River Diving for Antiques in Canada

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scubacanuck

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I agree with the keep searching , often I go back to places I've been before and find new things .

2 of my more interesting bottle finds this summer were in places I had been to multiple times in the past , the 1900's era Brown's spring water bottle was found near a dock I've swam near many times , the ink well was also found in a location I had been thru many times

and the 1913 penny was found in a park I've literally been to 100's of times , hidden near a rock not somewhere you'd expect to find a coin

I'll be going back for sure. I know I just scratched the surface. The dive at the old dump at Lees Avenue, I went in circle a bit and then my camera started to fog etc...wasn't a good dive. I'm trying to pack in some footage for winter, so I can keep my channel alive. Going to Rideau is convenient, since it is close to home and I always feel like my chances are pretty good at finding something. Started looking at going to Green Island, lost of history there too.
 

scubacanuck

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I agree with the keep searching , often I go back to places I've been before and find new things .

2 of my more interesting bottle finds this summer were in places I had been to multiple times in the past , the 1900's era Brown's spring water bottle was found near a dock I've swam near many times , the ink well was also found in a location I had been thru many times

and the 1913 penny was found in a park I've literally been to 100's of times , hidden near a rock not somewhere you'd expect to find a coin

Very cool RCO! One place that I'll be going back for a while is the old hotel, been there twice now and plenty of treasures left to find. Crudely cleaned what I found tonight.

- wishing well
- fanta
- nesbitt bottle in Ottawa Canada
- medium coke no embossing
- small coke embossed
- couple with dots( think it is bottle by coca-cola)
- large coke
- canada dry
- amber rye bottles
- amber beer
- amber medicine
- old gatorade
- couple randoms

- the pre 1900 british ale(oldest)

Don't really know what to do with them. Worth selling online?


IMG_3421.jpgIMG_3423.jpgIMG_3424.jpg

 

BottleDragon

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Nice finds, I really enjoyed your videos. Will subscribe for sure. I'm beginning to think I'm taking the wrong approach by digging for this stuff... lol. :)

As for selling them, first determine if you have any rare ones, and sell those individually if they're in good condition. I see you have a lot of Coke bottles -- there is a rare Canadian Coke bottle called the D19, so definitely check for that. There's a thread about it on the forum.

With the more common pop bottles, you probably won't get much for each individual bottle. I would maybe try selling a lot of 12 at a time... advertise locally on Craigslist or Kijiji.
 

scubacanuck

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Nice finds, I really enjoyed your videos. Will subscribe for sure. I'm beginning to think I'm taking the wrong approach by digging for this stuff... lol. :)

As for selling them, first determine if you have any rare ones, and sell those individually if they're in good condition. I see you have a lot of Coke bottles -- there is a rare Canadian Coke bottle called the D19, so definitely check for that. There's a thread about it on the forum.

With the more common pop bottles, you probably won't get much for each individual bottle. I would maybe try selling a lot of 12 at a time... advertise locally on Craigslist or Kijiji.

Exactly the advice I was looking for, thanks BottleDragon. Went and looked at the Coca-Cola embossed bottles and didn't see any 19 :( I saw a 57 at the bottom of one, another has no markings at the bottom. I'll do a bit more research to find out what they are worth. I know I won't get rich with these, but at the rate I'm collecting, no point in keeping all of them. Haha

Cheers
André
https://www.youtube.com/c/AndréConstantineau
 

RCO

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for the coca cola's , you need to check the bottom's and see if they have dates . the ones with coca cola painted in white likely won't have one . its only the older embossed ones that do . the old ones also say " coca cola company of Canada Limited " and by the 50's they just say "coca cola ltd "

I don't think the Canada dry bottles hold much value in that condition . myself I find those fairly often as well , just found one of the clear ones last week along a road here


wondering about 1 bottle I see in the pictures ? its immediately right of the coke's , 5th bottle down , is that a local bottle ? but doesn't appear much paint is left
 

RCO

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also I watched some of your video's to get a better idea for what your up to. think your on the right track but keep in mind a lot of these locations have already been searched by now .

I know for certain the Brockville area was searched , as there is a man at the Toronto bottle show from Brockville and he searched / scuba dived that area years ago and has a large collection of bottles that he found , he even wrote a book about it

so I wouldn't get too obsessed about a specific area even if the history books say something was there . the reality is a lot of time has passed by now , things might of already been found or they could be buried deep in the sand and mud .


but I think your on the right track and are very likely to continue finding interesting items and bottles during your dives
 

scubacanuck

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for the coca cola's , you need to check the bottom's and see if they have dates . the ones with coca cola painted in white likely won't have one . its only the older embossed ones that do . the old ones also say " coca cola company of Canada Limited " and by the 50's they just say "coca cola ltd "

I don't think the Canada dry bottles hold much value in that condition . myself I find those fairly often as well , just found one of the clear ones last week along a road here


wondering about 1 bottle I see in the pictures ? its immediately right of the coke's , 5th bottle down , is that a local bottle ? but doesn't appear much paint is left

Mission of California
IMG_3425.jpg
 

CanadianBottles

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Exactly the advice I was looking for, thanks BottleDragon. Went and looked at the Coca-Cola embossed bottles and didn't see any 19 :( I saw a 57 at the bottom of one, another has no markings at the bottom. I'll do a bit more research to find out what they are worth. I know I won't get rich with these, but at the rate I'm collecting, no point in keeping all of them. Haha

Cheers
André
https://www.youtube.com/c/AndréConstantineau
The D19 Coke bottles aren't marked on the bottom, they're marked on the lower part of the hobbleskirt. Since your bottles here are mostly from the 50s-70s you probably don't have one, but I'd have a closer look at that one without anything on the base if it's embossed. Every embossed Canadian Coke bottle I've seen with no base embossing was one of the early ones because they started dating them in the 30s and didn't stop until the ACL years.
Most of your bottles here will have minimal value, the only one that really stands out to me is the green Fanta, which tend to be hard to find. The Wishing Wells are also common but nice enough that you could maybe get five bucks a pop for them. What I'd do is put an ad on Kijiji selling them for a dollar or 50 cents a piece and say that you keep getting new ones in. Some of these might be hard to sell even for a dollar though, unfortunately. You could also try setting up a table at the Raceway flea market, or hold a garage sale, but it can be hard to make enough to justify the time really.
 

RCO

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Mission of California



have seen that brand before , Mission of California was a mass produced drink but not sure who distributed it in Ontario


though maybe it was a local bottle , as a few local bottlers in eastern Ontario used a similar bottle , not in Ottawa but some of the smaller towns had there own bottlers . like Petawawa , Smith Falls , Hawkesbury etc



yard sales could be an option to sell bottles but your in Ottawa , and yard sales might be more of a small town thing than a big city . at least I see more of them in smaller towns and such than urban areas
 

CanadianBottles

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You may just not be in urban areas early enough on Saturday mornings to see garage sales, but they're very common in cities. In prime garage sale season you can find one on every second block or so. I go to garage sales on my bike most Satuday mornings in the summer.

And that Mission bottle was a proprietary design, it's not quite the same as the Dominion generic design. I got one like that in BC as well, I think that design was used after Mission faded in popularity since I don't see them as often as the earlier black and white ones.
 

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