What are the holes in the mudguard for? I just got an old bike from the 80-90s from my grandfather and I wold like to repair and clean it to use it as backup bike.

This bike has a lot of holes in the mudguard, is it decoration or dit it had a purpose?

Here is a photo of the bike:


PD: This holes are only in the rear mudguard.
All was said already, those holes are for so called coat protector (those prevent your coat or trench being caught by the revolving wheel).
What was not done is placing a picture of one, and one picture saves thousand of words.




By the way, quite popular and easily available in The Netherlands, so if you need help, let me know.