Pull Tabs

[junkhunt]

What year did they stop making the pull tabs that pull all the way off? Anybody know? That may give you and idea how old a site is when you find them. And when did they go from the old hole punch cans to pull tabs?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[Oddjob]

They still sell many drinks with pull tabs in Europe, Africa and Asia.

 

[PullTabSlayer]

Ermal Fraze invented the pull tab in 1959. At over fifty years old some of these that we find are officially historic artifacts.

In 1974 a doctor " inadvertently" swallowed a can tab during a basketball game, that started the replacement search and the modern say on tab began in 1975.

 

[cudamark]

They still sell many drinks with pull tabs in Europe, Africa and Asia.

They still have them in Mexico and Central/South America too. What I can't figure out is why people break off the lever type tab?

 

[Oddjob]

What I can't figure out is why people break off the lever type tab?

Exactly, I think it is because they do not MD them selves. Reason is because I have four young kids, two of them MD (the 10 and 14 year old) on their own, the older one has a buddy who is the same age and also MDs. Watch them drink a soda water and they just drink it, but watch their other friends drink soda water and they all pull it off.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Seems to me that round tabs in the USA were beginning to phase out in the early 1980s.

 

[cudamark]

But, why break it off? Why not just leave it on the can? It's not in the way of anything that I can see.

 

[junkhunt]

Thanks to all of you for the good information.

It sounds like the first pull tabs where the whole tab comes off started in about 1959-60 and went over a 20 year span. So that doe's tell me something about how old a site is.

Thanks again.

Mike in Arkansas

 

[KirkS]

But, why break it off? Why not just leave it on the can? It's not in the way of anything that I can see.

It's a fidgity thing. Idle hands, etc.

 

[dirtdigginfool]

Because it's there! It just seems that some people look at a can...with that oh-so inviting tab...and it's screaming "pull me off and throw me in the grass!!"...then their next concious thought is to stomp the empty can to below grass level...all the while standing 6 feet from a trash receptacle...just sayin'...Ddf

 

[cudamark]

It's a fidgity thing. Idle hands, etc.

Must be a lot of nervous Nellie's out there!

 

[RustyGold]

It's the sugar content!

 

[diverrick]

I recently found an old race track near me that was active in the 50's , 60's, and early 70's. That place is wall to wall pull tabs under the bleacher/fan section. So much so You cannot really beep it. You cannot swing without getting a signal. if I looked you could actually see the track, curves and pit areas the pit area was just as full of pull tabs. Clearly a LOT of drinking occurred during these race nights.
They had to be pulled off in order to drink the contents as the tab pulled from the center outward. you could not put it in your mouth with that tab hanging there it was way too sharp and in the way. And like was said earlier it was what you did, you bent it back and forth until the little one tab became two, then you threw them on the ground. who knew?

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

What year did they stop making the pull tabs that pull all the way off? Anybody know? That may give you and idea how old a site is when you find them. And when did they go from the old hole punch cans to pull tabs?

I wrote this 10 years ago it may be of some help. http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting/40194-when-good-find-pull-tab.html


Look for the zip tabs to date a site for silver coins.

 

[faribo]

My first real find with a real metal detector was a zip tab. Looks like a capital T with the bottom way wider than the top of the T. The part that was part of the lid that tore loose is gone so I only have the handle part with a small piece of the tab left on it.

 

[TommyB]

The ring part used to work like quarters in the SoCal parking meters at the beach in the 70's. Don't ask me how I know that.

 

[SD51]

The next question (something I've always wondered) is how many trillions of these old style pull tabs were produced, since most of them were most likely thrown on the ground...

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I still find them in the ocean surf

 

[BARKER]

Hi; One thiing guys did was to put the round tab part into phone coin slots. The tab would get stuck there until you pressed the Return Lever on the phone about 20 x to free it. Any coins that went into the slot after the tab was put in got stuck in the slot. Guys would wait a while. Go over to the same phone, hit the Return Lever until the pull tab came out and the pocket the rest of the change that had been stuck in the slot as well. If you did 10 phones a day you could make a few fast bucks. Just don't get caught or you would get a few fast bucks.!!! PEACE:RONB

 

[junkhunt]

At 50, Ring-Tab Beer Cans Are Now Officially Historic Artifacts ? Western Digs