Slightly off topic: anyone else collect vintage marbles?
rhedden
Posts: 6,630 ✭✭✭✭✭
Besides coins, one of my ancillary collecting interests is vintage machine-made marbles. I was wondering if anyone else here dabbles in little, round glass spheres? I thought I'd start a thread with some similarities & differences between coin collecting & marble collecting.
Similarities
- Like coins, marbles are small, round, shiny, and addictive.
- Grading is important (and subjective!) for both coins and marbles... though it's not as complicated with marbles.
- As with coins, CACs are coveted by some... though see "differences" below.
- Counterfeits of high end items exist.
- Photography is an art form that few have perfected.
- Thin markets.
Differences
- For marbles, there is no certification service out there. You're on your own.
- Many marbles are difficult to identify by manufacturer. Comparatively few coins have debatable origins.
- Mintages are usually unavailable, and there are no population reports.
- Color is not quite as hard to come by in marbles as it is with coins. Not even close.
- CAC means something else in Marble World. Christensen Agate Company (CAC) is one of the early makers, which operated from 1925-1932. Their products are counted among the more desirable machine-made marbles.
- A killer, high-end, "moose" of a marble might cost $300 to $1500. Those numbers are entry level prices for some areas of coin collecting.
- Burglars broke into your house? They probably stole the gold & silver coins and left the marbles.
- Unlike coins, there's no law against making reproductions. Marbles are not federally issued currency.
I've had a lot of fun collecting marbles in exchange for very little money. It feels a little bit like turning back the clock on coin collecting to 100 years ago, when nothing was certified, grading was non-standardized, and "fresh" unpicked collections still existed.
Left to right: Akro Onyx corkscrew; Akro eggyolk-oxblood; CAC red slag; Alley Agate swirl; Peltier 6-finger Rainbo; Peltier multi-color swirl.
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Comments
I used to, but after a really bad coin deal, "I lost my marbles."
rainbowroosie April 1, 2003
I never had any marbles to lose, so I buy them now.
LOL! I think I played marbles once or twice in my life. I understand it used to be the thing!
I have a small Crown Royal bag that I keep the marbles I found gardening in.
Next time I go back to my old hometown I'll have to take a picture of my old neighbors driveway.
The entrance is about 8'x10', there are a bunch of old marbles that were pressed into the wet cement.
That neighborhood is from the 1920-1930 era.
Cool! I hope they aren't driving over a bunch of $300 marbles. Try to picture a similar driveway with 1921 Walkers pressed into it. Get the hammer and chisel!
My sister still lives in our old house, I'll have to call her and get her to take a picture and e-mail it to me.
I have a bunch of them.
Some were found metal detecting, others, I forget where I got them from
BHNC #203
nope
never had any interest in marbles.
1997-present
I once had a manager who had lost a bunch of marbles.....Does that count?
I have a bag of them about 10 years old that the grandkids played with when they came to visit. Basically rolled them up and down the hallway.
Other than that I have been told a few times that I have lost my marbles.
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide
I don't collect them but did play a lot as a kid. Kicks and shoves was our game of choice
Some people say I lost my marbles, as it pertains to coins. I lost my ___, too.
I have a jar that somehow came through childhood with me although the game WE played with em wasn't even "marbles."
We'd just "shoot" an the next guy tried to hit yours. BUT it would encompass the entire neighborhood.
Chasing marbles for a half block or so.
BUT
I still have one I will never part with.
My grandfather gave it to me as a PRESENT one time when I was "sick."
Kinda sad as in HIS mind, this was the most wonderful thing a grampaw could give a kid.
And all .....I.....did was look at it in disappointed wonder.
I had NFI what ....marbles....were for.
But I still keep it. Hope he somehow knows it's important to me now.
I have some "real old" marbles that my grandmother left me about 20 years. I know because she wrote that on some tape and attached it to the bottle of marbles......
I'm seeing late 1930s to 1950s marbles in that jar. That counts as "real old" in machine-made marbles. Not so much in coins!
I thought it was funny that instead of writing down what year or years these were from, she just wrote "real old". Are these worth at least a million dollars?
I have accumulated a few jars but probably nothing special. You never know where you might find a marble.
Successful BST deals with mustangt and jesbroken. Now EVERYTHING is for sale.
rhedden - I love the marbles you imaged. The Peltier multi-color swirl is exceptionally attractive. Is there a reference book for marbles?
"Real old" now that's funny.
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Guilty as charged. I have loads of them. Way too many to enjoy.
Yes, there are several excellent ones by Robert Block. I cannot vouch for the others, but I own three of Block's books, and they are very nice publications. You'll easily find them available for purchase if you do a quick search. Just don't expect marble books to be filled with unambiguous identifications and tables of pinpoint-accurate prices. Marbles Land is a third world country compared to U.S. coins! The valuation scheme is a "gut feeling" system based on eye appeal, sometimes with a wide range of possible values. Identifying them is so difficult compared to coins that your head will spin... possibly for many months or years.
By the way, that Peltier swirl cost me all of $2 in a local antique shop. They're not that easy to find. If it was a coin with similar rarity, it would cost... much more than $2.
How timely. Just last Saturday one of the little hydrants, 5 year old Nicole, came up to the house with quite a find. A marble. White with red and blue swirls. She and baby Joe, another little hydrant, age almost 2, found their treasure down in the wash by the old burned -downed ranch house. "Look Papa, we found a marble!" Yes, they did. It most assuredly was at one time a proud possession of their Great-Grandpa. My dad. He's been gone now for a few years. I don't know if it's a vintage marble. But it is special. To me a least.
Update; I just took the marble out of the drawer. It's white with orange, purple, and green swirls. With a dirt patina between the purple and orange. I just showed it to Mrs. Hydrant. She said, " They don't make 'um like that anymore. At first I thought it was your tooth!" She was laughing. I'm all choked up. A coyote is howling outside my bedroom window. Life's good.
I don't collect them, but Robert Block's site seems pretty good:
marblecollecting.com/marble-reference/online-marble-id-guide/m-f-christensen-son-co/
Steelies and Cats Eyes were the bulk of what I had. Why limit to machine made? Once I had some really old marbles that I assumed were hand made. Maybe they survived in some box somewhere.
@rhedden..... Yes.... I have an extensive collection of marbles.... all the ones you posted - most in quantity... plus I have many Guineas and Cobra's.... crown jewels of marble collecting. Also have the books you mentioned. I really like the old marbles... but for color (and rarity now) the Guineas cannot be beat.
Cheers, RickO
Great ammo for a sling shot......65 yrs. ago...:)
I don't but after looking at those and some others I think they are pretty neat, must.. resist..
I used to collect heavy depression era range shakers, that old slag glass is pretty neat.
I played the game back in grade school, circa 1956. Had a cigar box with a hole slightly larger than a marble that was part of some game (don't remember the name) that the marble was held waist high and dropped into the box through the hole....had shooters too. Box was a great storage for my marbles and treasures. Still have the treasures but gave the marbles to some neighbor kid decades ago......
bob
Actually I was looking on the internet for some marbles, to get my 4 and 6 year old so they could learn to play!
I only have one old marble that I found years ago while digging around at an old dump site. I was looking for old bottles when I found it. Can you give me an idea of its age? It doesn't seem to be perfectly round.
The marble above is from the 1920s to 1940s era. Can't identify it positively from the pics. Odds are, it's an Alley Agate or other West Virginia Swirl. Those can be very hard to sort out by manufacturer.
Now I really need to see Ricko's boxes of Christensen Agate Company Guineas and Cyclones. Those are "holy grail" machine-made marbles. And we won't have to argue about whether they would CAC or not, because they were made by CAC.
I've literally lost my marbles!!!!!
Aside from the previously mentioned Crown Royal bag, I placed my favorites in old cigar tubes, they fit nicely.
Next rainy day or snowstorm I'm off on a Treasure Hunt!
When I was a little boy my grandmother gave me some marbles in an sack made of canvas. It was full of old marbles, I was about 4 years old. I also had an old piggybank full of old silver dollars that I'd get from my aunts and uncles. I'd take them out from time to time and just look at them for quite a while, the marbles and the dollars. Then my folks bought a new house, back in 1957. All the family friends and neighbors helped with the move. We settled into our new house just to discover someone had stole my marbles and my silver dollars. So I guess you could say I lost my marbles at a very young age.
RE: "CAC red slag"
Is that the fun sticker folks? How would one slab a slag?
I was trying to remember the games we played....there was one that was popular
.draw a square on the ground and shoot the marbles out of the square most
shot out won.
Another one was with the heel of your shoe make a hole in the ground......need
help, don't remember the rest.LOL
I used to hate it when some guy would weasel into our playground game and wipe us out by using a truck ball bearing as his shooter. Not fair.
I refuse to collect marbles until there is a certification service that authenticates/grades/encapsulates them, and another certification service that reviews the original certification and certifies it is solid for the grade.
"Certifiably Absolutely Circular."
LOL!
Marbles, Super balls and a lot of interesting rocks.
Found every single one, during my 30 years of lineman utility work.
R.I.P Son 1986>2020
I have just a few and have had them for over 45 years. Found them under an old house we were tearing down. Some were smaller, not perfectly round and are plain clay colored. What are they? Homemade?
My wife gave me a jar of marbles because she said that I had lost mine.
Have a jar of my father in laws - no idea if there are any winners in there or not. He wasn't a collector - just tossed what he had or found into the jar over the years. Passed away about 8 years ago at 82.
These are probably clay marbles, and they are old. They are probably pre-1920s, and likely date to the 1800s. Glass marble manufacture in the U.S. (by machine) got going around 1905 with the advent of the M.F. Christensen company, which was no relation to the later CAC company. Clay marbles do not sell for much because it is difficult to determine their origin. Check out the marbles category on eBay, and you will probably find some similar ones for sale. Ypour marbles could also be Bennington marbles, which are glazed clay, but the value is still not too high.
Lakesamman,
Yes, there are winners in that jar. I see a number of Akro corkscrews, including a larger transparent red/white Onyx corkscrew at the lower left. Would not surprise me if that is a $15-20 marble by itself, but it's hard to judge condition through the jar. Most of those date from the late 1920s (corkscrews, possibly others) to the 1950s or 1960s (cat's eyes, which mostly fall into the "slingshot ammo" category as far as value goes). Pour that jar out in a box, take another photo, and let's see if you have enough CAC's in there to pay for some of your coins to go to CAC!
Bob Campbell in Salt Lake City (All About Coins) collects marbles. He bought a few for over $100 each at the Long Beach show last June.
Years ago, there was a West Virginia glass factory that held an annual Kids' Marble Day. On that day, kids could make their own marbles staring with clear glass and a wide array of colors and inclusions.
Cool thread.
I have a lot of good memories playing marbles as a kid, And remember trying to convince my mother to buy me that
Black mesh bag full of them at the check out.
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Thanks for the suggestion - there are some pretty ones buried in there that haven't seen the light of day for quite some time.
That's a nice collection.