Which were invented earlier, British Smarties or Czech Lentilky?

British Smarties

Smarties were invented by Rowntrees in York (UK) in 1937 and were sold for 2d (old pennies) a time. Nestle bought the company (by then called Rowntrees Macintosh after an earlier merger) in 1988. Click here for supporting evidence for this claim.

Today, Nestles make Smarties at:
York (U.K - 530,000 tubes a day!), Czechia, Hamburg (Germany), Toronto (Canada), East London (South Africa), Melbourne (Australia), Thailand and Malaysia where they produce special "Halal approved" Smarties!
http://www.classaxe.com/smarties/

They were both invented in 1937, the Czech Lentilky is the same as the British Smartie:
In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Smarties are called Lentilky.
http://www.classaxe.com/smarties/

Smarties were launched as Chocolate Beans in 1937. Initially priced at 2d, they were renamed Smarties and packed in the famous tube one year later.
http://www.classaxe.com/smarties/invented.html

Lentilky, the Czech Smarties, now also by Nestlé. (I dunno...if you ask me, they are BOTH M&M's.)



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarties_%28Nestl%C3%A9%29

Different shape from M&Ms. M&Ms are fatter in shape, a bit like a rounded off rugby football. Smarties are a flatter shape rather more like a discus. M&Ms were based on the Smartie, though. http://www.bigfoto.com/sites/galery/photos5/smarties-jxs4.jpg The nearest shape to M&Ms in a UK product is Paynes Poppets, but they are chocolate overed, not centred. They are glazed, though. Lentilky actually have a name derived from Latin, which is unusual in a Slav country. Lens is the Latin for a bean. http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lentilky

It seems that the Czech version is actually older, dating back to 1907!

http://ekonomika.idnes.cz/ekonomika.asp?r=ekonomika&c=A040728_130201_ekonomika_ven

http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lentilky