RonB
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BAFSV'SForum’s been a bit quiet lately so I thought I’d share this.(maybe of interest to our older members.)
A local charity collects unwanted foreign coins which are then exchanged to augment the funds. Among those brought in the other day were BAFSV’s to the value of two shillings and nine pence. No use to the charity but it set me thinking. This amount was slightly less than one day’s pay for a National Serviceman in the 1950’s but on active service in BAOR it could buy 50 cigarettes, or, more to my liking, 4 day’s supply of morning coffee and a doughnut at the NAAFI in Birgelin. You could also exchange it for about 1.5 Deutschmarks and buy a litre of pilsner.
Good grief – I’m starting to sound as old as I look!
Ron
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jr
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BAFSVs continued to be used in Berlin until 1st January 1977. Notes were used for 50p, 10p and 5p denominations, and normal coins for 2p and 1p.
A pint of beer in the NAAFI cost 4p, the more up-market drinkers drank bottled Schultheiss or Becks for 6p. A tot cost 3p, a can of coke 8p. (Always knew coke was bad for you) 
We were not allowed to have German bank accounts in Berlin then, you had to cash UK cheques at the Pay Office, drawing your needs in a mixture of BAFSVs and DMs. The fixed rate was about 8 DMs to the pound in 1971, during the late 70s the rate nose-dived to about 3. 
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kerby
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Ron, 60 cigarettes, 40 Senior Service and 20 Woodbines (9 pence for 20).
Keith (1955)
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GerryK
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BAFVSThere is a picture of a BAFV note value 6p on the Gallery for 1951-54.
Werent in use during my time at Langeleben, except on visits to Gatau (Berlin)
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GerryK
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BAFVSI should of course said GATOW !!!
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David Thomas
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Hi Gerry, It happens, sometimes we all have to eat our words. Dave T.
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RonB
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BAFSVsThanks Keith -I remembered the price of Capstan and Senior Service but being a non smoker forgot about the 'Woodies'. Things I don't remember, and don't really want to, are the prices of boot polish, brasso and those big yellow dusters they sold.
I didn't realise the vouchers lasted into decimal currency, though.
Ron (Lang '56)
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paul croxson
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It's great to see Ron and Keith on the Forum talking about the 'Good Old Days'. We had no NAAFI of course in those days and boot polish and Brasso were not top of our list of purchases. Racking my brains, for the life of me, I cannot remember where we went shopping for that sort of thing. There must have been a 'run' to another NAAFI somewhere. Was it Braunschweig or was there something at Helmstedt? I certainly went for a bath to the MP's barracks there.
Stubbings kindly reminded me of the time when I broke my glasses and had to wear those appalling wire framed ones supplied by the Army to wear under a gas mask. Thank you Mike. He also claimed that he had dragged me out of a snowdrift once on the way back from Konigslutter when I was showing a strong preference for sleeping. I wonder where I got my replacement specs from!
On that subject, whilst emailing JR on the subject of dummies for the hoped for exhibition next year, he mentioned that he could only get hold of a dummy that could stand or lie down. That actually is how I remember Langeleben. To me, my time seemed to have been spent mainly 'on my pit'. What on earth did we do to pass away the time when not on shift or sleeping? Eventually there was a radio for general use; a gramophone for the 1/2 dozen records we had - MJQ, Gerry Mulligan, Brubeck. The odd newspaper did appear but, and I asked this before, did we have access to any books? Time must have hung on our hands until we got to Friday night.
On the subject of ciggies, there were also the round tins of 50 which, when a bit flush, were an absolute requirement for a Friday or Saturday night out. The big problem was smuggling them out to flog at Schumanns.
They were a bit obvious in the old pocket!
On the subject of my 'Pit'. Has anyone any idea if Eddie Potts is still around from that era. He was the World's worst drinker, I reckon, and on the odd occasion when he went to town he would invariably return pi..ed and puke in our bed space. Otherwise a lovely chap with a lovely girlfriend in the UK.
Its incredible but during my time in Germany only 2 LT Roddy Braithwaite made any attempt to teach us any German of which I took every advantage with the result that with the 'bit' I had acquired I was constantly being asked to chat up frauleins for the less gifted. Bloody amazing thing was that I was frequently successful on behalf of a 'orrible little GD man but totally useless on my own behalf except for the one occasion when Bob Wells and I lured 2 poor innocent (you must be joking)young things up to Luttersprings. We both recalled this at Loughborough this year and the fact that we got nowhere, not even a crafty grope.
The one young lady I did manage to have some success with, JR tells me , is still very much arouind in Braunsweig. (I wonder if I have the guts to ask if I could meet up if only for a couple of beers. I doubt if we have changed very much over the past 54 years).
I reminisce enough. Time to put on the souwester and battle my way to the shops in the force 9 gale and torrential rain here in Southsea to do the last dog-ends of Christmas shopping.
Its good to life back in the Forum.
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kerby
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Paul, There you go again. The good old days. I wonder what us National Service men would have done if we had not been at Langeleben. As I have stated previously, there must have been some attraction that caused me to cancel a Xmas leave in 1955. Was it the beer or the lasses or maybe the cheap cigarettes.
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paul croxson
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There was something else, Keith.
We actually enjoyed the company of each other and the work for most of us was better than what we were to mgo back to upon demob. In my case I never went back to my old pre-nat service.
The freedom to smoke too much and drink far too much also helped.
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kerby
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Paul, I forgot the most important item, the comradeship of all at Langeleben. Hence we have such a good web site. Here's to one and all Keith
PS Gives me an excuse to have a tot or two. Just off to get another bottle 
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GerryK
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BAFVSI'll second that, cheers. Gerry.
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kerby
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Phew, just got back so can have a we dram or two. Got a good deal, Grouse at 9 quid a bottle. Cheap but not as cheap as the mess in 55 Cheers.
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Gordon
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Paul
Just read your comment on army issue wire-framed specs. Too true, they were awful. During my first week in the army I unwisely wore them during a PT session. They did stay on, but when it came to beam work, the ground looked eight feet away through the right-hand lens and ten feet away through the left. I discovered that I got on better if I closed both eyes.
... and in case I forget, a Happy Christmas to all Forum contributors.
Gordon
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Tom Neal
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I see that sods law has jumped in again. We started off with BAFSV's and are now talking of glasses and the liquid that goes into them.
Not complaining as I had a drop of Glenlfidich myself last night.
Tom
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paul croxson
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Some of the youngsters, Tom, might not know about BAFSV but they will certainly know about glasses - unless they all follow that horrible modern habit of drinking out of the bottle. I hate it and so have happy memories of watching a cat peeing on (marking) a pile crates filled with unopened bottles at my old Club. No one washed them before drinking!
Anyway, I am sure that the old lags will remember the sounds in the Deutscheshaus - we Schumann's drinkers were far too civilised for that sort of thing - of moistened fingers being rubbed around the rims of the glasses. You couldn't do that with a bottle. What a loss to the world of music. All that and Elvis and Katerina Valente on the jukebox. Now that was real music wasn't it? .... I think!
Anyway ' a change (even of the subject) is as good as a holiday' and surely this is Langeleben's answer to "Mornington Crescent.
Humph requiscat in pace.
Is that right Gordon?
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Gordon
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Almost Paul, almost. An "e" has dropped out. Should be requiescat. Fat finger, perhaps? Or lapsus digiti, as we say in the trade. Now you see why people avoid me at parties, indeed, at other times too!
Gordon
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