mm.

 

In 1988, Nestle took over Rowntree Macintosh and so the lids, soon after, stopped being branded 'Rowntree' and instead bore
the name 'Smarties'.

 

In 2005, reducing plastic use, Nestle
switched to hexagonal card boxes with
card lids.

 

Nearly, 20 years later, however, the lids - having been washed into the sea through storm drains - are still washing up on beaches, some dating back to the early 1950s. Each lid has little clues to its age.

 

 

 

1950s
Rowntree, blank on the reverse

 

Rowntree introduced plastic lids
in the 1950s.These are larger lids
(an inch in diameter) than the later
ones and the earliest examples have
a squared off tab rather then the
more rounded tabs introduced
later and were blank.
These 'imperial' lids were produced in orange, dark blue, yellow and green.

THIS BLUE LID ABOVE WAS
FOUND AND PHOTOGRAPHED 

BY L CRAWSHAW. THANK YOU!




 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Late 1950s / early 1960s
a larger lid, squared off tab,
with a capital letter

 

The example pictured suggests that the lids were not always printed the 'right way up' ie. Rowntree is not the same orientation as the letter on the other side.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 


 

 

pre-1965
a larger lid, with a capital letter


Rowntree went metric shortly after 1965 and, as a result, the lids got a little smaller, previously having been an inch in diameter (24mm). Later lids have a diameter of 22mm).

 


 

 

 

  

 

 

Late 1950s / early 1960s
Imperial lid, number

 

Not many of these were produced
- so these can definitely
be considered rare. I have only
have found these two.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

c1965 - c1975
ROWNTREE + upper case letter

 

A lid issued before the mid-1970s. Rowntree put capital letters on the lids until around 1975.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 c1975-1988
ROWNTREE + lower case letter

 

Your lid was made after the
mid-1970s
but before 1988 as that is
the year Smarties were taken
on by Nestle. 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

1988-2005
smarties + lower case letter


These were made between 1988
and 2005. In 2005, Smarties switched to tubes with
cardboard lids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

2000

smarties + a word


In 2000, football related Smarties were issued by Nestle.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

One side blank

or a name that is neither Smarties or Rowntree.

 

These are a non-Smarties brand, perhaps from overseas. Chances are that they are relatively modern.

 

 

 

 

 

  
   

 

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