Cash in a Flash

Above: Front and back of an unopened
'Cash in a Flash' game card.

CASH IN A FLASH was a promotional game issued by Standard Oil of Ohio at its Sohio and Boron gas stations starting in 1967. This was a collect-and-win game with instant winners. The game consisted of a square, cardboard game card (about 2.25" square) given to customers each time they visited a participating Sohio or Boron gas station.

The Cash in a Flash game cards are perforated with a middle section designed to be removed and unfolded. When unfolded, it reveals two printed game pieces. Each game piece is one-half of a cash prize amount. The objective was to collect two matching halves of the same dollar amount, in which case the player won that amount. Some game pieces are instant winners; they contain both halves of the same dollar amount.

There are at least two versions of this game. The first version was released in 1967 with a top prize of $1,000. The second version was released in 1968 and had a top prize of $3,000. All of the information on this page refers only to the second version.

Cash prizes were $1, $2, $5, $10, $25, $100, $1,000 and $3,000.

Interestingly, at first glance it does not appear that this game was produced exclusively for Standard Oil of Ohio. This is because the game cards are generic and do not mention any gas station or oil company name on them. This is very unusual for an oil company promotion. The game was produced by Creative Merchandising, Inc., who produced at least three prize games for Standard Oil of Ohio ... all with generically-printed game cards. One possible explanation is so Standard Oil of Ohio could issue the game pieces at their Sohio gas stations (in Ohio) and also at their Boron gas stations (outside of Ohio) without any branding confusion.

Standard Oil of Ohio was running the first version of this game as early as January, 1967 in Pennsylvania, and the second version as late as April, 1969 in Ohio. It is unclear how many different versions of the game were released, or what the start and end dates were for the games.

Sohio followed the first version of the 'Cash in a Flash' game with a similar game named 'Super Cash in a Flash' in 1968 (which you can see here), and then 'Pay-Day' later in 1968 (which you can see here).

Above: A game card with the game piece section removed.

Above: Front and back of a typical game piece showing two halves of a dollar amount.

Each game piece contains two halves. Typically the two halves are of different amounts but some game pieces are INSTANT WINNERS. They contain both halves of the same amount. At least 25 different printed game cards were issued. The table below lists observed game piece combinations in the game cards.

Left Side	Right Side
$1	$2
$1	$10
$1	$100
$1	$3,000
$5	$2
$5	$10
$5	$100
$5	$3,000
$25	$2
$25	$10
$25	$100
$25	$3,000
$1,000	$2
$1,000	$10
$1,000	$100
$1,000	$3,000

Above: A variety of common game pieces.

Eight different cash prizes were available. The winning halves are listed in the table below.

Prize Amount	Common Half	Winning Half
$1	Right Half	Left Half
$2	Left Half	Right Half
$5	Right Half	Left Half
$10	Left Half	Right Half
$25	Right Half	Left Half
$100	Left Half	Right Half
$1,000	Right Half	Left Half
$3,000	Left Half	Right Half

Above: Game piece containing the winning half (left half) of the $1.00 prize.

Above: Scarce Instant Winner game piece for the $1.00 prize.

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