Tinking About Tins

Obviously, we’re always looking for interesting tins and boxes to be used as amps or effects or whatever, and so when a ‘job lot’ comes up on eBay, I tend to get interested.

One such selection showed-up today, and very nice it is too as I’m sure I’ll show you in the coming months, though one of the boxes that stood out has left me with a wee dilemma.

Basically it is an old (pre-meter) tin that the electricity boards used to give out to people so that they could save up enough money to pay their bills. Shaped like a little bible, it is made of tin and covered with vinyl. Even the sides are finished to look like the collected pages of the ‘book’ and there is a slot for coins and a hole that will take a rolled-up note, which was probably optimistic, I would imagine. This one was issued by the Yorkshire Electricity Board for Area 4, wherever that is.

All in all, a beautiful thing and very interesting, and if something I would happily turn into an amp or effect, or maybe keep as a moneybox.

But that isn’t the dilemma. Where my problem starts and end is with how I manage to open it. You see it has a keyhole, but no key, and I’m not sure whether the leccy man would have held it, or whether it was something the customer would keep.

Interesting though, so any information or advice gratefully received.
Just call me Arthur Negus.
La la la.