Y23 - 1 1922 AEC Omnibus
Issued 1983
1
| The first issue was a non-
approved label design. The plain white label with red lettering (1) was
not to Schweppe's liking and it was not supposed to be issued. When it was
found out, one particular London store had these in stock it was swamped
by collectors as this was one of the only places that had them. There are
fakes of these labels around so be careful - they should be slightly
glossy and have rounded corners - the fakes have the opposite. The next
issue was the same but with the lettering in black (2) and again Schweppes
were not happy with it. Third time lucky with a yellow background and
black letters and all was ok (3). When the yellow label was applied it was
larger so the upper deck handrails had one row deleted to allow for this
and became a single row instead of a double one. Seats and lower guard
rails came in several colours, tan, light tan and dark brown.
The next issue was almost similar with a very uninspiring 'RAC' label but the same red livery (4). The next issue was for 'MAPLES' a well known London furniture store (5) but was only ever issued in the 3 piece Fathers Day set with a dark red Y11 Lagonda and a Y25 Renault van in 'Duckhams' livery. After this issue there were complaints about all the red bus issues and a change was made to a brown and cream version sporting 'HAIG' whiskey labels, a nice change to the model. Very soon after we were back with red and an on pack offer from a breakfast cereal ' RICE KRISPIES' (6) - it became a best seller for some reason and only presume there are more rice krispie eaters than YY collectors! The last issue was for 'LIFEBOUY' and had a blue and cream livery this time (7). There were 2 spellings to the destination board - 'COPTWORNE' or 'COPTHORNE' - the second is the right one. |
Box Range for Y23 -1