Early plastics 1972–1978
Specimen Access cards from the 1970s, kindly provided by Stew Mills. Click a card to turn it over.
Acknowledgement
These cards were kindly provided by Stew Mills. It’s fascinating to see such early cards, with no magnetic stripe and with the Master Charge logo rather than the later MasterCard one. To see where the 4987 and 5224 card numbers come in, read History 1973–77.
1972
This is representative of the very first Access cards. Unfortunately it doesn’t show the original 4-prefixed card number, but it’s clear the cards had no link to Master Charge or Eurocard at the time. The card carries the names of the original three banks: Lloyds Bank, National Westminster Bank and Midland Bank.
1974
Now sporting the Master Charge and Eurocard logos on the back. The cards aren’t tied to any one bank – nor are all the banks listed on the card.
