What old soda bottles are worth money? (2024)

What old soda bottles are worth money?

The Age of the Bottle

While not all old bottles are valuable, an older bottle is more likely to be worth more than a newer one. Seams and pontil marks are two of the ways you can determine a bottle's age. The pontil mark is the mark at the bottom of the bottle where it was attached to the glass blower's pontil rod.

According to Country Living, many vintage soda bottles (from the early 1900s through the 1970s) are pretty easy to come across and can sell for $10 to $30, depending on whether they were part of a limited release.

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In most cases, one- or two-digit numbers are actually mold numbers that indicate the specific bottle mold or section in an automatic bottle machine. If numerous molds were identical, each one received its own number. Base numbers also indicate bottle styles or shapes, manufacturing dates, or factory location codes.

Logo color and the condition of the paper label play an important role in identifying the year of manufacture of a Pepsi bottle. Bottles with a red and white logo were made after 1948. However, bottles with a red, white, and blue logo were made during World War II and can be worth around $25.

A bottle of Gautier Cognac 1762 sold at auction for $144,525.

Values can range from a few dollars to hundreds or even thousands: Regular, vintage co*ke bottles start at around $10, and anniversary models or special editions can sell for about $30, reports Country Living.

What do the numbers on the bottom of a co*ke bottle mean?

If a bottle is from one of the first three time periods listed above (1938-1965) there will likely be a small embossed date code found on the waist left or right of a letter or symbol. For instance, the number “42” on a bottle marked either “87 L 42” or “42 L 87” would denote a bottle made in 1942 during WWII.

Each code is worth between $0.05 and $0.38. 2-liters and other single bottle codes are worth $0.05 each. Codes entered from 12-pks of co*ke are worth $0.15.

Though not visible in the pictures above, a close look at the bottle in hand indicates a few moderate (⅛" to ¼") sized bubbles spread around the bottle glass. Since the glass does have significant sized bubbles, it likely dates during the period between 1905-1910 and 1920s.

A Hutchinson bottle refers to glass bottles corked with a stopper with metal handles that sealed the bottle during the bottling process. In 1879, the process was patented and named after Charles Hutchinson, the individual responsible for the invention of the stopper and sealing process.

A pontil mark is a variable size and type of scar or roughage left on the base of a bottle by a pontil rod. A typical pontil rod (aka ponty, punty or punte) was a long (4-6 feet) rod which was securely attached to the base of the just blown hot bottle (Trowbridge 1870).

(1888-to date)

The “cursive L” trademark is frequently seen embossed on the bases of various tableware items, especially tumblers and other drinking glasses, barware, wine glasses and stemware for home use as well as commercial and institutional use.

On 10th August 1889, Dan Rylands of Barnsley in the UK patented the screwcap. It was some time, however, before this advance in bottle and jar closures was used on wine bottles. Until 1913, bottles were sealed with a driven cork, requiring a corkscrew to open them, like wine bottles.

3 – 1940s NFL Collectors co*ke Bottle

This limited-edition design is the reason it sold for $5,000. It was highly sought after by certain collectors. The fact that it was never opened and was in completely mint condition only added to the value.

Michael Jackson Pepsi Bottle – $79.99

Costing almost $80 (and still available for purchase at the time that I am writing this article), this rare Pepsi bottle features a photo of Michael Jackson on the front of it and was a collectible from his 1993 Dangerous Tour.

How can you tell how old a glass bottle is?

The embossed maker's mark or letters on the side of a bottle or on the base of a bottle will help to reveal a bottle's age. Marks or letters on collectible milk bottles and Coca Cola bottles are commonly indicators of age and origin.

The July 20, 1920 date, with a patent date embossed, appears on the 6, 7, 8, 24, 26 and 28 oz. bottles. The "Pat'd" is at the top of the diamond. The August 22, 1922 date appears only on the 6 oz.

Glass bottles with colored glass are typically more valuable than those with clear glass. In fact, a colored glass bottle can easily be worth $1,000 or more.

Incredibly rare 130-year-old Cola bottle is discovered after being bought for $5 at flea market. An empty glass bottle bought for just $5 at a flea market turned out to be an incredibly rare 130-year-old forerunner to Coca-Cola.

The good news is, if you are lucky enough to get your hands on one of these early bottles, it can be well worth your trouble. According to Coca-Cola, one guide puts the worth of one Hutchinson bottle (one with a script-lettered logo in particular) between $2,500 and $4,000.

Coca-Cola brand bottles are stamped (typically on the cap) with a sell-by date in MMDDYY format, and stamped (typically on the neck) with a sell-by date in MMMDDYY format. There may be additional codes included with the stamp on the neck that have nothing to do with dating.

This style of co*ke bottle became the standard at most plants after 1912, but there were still many holdouts. This was especially the case in New England, where most bottling began as late as 1916, and straight-side co*kes – usually of clear glass and many with heel-script trademarks – were ordered well into the 1920s.

Dr Pepper was created in 1885 and believed to be the first soda as we know it today followed by Coca-Cola one year later.

How do I sell my co*ke products?

If you're looking to serve Coca-Cola in the U.S. or Canada, please visit co*keSolutions.com. You can locate the contact information for your local bottler by using our bottler finder. If you want to sell fountain beverages, you can also call 800-241-2653.

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Visible Seams

The seam would be visible from the base of the bottle to the mouth or the shoulder. It is believed that mold seams can tell the age to an extent. The higher the seam, the newer the bottle. Glass bottles made with recent, sophisticated technology do not have any visible seams.