coke bottles

[ob815]

I got some bottles at a construction site in chelsea mass. site of a massive fire in 1908 where everything was leveled and buried, these two cokes where part of the find, is there a way to date these, they are 6 oz. bottles both have boston mass on the bottom one has the diamond with circle with an f above this logo and the other just has a C in a circle they both have small numbers on the side of the bottle one has 55 - 98 not sure on the second digit of 55 though not to clear, the other bottle is much easier to see 52 - 16 are these numbers some sort of date code?

 

[blobbottlebob]

Hey Ob,
These, for sure, do not date as early as 1908. The hobbleskirt patent wasn't marked on bottles until 1916 (and even then I believe they were used later than that). Those 50s numbers may be about right. They look like they could be 1950s bottles. Do they have a D patent date on them or does the patent have an actual date (right below where it says coca-cola on hte side)?

 

[ob815]

no d or patent date on either

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

This will help. It's from Bill Porter's book and shows the five variations of contour/hobbleskirt bottles and the approximate dates they were first distributed/issued. The date codes on the majority of them will be on the sides where the skirt curves in.

SPBOB

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

And here is where the term "Hobbleskirt" originated. This is a postcard from around 1910-1913.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

This chart will give you some idea of the number of Coca Cola bottlers there were over the years.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Lastly is this "prototype" contour bottle from around 1915 that never made it into full production because it could not be easily handled on the bottle machines of the time. Plus it was top heavy and toppled over too easily. There are only a handful of these in existance today (with one or two at the Coca Cola museum in Atlanta, Georgia) and valued at $5000.00 plus.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Additional Note :

There are an estimated 1,200 "confirmed" town names for these contour-type bottles, with an estimated 300 more that are "un-confirmed." And even though not all of the bottlers remained in operation during the span of years between about 1915 and 1957, if you took an average of about three different variations per bottler, that would place the total count at approximately ...

1,200 X 3 = 3,600 individual variations to collect.

The only collector I know of who even comes close to having this count is Bill Porter. And he has been collecting and researching them for about thirty years.

SPBOB

 

[grime5]

there are 1522 cities listed in bills book.i know there are at least 2 new ones that he will be adding next time as per our talk the other night. i have 1285 different cities so there are a few more to add spb.i still havent had a chance to get those rt 66 cokes out for you but havent forgot. later greg