Story pin imageA longtime Bay City Rollers fan has made one of the most surprising discoveries in the band’s memorabilia history — a hand-knitted 1974 scarf made by Woody himself, found tucked away in a thrift-shop box… with a secret hidden inside that no one knew existed for fifty years.

The fan, who prefers to remain anonymous, was browsing a secondhand store in Edinburgh when a familiar tartan pattern caught her eye. The scarf looked older, softer, clearly handmade — not mass-produced merchandise. She picked it up, noticing the uneven stitching and the small imperfections that only come from something created by hand, not a machine.

A tiny tag inside read: “Woody – ’74.”

She froze.

Rollers fans have long known that during the band’s earliest years, Woody sometimes knitted small items for giveaways, charity raffles, or fan competitions — but surviving pieces are extremely rare. Most believed only a handful still existed. That alone made the scarf a remarkable find.

But the real shock came later that evening, when she gently washed it and felt something small and solid sewn into one of the corners. At first she assumed it was a tag or button. Instead, she carefully unpicked a few stitches… and a coin slid out.

Not just any coin — a 1974 British one-pence piece, worn smooth on the edges from age.

Inside the scarf’s lining, she found a folded scrap of paper with a short handwritten message:

“For good luck — W.”

The fan burst into tears.

“I couldn’t believe what I was holding,” she later said. “It felt like a message frozen in time — something he left there for a fan who never even knew it existed.”

She posted the discovery online, and within minutes, fan communities erupted with emotion. The combination of Woody’s hand-knitting, the year 1974 — the Rollers’ early breakout period — and the hidden good-luck coin created a wave of nostalgia that stunned even longtime collectors.

Comments flooded in:

  • “This is the sweetest Woody thing ever.”

  • “A hidden lucky charm… I’m crying.”

  • “Imagine receiving that scarf in ’74 and never realizing he’d tucked a coin inside.”

Experts who examined the photos noted that the handwriting closely matches Woody’s early-’70s signature. The coin itself is authentic for that year, and the stitching around the pocket appears to have been done before the scarf was ever worn — meaning the coin was indeed hidden deliberately at the time it was made.

What makes the moment so powerful for fans is the tenderness behind the gesture. Woody didn’t just knit scarves — he quietly slipped a lucky coin inside, never announcing it, never drawing attention to it. It was a private, heartfelt act meant purely to bring someone joy.

And somehow, against all odds, the scarf resurfaced decades later with its little secret still intact.

The fan says she plans to preserve the scarf exactly as it is — coin included — and hopes someday the story will reach Woody’s family so they know how deeply the small gesture still resonates.

For Bay City Rollers fans, the discovery is more than a piece of memorabilia.
It’s a reminder of the sincerity, sweetness, and quiet thoughtfulness that made the band beloved — one hidden coin at a time.