Four digit numbers are everywhere. To withdraw cash from the hole in the wall, unlock the phone or laptop, spend on the credit card, or de-activate the burglar alarm, we need those numbers. As a child, growing up in the late 1950s there was only one important set of digits; my mother’s Co-op number.
For those who are lucky enough to be too young to remember, this is how it worked. The local Co-operative Society of which you were a member may have had a number of branches, or in a small village may have been the only shop. Within the shop would be various counters at which you would queue for meat, vegetables, fish, butter, flour etc which would be weighed, wrapped and placed in a brown paper bag.…
