Nice jars.....the first is the earliest....dropped A with underscore....late 19teens to early 1920's...usually see them priced $10 or less...the second is from the early 1930's on....a good $15 or so for that one......
The Ball Ideal is the most mass produced and most successfull line of jar from Ball Brothers....running several decades.....you could make a very nice collection that would keep you busy for a LONG time.
This one has 9431 on one side at the bottom and 5 on the other side
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/1971/dscn2621v.jpg
http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/3049/dscn2622.jpg
Ok...the first ya showed me...the Ball IDEAL quart dropped a.....it is the same circa as the first ya posted the other day...but the difference is this one has now bail or bail wire......ya might be able to keep some change in it, but that is about it......it is not worth trying to put a bail and wire on it....
OOPPSS...forgot about the BALL PERFECT MASON....nice jar....I tend to like there jars...most that ya see about this circa....PERFECT MASON is offset.....but have it dropped a and PM centered....nice jar.....value can range from $7 to $10.....
Down here in florida I had a bunch (30-40) of the ideals and perfect masons along with some older balll masons in my last yard sale at 1 to 3 dollars and sold only 10 or 12 of the dollar ones! The last jar is a fairly modern product jar, more than likley peppers or some such