Found 25 Coca Cola Bottles & 15 Misc Soda Brands

[MilitariaCollector]

I found a huge bottle dump today. There are 25 coca cola bottles and about 15 bottles of other brands. I dont collect bottles but maybe someone can tell me what they are worth. All the bottles are either the US Patent Office/Min Contents 6 FL OZ or the D.Patent # bottles. I also have a 6 oz hobble skirt with no raised lettering or content info, the word Coca Cola was printed on there. I also have a clear 10 oz bottle with coca cola printed on it, and a 26 oz bottle with coca cola printed on it. I believe all the bottles are from the 40's - 50's. I found numerous odd ball name brands of soda too, but not sure if those are that collectable. Any idea of values?

[HolyDiver]

Wow, great bottle haul! No idea on the value.

[allen]

congrats on all of those nice bottles
but no ideal on any value....

[crazyjarhead]

Nice haul on soda bottles

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

Most "Hobble Skirts" are pretty common ... and in mint condition will only net about $5.00 each. The one to look for is the 1916 (patent date under signature). This was when the Hobble Skirt / Mae West was introduced. Look close around Mae's slim "waistline" for dates on most of them. Condition - condition - condition is everything. A mint 1916 might be worth as much as $50.00 !!! The earl - early one's (pre 1916 / straight sided) vary greatly in price... again, in mint condition from $50.00 to $500.00 plus, plus !

FYI >>> Coca Cola even has a patient on the "shape" of the Hobble-Skirt !

Good Luck ...

[Da Sand Crab]

Do they have any city/state names embossed on the bases? In addition to the 1916's earlier mentioned, there are the Christmas 1925's that are rare. As afore mentioned, condition is everything, especially case wear. If by chance you have any from Hawaii, LOL. please let me know.

[taropatch]

Do they have any city/state names embossed on the bases? In addition to the 1916's earlier mentioned, there are the Christmas 1925's that are rare. As afore mentioned, condition is everything, especially case wear. If by chance you have any from Hawaii, LOL. please let me know.

PM sent to ringman. Got some Hawaiian cokes.

[Newt]

Check ALL hobble skirts for town on bottom. Some are very rare.
Newt

[tesoro777gold]

Newt,

Would Santa Fe, NM bottling company be included in the rare towns?

A friend,
tesoro77gold

[Marty-Graw]

as a general rule the larger towns aren't very rare....there are exceptions to every rule though.......if there are any Alabama towns in there let me know....i may be interested in those

[glassrelics]

As a rule, SODABOTTLEBOB is correct, however, I have seen some get significantly more. It all depends on if and what isw embossed on the base. Check the base on those for embossing and you may have a good one!

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

For those of you who are interest ... try this website: colacorner.com
It covers a variety of Coca Cola collectibles, including the hobble-skirt.
Plus, I wish to correct my earlier post regarding the introduction date
of the contour bottle ... it was 1915 and not 1916. I hit the 6 key instead
of the 5, but by the time I realized my mistake it was too late to correct.

There are numerous other websites to look for, and the search for them
can be almost as time consuming as the hunt for the bottles themselves.

Keep dig'n and keep click'n

Good luck ...

Bob

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

I've been doing some research on the history of Coca Cola bottling, and although I have found a great deal of information, I still have not come up with a detailed list of every Coca Cola plant both past and present. However, I did come across this site ( Platform3Research.com ) that is currently working on a book devoted to numerous other (as well as some Coke ) bottling plants in the mid-west and eastern part of the country. According to their latest information, the book will be available through Amazon.com and will be released in December of this year (2009).

If anyone knows of a list / book / etc. already available that contains all of the old/closed Coca Cola bottlers nationwide, please let us know by replying to this site.

Thanks again ... Keep the comments coming. And it might be fun to post some photos like the one I have attached here of a circa 1910 straight-sided bottle that is worth appx. $75.00+

Take care,

Bob

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

Hello again ...

Its starting to look like I've created a monster with my recent obsession regarding the Hobbleskirt bottle. For those of you who have been following this thread and have commented on it, I have some more information here that may be of interest to you. Check out the following and see if you don't agree.

1. Go to: NOSTALGIAVILLE.COM and then go to listing "Welcome To Nostalgiaville"
for direct site link. Once there, click on the photo box "Collector's Pad", and then scroll down to yellow highlighted area "Soda Bottles", and then click on "Coca Cola Hobbleskirt" . You're there! (I've included these detailed steps because I know that, like myself, not all bottle collector's who use computers are as smart as a 5th grader.)

Also check out ...

2. The following individual "wrote the book" (actually a pamphlet/list) on Coca Cola bottlers, and may still have a few out-of-print copies left. (My copy has been ordered and should be arriving soon.) You can contact him @ oldcokes.com for availability and price, or write to him @ Bill Porter - P.O. Box 385 - Rockville, MD 20848.

And last but not least, I've attached a couple more photos. One is what a "real" Hobble Skirt looked like, and the other is of the earliest hobbleskirt bottle produced.

Thanks again ... and take care.

Bob

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

In my last post I mentioned ordering a book from Bill Porter ("The guru of Coke bottles"). Well, it just arrived, and although I'm still sifting through it, it has all the information anyone might ever need on the bottling and rarity of the 6 ounce Hobble Skirts.

And to answer a question posted by "tesoro777gold," the rarity/value of your Santa Fe, NM bottle depends on a couple of factors. Of course, value depends not only on rarity, but condition as well.

To start with, there are five basic varieties of Hobble Skirts.
(Which are embossed on the bottles below the Coca Cola signature as follows.)

1. November 16, 1915 ... Issued 1917-1928
2. December 25, 1923 ... Issued 1928-1938
3. Pat. D 105529 ... Issued 1938-1951
4. 6 oz. U.S. Patient Office min contents 6 fl oz. ... Issued 1951-1958
5. 6 1/2 oz. U.S. Patient Office Contents 6 1/2 oz. ... Issued 1958-1965

Bottles after 1965 had painted lables.

So, regarding your Santa Fe bottle ... If it is bottle # (See below)

1. Rare
2. Scarce
3. Common (sort of) There are always exceptions
4. Common (sort of) " " "
5. No Known Example (If your's is this bottle ... it's one of a kind! (maybe)

Of course, if any of you wish to order your own copy of Bill's "Booklet" you certainly can do so. Or, if you wish, you can contact me and I will do what I can to help. I don't think Bill Porter would mind, he's still looking for missing towns in the over 1500 different Hobble Skirts to be found. He's been collecting them since the early 1970's, and that's just one reason he has my respect and appreciation for his valuable efforts.

Take Care.

SODABOTTLEBOB

[tesoro777gold]

SODABOTTLEBOB,

Thank you for responding to my question, on the rarity of the towns. I will check out oldcokes.com and

may order a pamphlet of Bill's to ID a few of the bottles I have.

Thanks for the info.

tesoro777gold

[GL]

I have a Christmas bottle and an ABERDEEN, NC bottle.

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

This new post is primarily for Allen ... He'll know what it's about when he sees it.

I was attempting to send the following images via PM, but for some reason was unable to do so.

The bottle on the left is a typical hobble skirt. 1915 thru 1965.
The one on the right is straight sided. Appx. 1900 thru 1915
Old photo is of a real hobble skirt, and where bottle design originated.
Last photo is of a "reproduction" straight sided bottle.

Thanks to all for allowing this indulgence.

SODABOB

[Shortstack]

Jordan:
In the very first photo, back row, right side, next to the end green-colored bottle is a clear, big mouthed bottle. Now, is that one of those bottles formed in the shape of an animal that would be filled with flavored drink for kids? If it is, it will be very collectable, too. Those bottles normally had screw-on metal caps with slits so the bottle could be used as banks when the drink was gone.

Those coke bottles would make a good display if you can find an old wooden coke case (24 bottle type) to put them into.

Don't turn your back on those other drink bottles. If they are identifiable, they're worth keeping and displaying after the dirt is washed off and out. They're kind of a living history display for America.

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

Shortstack :

Call me stupid, but I don't see in any of the photos the "wide mouthed" one you referred to. I know about those type of bottles, and agree with what you said about them, but I just don't see it pictured here.

SODABOB