Two wallets, with pill packet and instruction booklet. Each packet contains 28 pills and is printed with the days of the week to make it easier to remember to take the pill. They were produced by Schering AG in Germany. Before the 1950s contraceptive pills were too expensive to mass produce because the hormones they contained had to be prepared in the laboratory from animal tissue. It only became economic for pharmaceutical companies to produce them when chemists discovered cheaper sources of the hormones in plants. These were used to make synthetic hormones which could alter the female menstrual cycle, preventing pregnancy. The 'Pill' was launched in 1960 and became closely linked with the changing sexual attitudes of the 'swinging sixties'.