I have a one pound as well. To think I kept it as a souveneer when we were on only four and a half quid a week in the early sixties. I must have been crazy!!!!!!! GREAT MEMORIES THO.

BAFs or BAFFS they were called, can't remember what that stood for though, The BA bit is probably British Army. I remember them as a child, What are these new ones then?

Jim,
They were British Armed Forces Vouchers (BAFV). I can remember them from Brat days too. They had plastic coins too, with 6 or 8 sides, but can't remember which one. I know they had 3d & 6d notes. I think they stopped using them around 1958/59 when they went over to Deutsch Marks.

They were still used in Berlin up to the late 1970's

There were 3d,6d,1 shilling,ten bob £1. and upwards.One penny coins were o.k.I dont remember plastic coins tho.I recall still using BAFV,S IN 1960.

I don't remember plastic coins either, Thanks JAL, I think it was the "New Pence" bit that threw me

Coutesy of Larry (G)

I remember these and the plastic coins! I remember sitting in the Sally Ann or some such place as my parents or whomever would 'split' the edges of these notes and extract the sliver thread up inside (thereby reducing the face value to "0"). That would have been during our first tour (59-63) and I don't recall where the notes and plastic coins were used...I have it in my head they were, as mentioned, essentially 'in house' vouchers at the Red Patch Club, NAAFIs, Salvation Army canteens, and in the variou Messes...but I could be wrong.

I think they were only for use in Army/Military places Stephen, I can remember using DM's in German shops, not quite sure where my dad got them unless they were paid in part in DM's

I remember the one shilling BAFFS purchased 20 Senior Service cigarettes in 1953-4.
Our ration was 7 packets for 7/-. Tins of roll-up tobacco were not rationed, so most of us rolled our own and flogged the cigs to the locals.
Canadians could use BAFFS too in BAOR.
We were paid in BAFFS. We also used them in the NAAFI in Ripon, Bielefeld. We could exchange them for DM's. We could exchange UK £ notes for DM's, but there was a limit imposed by the British Goverrnment-not sure what it was-£50 then I believe!

Good to see some have been preserved!

And that £5 pound note-had two of them in my first pay packet for a months salary in August 1945-and this is the first one that I've seen since then!

I went round to My Mum's last night and I was telling her about this thread, talk about opening the floodgates of her memory!! She does remember the plastic coins but seems to think they weren't much used? She said that Dad got paid in BAFFS but the unit pay office would then convert these into DM's for you, BUT also most German shops prior to 1950 would accept them as valid currency at an exchange rate of DM 30 to the pound. Obviously I don't remember that, but I do remember that when I joined up the exchange rate was DM 12 to the pound Sterling.

BAFSV (British Armed Forces Special Vouchers) were not valid in German shops in 1952 (it was illegal for German nationals to possess BAFSV).
Nor was it legal to exhange UK £s for DMs.
The idea of BAFSV was to prevent anyone other than British fcrces and their dependents shopping in the NAAFI.
Soldiers put in their pay requirements on a Monday specifying how much to be in BAFSV and how much in DMs. I have spend hours trying to change BAFSV for DMs on a Saturday in order to visit the local guesthouse!! It was also illegal to sell cigarettes or coffee to locals but it was one way of getting hold of DMs!!

So there you go folks-different memories from different people-fantastic trip down memory lane! But it is all a part of military history preserved for the future!