Hoard of bottles found in crawl space yesterday: Post a Prohibition-Era coin!

Weiss

Finally started working on the latest property acquisition after back-burnering it during August turn-over. My contractors know I'm a collector and will put interesting stuff they find off to the side for me. Got to the place on Wednesday and they'd found a couple of old bottles. I went back to meet with them yesterday (Thursday) and they'd all split. So I crawled back into the dirty, dusty, crawl-space under the house to see if there were any others.

To my surprise, there were. I'm not a bottle specialist by any means. So I assumed these were 1950s vintage and was thrilled with that timeline. Fortunately I have a tenant who's getting her PhD in antique bottles (seriously). She confirmed these are actually as early as 1914, but no later than the repeal of prohibition, around 1930, based on the color, weight, manufacture, and bottom/heel markings.

The company that made them (Root) is also the company who created the iconic "Hobbleskirt" Coca-Cola bottle at about the time they made these bottles. Interestingly, the long-closed brewery has recently re-opened as a micro-brewery in the same facility. I reached out them with these images. Any bottle collectors welcome to chime in with a yea or nay, and yes, there are examples on eBay now.

A whole case of Terre Haute Brewing beer bottles, circa 1920, most with at least some remnant of their paper labels, all with "tombstone" style embossing.

And since these are no deposit, no return, one of my favorite Prohibition era pieces from my collection:

Meltdown

Nice junk... they'd make for some good target practice if nothing else.

clarkbar04

Interesting that they used both embossing and labels.

I used to dabble in brewerania, and do my best to support the industry. Cool to see bottles that old with the labels partially intact.

silverpop

find

PerryHall

Old bottles are really cool. Too bad they didn't put the year of production like they do for coin.

coinsarefun

Pretty cool

ShaunBC5

That’s a nice house-find. My folks used to clean out houses between renters for a guy and got to keep stuff. We found a few small treasures along the way. Nothing quite like that, though.

ms70

"PhD in antique bottles (seriously)."

What institution offers that and what does one do with a degree for such an expansive knowledge of antique bottles?

Nice find.

ShaunBC5

I’m assuming it’s a PhD in history, or glass making, or something like that with an emphasis or dissertation on antique bottles...but that’s just my guess to make it make sense in my head.

1630Boston

I only have two coins between 1920 and 1933
here they are

Weiss

@ShaunBC5 said:
I’m assuming it’s a PhD in history, or glass making, or something like that with an emphasis or dissertation on antique bottles...but that’s just my guess to make it make sense in my head.

Correct. Anthropology / archaeology with her dissertation focusing on history of social/cultural relationship of health care options and choices. Her research is based on recovered artifacts of varying populations, specifically medicine bottles.

tokenpro

Aqua crown top bottles -- fairly low market value without complete labels but still a neat personal find without having to dig up an early 20th Century privy.

I bought a major breweriana collection back around 2002 when I knew next to nothing about the area and had to learn on the fly (the knowledgeable executor of the estate guided me through the journey). I still have some great pre-pro tin signs and mugs that are packed away as well as several cases of inexpensive blob and crown tops with slug plates hiding in a garage (thanks for reminding me that all of these need to go). I have a 3' x 4' framed color litho of the Centlivre Brewery of Fort Wayne & (IIRC) have seen a similar large litho of the Terre Haute brewery. There are other Terre Haute brewery pieces that would make nice go-alongs. Good find!

DNADave

@ms70 said:
"PhD in antique bottles (seriously)."

What institution offers that and what does one do with a degree for such an expansive knowledge of antique bottles?

Nice find.

Nice credentials to have on a privy dig.

oih82w8

I looked up the Prohibition Era timeframe and came up with - Start Date: January 17, 1920 End Date: December 5, 1933

I just checked my inventory and I do NOT have an active coin within that timeframe. However in my "used to mine" folder I found a few.

mothra454

But the question is, were they empty when you found them??

Here's a 1920 vintage, and it's graded RootBeer to boot!

CoinHoarder

SaorAlba

I do have a small collection of bottles that my aunt dug up on my great grandmother's property in Missouri - they are all very early 20th century. I wish we could find the counterfeit coins that my 2nd great grandfather was "minting" in 1917 - allegedly they were buried but no one knows where or even if now.

291fifth

Beer bottles in a crawl space ... hmmmmmm ... looks like someone was sneaking in a few drinks long ago.

It reminds me of Clem the janitor/custodian at my elementary school in Chicago. Clem was fired after they found empty whiskey bottles hidden in the boiler room area. This was around 1957.

coinbuf

Cool find.

tokenpro

Here's a 1920's Prohibition era piece with a strong numismatic tie-in. Brand Bros. Co. was the name of Virgil Brand's Chicago brewery during Prohibition and "Vril" was one of their products. I believe that it was a (grape?) syrup combined with carbonated water or whatever and served by the "soda jerks" of the era who actually mixed the soft drinks & other beverages right at the counter (the baristas of their day).

The concept of vril or vital magnetism dates back to the 1870s before being usurped by the Nazis (Vril Society), etc.) during the 1930s & 1940s. It is still a live term among the science fiction crowd.

Jimnight

Nice!

johnny9434

old bottles that's cool

asheland

Cool find, Weiss!

Downtown1974

Great find!

asheland

messydesk

I can't believe you scrubbed all that original skin off those bottles! Oh the humanity!

messydesk

ricko

Though I do not know any coin collectors in this area... I have met a few collectors of old bottles...Since I know this area from many years ago, I was able to direct them to old, abandoned village trash dumps.... I was told they did pretty well.... Of course the largest one now has buildings on it... weird. Cheers, RickO

ShaunBC5

These would have been good for a soda or two. The half probably bought several.

koynekwest

BillJones

How about a few Prohibition poltical pieces?

This one is from the 1888 presidential campaign, "The saloon must go!" This was issued by the Prohibition Party.

Here are a few buttons ...

FOR prohibition ...

Repeal the 18th Ammendment!

This fancy one was issued by some very wealthy ladies. WONPR = Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform.

crazyhounddog

I got kinda carried away

CommemDude

Love the intact labels; I am a big fan of the beautifully artistic food can labels from the 1880s-1930s that can be found in pristine condition as many were stored in warehouses and never used. Here's my coin from prohibition era America:

JohnnyCache

I've found a number of bottles over the years but only a very few were medical related. I have purchased a couple of old quack medical advertising cards, one of which pairs up very nicely with the two small sample bottles I found. Congrats Weiss on your bottle finds.
Coins in that date range are slim for me but I do have at least one.

kaz

Make some home brew and put it in those bottles! cool find.

fastfreddie

Cool find. Here's a pre-prohibition sign; of course from my city. I loved many old things.

koynekwest

Walkerfan

Wow, I guess that I never realized that prohibition lasted almost 14 YEARS!

CoinHoarder

NumisOxide

Neat find!

Weiss

Four policeman are standing with guns guarding bags of silver dollars and boxes of money at the entrance of the Terre Haute Brewing Company.

https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/P0129/id/1863

kaz

bearcave

koynekwest

TennesseeDave

jesbroken

Here is the Pedley-Ryan & Co piece I once owned. Sent it in to NGC and they left off the important Robbins on the Corner below Pedley-Ryan and had to send it back to be reslabbed. Both photos provided. Sold this about 10 years ago.
Jim

MaineJim

An old CRH'ing find.

Jim