One of the most popular soda bottles to collect is Coca Cola, called
"Coke" for short.
There are two styles of Hutchinson Coke: one with "Coca-Cola" in script and one without. The Biedenharn hutch is the one without "Coca-Cola" in script. Also be careful of the script hutch reproduction. Examples of all 3 hutches can be found on the Antique Coca-Cola Bottle Hall of Fame page.
Of the S-S Cokes, listed below are the basic styles
which depend primarily on where the script Coca-Cola logo is located:
The S-S Cokes originally had labels. To see one with its original label,
click here
.
There are reproduction labels around in new condition, so if the bottle looks old and the
label looks new, then chances are that the label was added later.
To see an original and repro label side by side,
click here
.
In this photo, the repro label is on the left and the original label
is on the right.
According to the Petretti book on Coke bottles,
the repro labels have even/straight/uniform lines while the
originals had uneven/dotted lines.
By 1917 Cokes started being produced in the familiar hobble-skirt shape
which is still used today.
The first hobbleskirts where patened Nov 16, 1915 and came in a variety of colors:
clear, aqua, ice blue, and green.
To see a rare 1915 that is blue on top and green on the bottom,
click here
.
The first five versions of these hobble-skirt Cokes are identified by their embossing:
photo of 5 Christmas Cokes,
one of which is repro - can you spot the repro?
It's the one in middle of the bottom row. The City/State letters are smaller
on the repro. Repro also has a circular line joining the State and City names.
Later hobble-skirt bottles (i.e. Dec 25 1923 patent and later) all have a green tint color. One exception are those produced during 1942-45; these were blue due to the copper shortage for WWII (copper gives the green color).
There are also some
amber colored hobble-skirt bottles
.
around, but the amber color in these
bottles is artificially produced by irradiating the bottle.
There are also fake amber S-S Coke bottles: see
if you can spot the artifical amber bottle
in this photo, courtesy of Tim McGuire.
The photo shows the various shades of amber that occur naturally,
with the repro in the middle: a Macon GA S-S. There are
no natural amber S-S bottles from Macon GA.
Be careful of Coke bottles with a deep purple color. Here are purple examples of a S-S and 1915 Hobbleskirt. Dark purple is not a natural color for these bottles and is caused by irradiating clear bottles. The older Coke bottles had manganese that will turn the bottle dark purple when irradiated. However, these purple bottles do make a nice color addition to your collection. There are some naturally occuring bottles with a light amethyst/purple tint - leaving them out in prolonged sunlight will darken the tint (but they will never become a dark purple). Buyer beware!
Check out these
1915 ads
that shows a labeled straight-sided Coke bottle
and the circular arrow symbol that appeared on some of the Tenn amber Cokes.
One ad shows the baseball played Eddie Collins.
