So I have decided to keep our second clue, because we never had a flag of the Maldives last time round, or , to be honest, even mentioned that country at all. And it also gave us a little known variant of a familiar set, by Goodies of Watford. But, most importantly, this is a Card of the Day, and its the black backed version which is the first Goodies set to ever be listed in any of our reference books - and so it can perfectly form the home page for all the Goodies issues.
For some reason this card has the flag of the Maldives but also the badge of Sarawak, which is not South Asian at all, and they share no land border. In fact there are thousands of miles between them, and an ocean. The only thing they do have in common is that technically they both fall inside "Asia".
This Flag of the Republic of Maldives has a lot of meaning. The red ;rectangle is for the blood of the nation's heroes, who are, and have been, willing to sacrifice their last drip of blood to defend their nation. The green rectangle is for the peace that they hope these selfless acts will maintain. And the white crescent moon is for Islam, the state religion.
It has not always been this flag though, at first it was simply red, and then a black and white striped section was added to the section nearest the flagpole. The crescent moon arrived sometime between 1926 and 1932 on instructions from Abdul Majeed, the current Prime Minister. In 1953, the Maldives gained the status of becoming a Republic, and the flag changed, resulting in the national flag being lost and the crescent reversed. Strangely when the Maldives were restored to a Sultanate in 1954 the national flag did not reappear, but a Sultanate flag was constructed, with a large five pointed star within the internal curvature of the crescent moon. Today that remains, as the Presidential flag.
When the Maldives gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1965, the black and white hoist was removed, on both the state flag and the Sultanate flag, giving the flags their modern form.
Goodies puzzled me, because there seemed no trace of them at all in Watford, even though these cards are addressed for "Cherry Tree Road" - however now I have got the reference books out I see they are listed in our original British Trade Index part two as also being in Bristol and that was more profitable, giving me an address of "Greenbank, Bristol 5".
The full listing in our original British Trade Index part two for Goodies is :
GOODIES Ltd., Watford & Bristol
Cards issued 1961-67.
- FLAGS & EMBLEMS. Sm. 68 x 36. Nd. (25).See D.282. ... GOT-1
Back in (a) black
(b) red.
- THE MONKEES. Sm. 66 x 35. Black , Nd. ...GOT-2
1. "First Series of 25". Black
2. "Second Series of 25", Nd. 1/25. Coloured.
- PREHISTORIC ANIMALS . Sm. 66 x 35. Nd. 25 ...GOT-3
- WIDE WORLD - PEOPLE OF OTHER LANDS. Sm. 65 x 33. Nd. (25) ...GOT-4
Now the only missing info from this is the fact that our set has siblings, as denoted by the reference "See D.282". That takes us to the back of the same book, where it is revealed that the set can be found in four formats,, namely :
D.282. FLAGS AND EMBLEMS. Nd. (25)
- Amaran Tea - Set AME-4
- Goodies Ltd. - Set GOT-1
- A.S. Prior - Set PTO-4
- Anonymous, Letterpress back
These all seem identical to our listing save the one from A.S. Prior, [issued with fish and chips, which sounds rather messy], for their set is listed as being 68 x 35 m/m not 68 x 36 m/m.
Now despite the fact that the listing in our British Trade Index part one says "Cards issued 1961-67.", this is only because that book was released in 1969. Our British Trade Index, part three, brings the story up to date, or at least to 1986, by listing quite a quantity of other sets, namely :
GOODIES Ltd. - GOT in II.
- Doctor Who and the Daleks. 68 x 36. Nd. (50). Issued 1969 .....GOT-6
- Indian Tribes. 68 x 36. Nd. (25). Issued 1969 .....GOT-7
- Mini Monsters. 68 x 36. Nd. (25). Issued 1970 .....GOT-8
- Olympics. 68 x 36. Nd. (24). Issued 1972 .....GOT-9
- Pirates. 68 x 36. Nd. (25). Issued 1970 .....GOT-10
- Robbers & Thieves. 68 x 36. Nd. (25). Issued 1971 .....GOT-11
- Vanishing Animals. 68 x 36. Nd. (25). Issued 1971 .....GOT-12
- Weapons through the Ages. 68 x 36. Nd. (25). Issued 1970 .....GOT-13
- Wicked Monarchs. 68 x 36. Nd. (25). Issued 1973 .....GOT-14
- Wild LIfe. 68 x 36. Nd. (25). Issued 1969 .....GOT-15
- World Cup. 68 x 36. Nd. (25). Issued 1974 .....GOT-16
That was the last entry in the four original British Trade Indexes for Goodies, save in the fourth book where their issues are cross referenced as being included in books two and three.
Our next British Trade Index was an updated volume which collated all the information from those four original books, and so the sets are in a slightly different order. It also provides all the dates of issue, and therefore reads as :
GOODIES Ltd., Watford & Bristol
Confectionery, Sweet Cigarettes. Issued 1961-71. Later issues in post 1970 volume.
- DOCTOR WHO AND THE DALEKS. 1969. 68 x 36. Nd. (50). .....GOO-150
- FLAGS & EMBLEMS. 1963. 68 x 36. Nd. (25).See HX-17. ... GOO-160
Back in (a) black
(b) red.
- INDIAN TRIBES.1969. 68 x 36. Nd. (25).....GOO-170
- MINI MONSTERS. 1970. 68 x 36. Nd. (25). Cards issued in packs of Sweet Cigarettes. Set of 4 packs, displaying different insect "monsters" .....GOO-190
- THE MONKEES. 1967/68. 66 x 35. Black , Nd. ...GOO-200
1. "First Series of 25". Black
2. "Second Series of 25", Nd. 1/25. Coloured.
- OLYMPICS. 1971. 68 x 36. Nd. (24)......GOO-210
- PIRATES. 1970. 68 x 36. Nd. (25). Issued 1970 .....GOO-210
- PREHISTORIC ANIMALS . 1968.. 66 x 35. Nd. 25 ...GOO~-220
- ROBBERS & THIEVES. 1971. 68 x 36. Nd. (25). ....GOO-230
- VANISHING ANIMALS. 1971. 68 x 36. Nd. (25). .....GOO-240
- WEAPONS THROUGH THE AGES. 1970.. 68 x 36. Nd. (25)......GOO-250
- WIDE WORLD - PEOPLE OF OTHER LANDS. 1968. Sm. 65 x 33. Nd. (25) ...GOO-260
- WILD LIFE. 1969. 68 x 36. Nd. (25). .....GOO-270
We also know that the "Pirates" set had different boxes - showing, respectively, Blackbeard, Barbarossa, Koxinga, and Mary Read.
Two sets are missing, from this list, "Wicked Monarchs" and "World Cup", but we will deal with those in a minute, because the reference "See HX-17" takes us to a separate book, the handbook, where the information is more or less the same as D.282 :
HX-17. FLAGS AND EMBLEMS. Nd. (25) Issued by :
- Amaran Tea - See AMB-100
- Anonymous, Titled text back - See ZAF-120
- Goodies Ltd. - See GOO-160
- A.S. Prior - See PRI-540
Now back to the two missing sets, for they are part of the " Later issues in post 1970 volume". In fact six sets are there, and the full listing reads :
GOODIES Ltd., Watford & Bristol (Sweet Cigarettes)
- OLYMPICS. Issued 1971. Size (A). 65 x 33. Nd. (25)......GOO-200
- ROBBERS & THIEVES. Issued 1971. Size (A). 65 x 33. Nd. (25). ....GOO-230
- VANISHING ANIMALS. Album issued. Issued 1971. Size (A). 65 x 33. Nd. (25). .....GOO-240
- WICKED MONARCHS. Album issued. Issued 1973. Size (A). 65 x 33. Nd. (25). .....GOO-255
- WIDE WORLD - PEOPLE OF OTHER LANDS. Reissued in 1972 on white board.
Issued 1972. Size (A). 65 x 33. Nd. (25). .....GOO-260
- WORLD CUP `74. Issued 1974. Size (A). 68 x 36 Nd. (25). .....GOO-280