ellis and mchardy coal sack

At the time of all the excitement of Aberdeen heading for the Cup Winners Cup Final in Gothenburg with the prospect of the Scottish Cup Final to follow a couple of weeks later, the Granite City was bedecked in the colours of the Dons. Businesses all over town dressed their windows with scarves, rosettes, posters and soft toys to demonstrate their support of the Reds as they strove for glory.

One firm came up with a novel way to contribute to the build-up in excitement. A leading coal merchant with a fleet of delivery trucks, they took the initiative and had a specially designed hundredwieght coal sack produced to add colour to their deliveries with a red and white stripe overprinted with details of the most recent Cup success and the finals yet to come.

Back in 2018 a surviving example of the special sack was donated to The Aberdeen Collection by Alastair Gray and this unusual artefact is now proudly on show in the Fierce Beer 1983 Lounge – formerly known as the Gothenburg Lounge.