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COKE CAN HISTORY Although the idea for canning Coca Cola began
in the 1930's, culminating with the creation of a 16oz and a
32 oz cone top can in 1936, no real progress was made until
the 1950's. Neither of these cone tops appear to have actually
gone into production, but were used as samples.
The first actual production can for Coke was a test market can which was produced out of the Hayward, CA plant for export to American Troups overseas in late 1955. A second can from the New Bedford Mass plant for export to the American troops in the far east was produced in early 1956. The Hayward can is quite a bit more difficult to locate however. There is one tell tale identifier on this can which separates it from the rest. On the side of the can above the seam, the sentence "Prepared for export only" exists. This is an extremely tough can to find and even tougher to find in very good shape. The other somewhat unique feature is in the lids that were used. The original experimental lids did not have any production information, but rather had very plain & somewhat familiar Coke logo's.
The primary reason for the test market being the
military in the far east, was due to the question the Coke executives
had about the taste of Coke in cans. It must have worked out
well enough because later that year and in early 1956 a second
test market can was attempted. The only difference that can
had from the first was the removal of the "Prepared for
export only" indicator above the seam. The common ground
indicator that both of the two test market cans had that none
of the later cans showed was the "REG. U.S. Pat. Off."
line below the Coca-Cola in the large diamond. The first regular
production Diamond can and all of the later Diamond with the
bottle cans would have "TRADE MARK R" in it's place.
Both of the early test market cans extremely tough cans in good
condition.
The third and final change, which made it's first
appearance in 1965, for the bottle design was again to remove
the large 12 OZ indicators above and below the diamond and to
replace them with a single, smaller line stating "Contents
12 FL OZS" which can be found at the base of the diamond.
Although, the cans pictured are not for sale,
I periodically do have some traders that I will use to add missing
cans to my collection. I am most interested in early flat top
and cone top soda cans in high grade. This article was reproduced with the permission of the original author. All rights reserved. No images or information may be reproduced without the written consent of the Dave Tanner, author. Please contact him with questions. Zip Codes Bar Codes Seldom Seen Part
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A STEP BACK IN TIME AT NOSTALGIAVILLE... I'm standing in a room full of soda history
that will soon be gone; momentarily as the lights are flicked
on for my visit, my brain can't process what my eyes are seeing.
I drop my camera bag in the place where I stand, still in disbelief
that I'm actually in Tennessee - at a place where, up until
a few days before, I hadn't even considered visiting. But here
I am, alone. If these walls could talk, they'd speak of the
trial and tribulations of the 'mom & pop' soda industry
from years gone by; of cola wars ignited, fought, won and lost. But not for much longer. Every brand you could ever imagine is housed here... somewhere. Little known store brands, to national brands like Dr Pepper, Mountain Dew, 7UP, Coke and Pepsi - and all their spin-offs and various product extensions. From floor to floor the collection includes old cone-top soda cans, ACL bottles, neon signs, clocks, syrup buckets, and a library of print material. Most certainly the largest private collection of beverage containers known to exist, this is a 'labor of love' story whose ending will hopefully escape the recycling bin. Tom Bates, and his father Paul, have seen this collecting journey through from start to finish. And as most collections go, it started out in the most innocent of ways. "Basically I started picking up soda bottles when I was a kid. Back then you'd get on your bicycle and ride around the neighborhood. If you found some soda bottles, you'd take them to the store and redeem them for a nickel a piece," Tom says. "I'd go to pull-offs and places where people were just throwing trash out. I'd end up finding some kind of neat soda and beer cans too." At the age of 12, Tom started hanging onto some of the beer cans and stacked them in his bedroom. His parents dismissed it as a passing phase; give it a few months, and he'll throw them all away, his parents figured. Not only were they wrong about it being just a phase, but it wasn't long before Tom's dad got in on the action too. Together, Tom focused on collecting beer cans and Paul developed a love of soda cans and bottles. "Of course, I thought I was the only person in the world who collected cans. I probably had 300, and I thought I had the biggest collection in the world," Tom says of his initial beer can collection. The Bates collectors attended beer and nostalgia shows and sales and began to network with other collectors long before the Internet was ever discovered. They started going 'dumping', searching for buried can and bottle treasures. Basically, Tom says, they'd go out to old dumps or places where an old bar once stood and dig up the ground that had sat undisturbed for years. "We found quite a few dumps over the years and pulled a lot of good cans out of the ground - beer and soda. Once we started doing this, our collection just grew something great." "The older cone-top cans and flat-tops, when you dig those out of the ground, that's just like finding treasure. If the circumstances are right, if you've got a big dump with a lot of layers on top, stuff on the bottom is protected. Sometimes you'll have it where people have thrown construction material over the cans, over the years that has protected them. In a few dumps I found where people had thrown out beer and soda cans inside food cans. I guess it saved space in their trash - they'd cut the tops off the food cans and the old soda cans would fit right inside. I remember getting in a dump where they had done that to all of these cans and they were just in pristine condition when we found them." And their dump digging wasn't limited to the Tennessee area - for several years they took trips in the summer to Colorado, Michigan, northern California, and even Alaska. That's probably the last place you would expect to hear about people digging for buried relics, but Tom says it's ideal. "Up in Alaska it's kind of odd... because things are frozen at least half the year, things don't rust as bad up there. Therefore you can go up there and find stuff in pretty good condition." For the most part, when searching dumps, most of the pieces found were regional brands, but when digging near a pull-off at the side of a busy road, Tom says you could potentially find any brand since travelers often threw their garbage out the car window. Graduating to a bigger display space (twice)
After initially just keeping the cans they were digging up,
they also started hanging onto the painted-label soda bottles
they were finding. And with the collection overflowing at their
house, in the late 1970s they bought an old house trailer, moved
it into the backyard, and made it into a collection room. Later
on they doubled its size and it housed both beer and soda cans. The Farm at Nostalgiaville It's not hard to see why Paul decided to move
the soda collection to the Farm. In the summer months the property
was rented out for weddings, corporate retreats, and open to
others to enjoy by appointment. Walking around the property
towards the 'tower' part of the fully restored barn structure
(which, as it turns out, is anything BUT a barn), there are
flowers everywhere you look and it's hard not to get caught
up in all the peacefulness in the surroundings. Sadly, the Museum
of Beverage Containers remained open to the public until 2008.
Most of the activities at the Farm have been put on hold, and
they're no longer accepting bookings for weddings. Unfortunately,
Paul, who was the driving force behind the soda collection,
has been dealing with failing health. Earlier this year he had
open-heart surgery. Selling the massive collection, as a whole,
is not something that was decided upon lightly. "This is
something that dad wanted me to do. He's not doing as well as
he used to be. At this point in time he's just not into it." This article originally appeared in the print edition of the Soda Spectrum magazine, the publication for soda collectors everywhere, and is reprinted by permission. For more information about their magazine, please visit their website at: www.sodaspectrum.com. |
