1947 Punchboard with a White Art Deco Mirror-Tone Radio as the Prize

Description

Offered is an unused punchboard from c1947. This card offered a Mirror-Tone radio as the prize. The Mirror-Tone was made by John Meck in 1947. A
punchboard
is a game board, primarily consisting of a number of holes, which was used once for lottery. Punchboards were originally used in the 18th century for gambling purposes. In the late 1800s, a new type of punchboard was introduced. This one involved putting paper in both the front and back of the hole (to help prevent operators from cheating). These new punchboards became popular purchases at drugstores and they were sold with a metal stylus. The punchboard soon became increasingly similar to today's lottery tickets. Soon, the punchboard became cheap and easy to assemble, and the industry flourished. Noted gambling author John Scarne estimates that 30 million punchboards were sold in the years between 1910 and 1915. He also estimates that 50 million punchboards were sold in 1939 alone, during the peak of their popularity. After World War II, use of the punchboard as a gambling tool began to decline because many people frowned at its gambling-like nature, and the punchboard was outlawed in many states. The use of punchboards for advertisement started to gain popularity. Many companies started hiding goods such as bottles of beer and cigarettes inside punchboards. Zippo lighters reportedly sold more than 300,000 lighters through punchboard advertising between 1934 and 1940. 4 ¼” x 5 ¼”. Unpunched.