A 38-year-old metro ticket with a love note on the back has been found at the Monument metro station in Newcastle.
Vikki Scott, the ticket finder, stumbled upon it on Thursday afternoon while passing through the station. She told The Sun: “I got off the metro at Monument and as I was walking towards Fenwicks through the metro station, I noticed it on the floor.
“It was face up so my initial reaction was ‘wow what a relic’.”
When the 25-year-old picked up the ticket from 19th of August 1980 which has been laying on the floor, she noticed a love note on the back of it dated 14th of November 1982, saying simply “I Love You True”.
Scott then took to Twitter to try to find the rightful owner and reunite them with the lost ticket.
.@My_Metro just found this on the floor at Monument & it looks sentimental. Please could you RT to hopefully find the owner :)? pic.twitter.com/iLNWOs4Oxr
— vikki scott (@vikkisco) April 19, 2018
The old ticket is Edmondson-style, used by the Tyne and Wear Metro between August 1980 and June 2013, which makes the ticket one of the first sold tickets from the lot.
Statistics show that between 1980 and 2014, close to 750 million tickets like this one were sold.
Vikki said: “I have a very keen eye for things like this and I have a box full of collected photographs at home that I’ve found over the years.
“As I was examining it I noticed the little love note on the back and I knew it clearly meant something to someone for them to keep it for 38 years.
“I know people often keep little sentimental keepsakes in their purses and wallets so I think this could have fallen out when they were getting something out.
“I took a picture straight away and turned to the Metro Twitter in the hope they could help me reach more people in the hope of finding who it belongs to.”
The Metro response was prompt and they offered their help in the search.
The tweet went viral and several news stations retweeted the post hoping to find the owner and the story behind this “relic”.
She continued: “This is a one of a kind object that no-one else can ever own. It clearly depicts the love between two people.
“I’m really happy with the interest it’s had on Twitter. I feel that the internet can have such a huge voice and the public can use it to really come together to hopefully reach the owner.”
At the time of writing, the tweet has over 3,900 retweets and more than 2,800 likes. With a bit of luck the old ticket will be ‘home’ soon.