USA Med'l Dept.

[Gunsmoke47]

Hey ya'll, bout a year and a half ago Pitfinder and I were lucky enough to dig 21 USA HOSP DEPT bottles out of a military Indian Wars fort dump. We were of course ecstatic at our good fortune. Haven't found a pit anywhere as good as that again and probably never will. After a lot of reserch on the bottles, I came across a variant of this bottle in our own Mike Russell's "Collectors Guide To Civil War Bottles and Jars." I vowed to buy one if I ever came across one. It is a USA Med'l Dept. bottle made in the same time span as the Hosp Dept. bottles. Mike says it is much more scarce and this is the only one I have ever seen on E-Bay. To bad the only color is Aqua[&o] I bought it anyway.[] Happy Diggin, Kelley

 

[wvbottlehead]

you got a decent deal there - I think I bidded on that one - the MED DEPT are a bit more scarce than the HOSP DEPT. Any base markings on that one?

 

[Gunsmoke47]

Hi Frank, no base markings. Just a flat based Key Hinge mold. Probably blown at Baltimore. This one's got a very small chip out of the top of the lip but it doesn't detract from it. It was pretty sick when it arrived, but a few days in the tumbler and it came out lookin good. Yeah, I didn't get a steal, but I thought 1/3 of book value was decent even with the small chip. Thanks for the reply, Kelley

 

[wvbottlehead]

Here's a HOSP. DEPT I got off ebay a couple years ago. It's a pale/cornflower blue (my camera doesn't do the color justice). The color & the glop top sold me on it.

 

[Gunsmoke47]

Nice one Frank! Good thing I didn't see it or you probably would have ended up paying more for it LOL![] You don't see that type of lip too often on the Aqua pints. (That is a pint isn't it?) In fact... that's a first for me. One of my diggin buddies came up with a cornflower blue example with tons of whittle, but it had the more standard flange type lip. Happy Diggin, Kelley

 

[wvbottlehead]

Thanks Kelley, it's a 8" tall pint & I played heck getting it. The first auction I got outbid by a newbie. I emailed the seller (a real nice lady) & told her that if that guy didn't complete the deal to email me & I would pay the high bid price.....I never heard back from her and low & behold the same bottle was relisted a little over a month later because the first guy didn't pay! Anyhow it worked out better for me because I got it cheaper the second time.................[&:]

 

[quarrylizard]

hey,just wondering how much you paid for the med'l dept bottle and if you were to sell it ....what is a fair price?also would you know a fair price for a M.D. U.S.A?

thanks mike

 

[Pontiled]

It's good to see these beautiful bottles still showing up! They very rarely show up on eBay, but they can be found if you continuosly look for them. When you look for them and use "U.S.A." remember to look for "USA" also, look for "MED" instead of the full name, and "HOSP' as well. Also, for most of the Baltimore-made pieces made, when you see them (even cobalt blue) look especially for those that are extremely weak.

Also, many years ago, I found an olive-green one with wicker covering the lettering, but the lip was a dead give away!

 

[quarrylizard]

Hi mike,have you ever seen a amber md usa with 1000 cc on the bottom?if so would you know a value?

thanks mike

 

[Pontiled]

Hi Mike,

No. I've never seen any of them marked with CC's anywhere. It sounds like a modern fake, unfortunately. The early military didn't use CC's at all for any of their bottles, as far asI know.

What size, color, and lip style does it have?

Mike