co*ke Bottles: Glass Manufacturers' Marks seen on Coca-Cola Bottles (2024)
NOTE: For a little more background info on some of these companies that are known to have manufactured co*ke bottles (including the approximate date range they were in business), please check the alphabetically-arranged “GLASS BOTTLE MARKS” pages on my site, starting here with PAGE ONE.
Most co*ke bottles (although not all) bear a glass manufacturer’s mark (logo, emblem, trademark, or initials) somewhere on the bottle, that may help to identify what glass company made it. In general, glass manufacturers’ marks are usually seen on the base, but sometimes appear on the side or lower heel of the bottle. In many instances (especially in the case of Owens-Illinois Glass Company bottles), the glass manufacturers’ logo is in combination with a year date code and mold number.
There are many collectors of antique and vintage co*ke bottles who try to find examples with the names of different cities or towns and states marked on the bottom, for instance “JACKSON MICH”, “LOUISVILLE KY”, “DECATUR ILLS” or “TUCSON ARIZ”.Bottles from larger cities are usually easiest to find, and, in general, the smaller the town or city, the scarcer the bottles. Some collectors specialize in searching for bottles from a certain state (or states) or from a particular region of the country.
Some very small or obscure towns had only a small number of co*ke bottles made for them, and in such cases any bottles bearing such a town name can be VERY hard to find, and thus highly sought after!
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There is a common misconception that the city name marked on the bottom indicates where the bottle was actually made. In general, the city or town name, in most cases, has nothing to do with the location where the bottle itself was manufactured. The city name usually indicates the location where a local soda bottling concern or distribution center was situated, and where the bottles were supposed to be originally circulated.
Some of the larger glass manufacturing companies, such as Owens-Illinois Glass Company and Chattanooga Glass Company, made Coca-Cola bottles (and other soda bottles) for hundreds of different cities around the United States.
NOTE: Anyone who is seriously interested in collecting early straight-sides and/or the hobbleskirt style co*ke bottles with town/city names on the bottom might want to get a copy of the booklet published by The Coca Cola Bottle Collectors Club: “co*kE BOTTLE CHECKLIST” by Bill Porter. This is an invaluable listing of all known co*ke bottles that bear the “Coca-Cola” brand logo written in cursive script.
Porter has published this in 5 editions, and the fifth edition was recently released, in 2018. He lists all towns and cities that he’s seen or heard about…….. over 1,500+ cities in all, just within the United States!! This booklet has a lot of good background info and details for the specialist, including information indicating which cities and bottle variants are the hardest to find! I heartily recommend it!
*NOTE*(this paragraph added to webpage on January 4, 2014) : There are many types of authentic older amber (“beer bottle brown”) glass co*ke bottles in existence (from a variety of cities across the US), but they are usually the “STRAIGHT SIDES” types made between approximately 1900 and 1920.
If you run across an “Amber”HOBBLESKIRT STYLE co*ke bottle……. any of the main 4 types including those with the Nov. 16, 1915 patent date, the Dec 25, 1923 date, the “D-105529 PATENT, or “U.S. PATENT OFFICE / 6 or 6 1/2 oz., it is a recently color-altered bottle, having been subject to IRRADIATION to change the color from the original light green-aqua to a weird “burnt dark mustard/brown” or “olive brown” color. This irradiated color is NOT natural ……. no co*ke bottles of this style were made in such a color originally.
Some newer collectors may be confused by these types of bottles appearing on online auctions, at flea markets and antique malls in these odd colors. Contrary to what some sellers may say, the irradiation does not really increase the true market value of old co*ke bottles. It is a form of alteration, and is considered to be DAMAGE by many experienced bottle collectors. Just a warning….hopefully this might help to educate a few people who would otherwise not be aware of what is going on. A few co*ke bottles might be found in a medium to dark purple; this is also from “nuking” the glass. This is also happening with a lot of other types of glass – bottles, insulators, pattern glass, etc. Please see my page on Artificially purpled glass here.
Root Glass Company, of Terre Haute, Indiana, produced the first “Hobble Skirt” shaped co*ke bottles (the design was loosely based after the shape of the cocoa bean) with the new design officially patented on November 16, 1915. The original prototype bottle had a somewhat “fatter” profile. The design was later altered slightly (slimmed down) and the first co*ke bottles with the skinnier look (that is – the hobbleskirt design now used and recognized worldwide) were in production by 1916 or 1917. The trademark characteristic light greenish-aqua color was termed “Georgia Green” (in honor of the state where the Coca Cola company was originally based).
The list of glass bottle manufacturer marks below is certainly not complete, and I hope to eventually add more information as time allows. This includes makers of co*ke bottles covering a very wide time period, including the earlier “straight-sides” types (most commonly found in amber glass, but also in aqua) and the later “hobbleskirt” classic shaped bottle usually made in “Georgia Green”. This list covers makers of co*ke bottles in North America, primarily the United States. Of course, there are bottle manufacturers from other countries around the world that also made co*ke bottles that are not listed here. (Note: In general, marks indicating local/regional co*kebottling companies – who were not actual bottle–makingcompanies – are not included in the list).
A.G.W………………………………..American Glass Works, Richmond, Virginia (1908-1925)
Anchor logo entwined with a capital “H”………….Anchor Hocking Corporation, Lancaster, Ohio
B in a circle………………………….. Brockway Glass Company, Brockway, Pennsylvania.
C in a circle………………….Chattanooga Glass Company, Chattanooga, Tennessee. Chattanooga was a HEAVY producer of Coca-Cola bottles.
C inside a diamond………….Chattanooga Glass Company, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
D inside a diamond……………… Dominion Glass Company, Montreal, Quebec, Canada and other factory locations (1913-1976). Most, if not all Canadian co*kes made by Dominion are in clear or “off-clear” glass. Many of them bear the logo on the base with a mold number to the left and a date code positioned to the right.
Diamond & O (oval) entwined/superimposed, with an I in center, looks something like an eye or the planet Saturn……………………Owens-Illinois Glass Company, head office Toledo, OH. (See a number of pics showing this frequently encountered mark at that page). This firm probably made more co*ke bottles than any other glass manufacturer in the United States, at least during the 1940s and 1950s. Chattanooga Glass would possibly take second place in total production.
D.O.C. ……………………………………………..D. O. Cunningham, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
DURAGLAS…………………………………..trademark/brand name applied to their typical container glass formula, introduced in 1940: Owens-Illinois Glass Company.
EG (along heel, with numbers)…………Graham Glass Company, Evansville, Indiana.
Eye (emblem that resembles an EYE or the planet SATURN …. this is the trademark (Diamond & Oval with I inside) that was used by Owens-Illinois Glass Company.
F within a hexagon………………………Fairmount Glass Company, Fairmount, Indiana & Indianapolis, Indiana.
FV (connected, as shown)……………..Fábrica de Envases de Vidrio S.A. de C.V, Mexicali, Mexico. This is seen on some of the “Mexican co*ke” bottles imported into the United States. Although this company began in 1987, I’m not sure if the mark has been in actual use that entire time. I have a co*ke bottle with the mark which is date coded for the year 2006.
G23 (or similar letter/number, lightly embossedalong the lower heel)……….. Graham Glass Company, Evansville, Indiana. (Not to be confused with the “G-number” [bottle style/design codes] seen on the base of many Owens-Illinois soda bottles).
H entwined with (superimposed over)an “Anchor” emblem…………. Anchor-Hocking Corporation, Lancaster, Ohio
Heart inside a circle…………..what appears to be a heart inside a circle is actually the letters V and M (entwined / superimposed) inside a circle. This mark has been reported on the side of “Georgia Green” (typical green-aqua) hobbleskirt-style Coca-Cola bottles. This is one of the logos used by Vidriera Monterrey, of Monterrey, Mexico (1909-to date). According to information on this webpage, the mark probably dates between c. 1936 and c. 1985: https://sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/MexicanMarks.pdf
I inside an O (may be described as the letter “O”, a zero, circle or oval)………………….this is the second major trademark used by Owens-Illinois Glass Company, after the mid- to late 1950s.
IPG inside triangle…………….Illinois Pacific Glass Corporation, San Francisco, CA; Los Angeles & other plant locations (c. 1925-c.1932). This mark was reported on the heel of a hobbleskirt style Coca-Cola bottle, although this picture shows it on a Clorox bottle.
I.S.G.CO…………………Inter-State Glass Company, Kansas City, Missouri.
Lbg …………………………………………………Lynchburg Glass Works, Lynchburg, Virginia
L – G or L G ………………………………………………..Liberty Glass Company, Sapulpa, Oklahoma
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L (with numbers to the right and/or left) …………. Laurens Glass Works, Laurens, South Carolina (1910-1996)
L G W (letters may be widely separated around perimeter of base) ………………………………………….. Laurens Glass Works, Laurens, South Carolina.
MG (connected) …………………. Maywood Glass Company, Compton, California (1930-1959).
O-I ……….. Owens Illinois, Inc. (see more on this and other marks on my webpage about Owens-Illinois Glass Company).
O-N …………………… Obear-Nester Glass Company, East St. Louis, Illinois.
O.V.B.W. …………Ohio Valley Bottling Works, Cincinnati, Ohio. Initials as reported to me on the bottom of a circa 1910s-1920s amber straight-side co*ke bottle. This was apparently a short-lived local bottling operation, not a glassmaker.
R within a triangle………………………..Reed Glass Company, Rochester, New York.
REED…………….Reed Glass Company, Rochester, NY. (Reported by Taylor McBurney, embossed along lower heel)
ROOT…………………………………………. Root Glass Company, Terre Haute, Indiana. Root was the first company to produce theclassic “hobbleskirt design” glass Coca-Cola bottle.
S within a star………………………………………Southern Glass Company, Los Angeles, California.
Saturn (logo that looks like the planet Saturn, or an “Eye”. Please see my page on Owens-Illinois Glass Company. Owens-Illinois made more co*ke bottles than any other manufacturer.
S G Co (within a downwardly slanted segmented parallelogram – each letter is “boxed” -separated by a vertical line -all within a horizontal rectangle)……………….. Southern Glass Company, Los Angeles, California.
UGB …………………………United Glass Bottle Manufacturers, Limited (a combine of several glass bottle companies in the UK). These bottles were made in Great Britain.
V, actually a highly stylized letter “V” logo (on the glass surface, the “un-raised” part of the mark is the V, somewhat similar to a check mark). On the bottle, this trademark typically looks like a group of 3 small triangularly-shaped raised “spots” or “bumps“………….. Vitro Packaging LLC, Monterrey, Mexico. This mark is seen on huge numbers of containers imported into the United States, including soda bottles as well as many other types of food and beverage containers.
VM or MV logo (inside circle)…… see the “Heart inside a circle” entry.
For an extensive list of glass manufacturers’ marks seen on bottles, fruit jars, electrical insulators, tableware and other glass items, please click here to go to the main Glass Bottle Marks page. (I have more information there on many of the marks listed on this page.)
I would also recommend readers to check out this .pdf article about Owens-Illinois Glass Company, written by archaeologist, researcher and author Bill Lockhart. Although most of the article discusses Owens-Illinois marks as seen on other kinds of bottles, Bill also has a paragraph (“Coca Cola Bottles”, on page 13) discussing the mark and code placements as seen on typical co*ke bottles. Owens-Illinois made HUGE quantities of Coca-Cola bottles, so the date code information presented there is helpful: https://sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/OwensIllinois2015.pdf
Another informative article (.pdf file), written by Bill Lockhart and Bill Porter, this one is about the history and evolution of the Hobbleskirt style co*ke bottle :
Always look very closely over the entire glass bottle or other container to see if there is a logo (emblem, trademark, initials, or just a letter) visible that might be a mark that identifies the actual glass manufacturer.
Typical embossed marks include a maker's mark or letters on the bottle's side or base. You may also see mold lines or machine marks. Missing letters, uneven spacing, or other embossing errors provide clues to a bottle's age.
Most co*ke bottles (although not all) bear a glass manufacturer's mark (logo, emblem, trademark, or initials) somewhere on the bottle, that may help to identify what glass company made it. In general, glass manufacturers' marks are usually seen on the base, but sometimes appear on the side or lower heel of the bottle.
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.
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.
Bottle labels tell the consumer where the product was made, who manufactured it, what ingredients are in the product, and any other information deemed relevant by the manufacturer. Bottle labelling can be used to differentiate products from one another as well as make them more appealing to consumers.
As stated above, most markings will be located on the bottom. Identifiers, such as embossed markings, can be found on the side. When trying to date your glassware you can look on the bottom for Pontil marks or Mold lines as those will help you determine whether the glass was hand-blown or manufactured.
DD = day of month: 01 = first day of month, 30 = 30th day of month, etc. YY = year: 20 = 2020, 21 = 2021, etc. Y = year: 0 = 2020, 1 = 2021, 5 = 2025, etc. DDD = day of year (aka 'Julian Date'): 001 = first day of year, 265 = 265th day of year, etc.
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).
The straight-sided bottles can vary in value from $25 up to around $400, depending on the condition and the uniqueness. Amber-colored bottles, sold widely in the South and Midwest, tend to be more valuable than the clear or light green or flint straight-sided bottles that were more common in other parts of the country.
Coca-Cola brand cans are stamped (typically on the bottom of the can) with a sell-by date in MMMDDYY format. There are additional codes included with the stamp that have nothing to do with dating. Coca-Cola Can Expiration Code.
“The quality and taste of expired soda may be severely impacted,” Schwan said. “Carbonated soft drinks or sodas will decrease in flavor and carbonation – they may taste awful and 'flat' if consumed long after their expiration date.”
The patina: older glass tends to show signs of use and passing time - so see if there are any small flakes, scratches and chips, or missing gilt. Bubbles: tiny bubbles, or other imperfections and irregularities, are more common in antique glass - you may need a magnifying glass to see some of these.
Mint condition bottles — those with no damage, chips, discoloration or flaws of any kind — boast the highest values. Bottles in near mint or very good condition have slight wear but are close to perfect and thus worth almost as much as their mint-condition counterparts.
Today, while green Cameo pieces are very common and can be purchased for just a few dollars, pink and yellow pieces are very rare due to limited production and can be worth hundreds.
The bottle and label carrier are pre-heated so that the graphic is released from the carrier and transferred to the bottle by a special thermally activated application process. The bottle is then reheated so that the label bonds with the glass surface.
The HCS now requires the following elements on labels of hazardous chemicals: Name, Address and Telephone Number of the chemical manufacturer, importer or other responsible party. Product Identifier is how the hazardous chemical is identified.
Smart labels is used as an umbrella term for any labelling or coding that uses technology to add functionality and data beyond a traditional barcode. This includes data embedded barcodes, RFID, and QR codes alongside a wide range of innovative new applications that take advantage of the new technology.
Depression glass was usually translucent and made using bright colors, although it was occasionally colorless or opaque. This glassware was designed to be bold and stand out at a time when life was often drab and unexciting. So as you browse the antique store or estate sale, look for colorful pieces.
Cavity Identification. Our glass containers pass rigorous inspections before they're sent to customers. The Braille-like bumps on the heel and/or rings on the bottom are the cavity identification and enable our inspection equipment to read the bottle identification information.
If you examine a piece of pressed glass you will always find either two, three or four seams running through the glass, although sometimes the seams were well hidden in the pattern.
At the bottom of most plastic containers you can find a small number inside the three arrow triangle recycling symbol. This number is a reference to what type of plastic the container is made of. Each plastic is composed of a different molecule or set of molecules.
The pontil, or punty, is a solid metal rod that is usually tipped with a wad of hot glass, then applied to the base of a vessel to hold it during manufacture. It often leaves an irregular or ring-shaped scar on the base when removed. This is called the “pontil mark.”
A pontil mark or punt mark is the scar where the pontil, punty or punt was broken from a work of blown glass. The presence of such a scar indicates that a glass bottle or bowl was blown freehand, while the absence of a punt mark suggests either that the mark has been obliterated or that the work was mold-blown.
A pontil mark is one of the best ways to determine the age and quality of an antique glass piece and is one of many attributes that can make a glass bottle or piece of glassware more desirable and valuable. The presence of a pontil suggests that the piece was blown freehand, rather than using a mold.
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.
Hutchinson soda bottles are a unique type of antique bottle that had a wire stopper inside the neck and blob of the bottle. We collectors often refer to them simply as "Hutches". The wire piece that makes up the stopper on the bottle is slightly hourglass shaped.
Because Coca Cola sold in bottles almost from the launch of the product, a myriad of bottles from various decades exist. Yet, the only truly valuable Coca Cola bottle is the aforementioned Hutchinson bottle.
Recently, a rare Coca-Cola glass bottle from around 1915 was put up for auction with a minimum bid of $50,000. However, the Las Vegas-based auction house Morphy Auctions currently has the bottle valued between $100,000 to $150,000.
Today, the "Coca-Cola bottle green" color is nearly as synonymous with the drink as the bottle shape itself. This color was a natural result of the copper and minerals found in the sand that Root used to make his bottles (including the Coca-Cola bottle that his company patented).
The bottles used in those days were simple straight-sided bottles that were typically brown or clear. The Coca-Cola Company required that the bottlers emboss the famous Coca-Cola logo onto every bottle.
Where's My Unique Code? Each Unique Code is located on the back of the label of all specially marked plastic bottles, under the can tab on 440mL cans or inside the carton of multi can packs. The Code is unique to each promotional product label.
A triangle with a number (1 to 7) inside it, stamped onto a plastic container or bottle is a Plastic Identification Code. This will tell you what type of plastic that container was made from.
All of our products have a "Best taste date," which is very different from an expiration date often found on perishable items such as dairy and meat products. Our "Best taste date" is a self-imposed indicator that has been listed on the underside of our cans, shoulders of bottles and sides of paperboard wraps.
Carbonated soft drinks or sodas are not perishable, and are safe past the date stamped on the container. Eventually flavor and carbonation will decrease.
Adolescents and young adults are the heaviest consumers of sugary drinks. Even young infants and toddlers drink a lot of sugary drinks, primarily fruit drinks.
'co*ke' is the friendly abbreviation for the trademark Coca-Cola." In 1945, Coca-Cola gave in to the force of its customers and trademarked the nickname. The first advertising slogan to use the word "co*ke" appeared in 1948. It said: "Where there's co*ke, there's hospitality."
The very first glass known to stone age people which was used for making weapons and decortaive objects, was obsidian, black volcanic glass. The earliest known man made glass are date back to around 3500BC, with finds in Egypt and Eastern Mesopotamia.
So those ripples, warps, and bull's eye indentations you see in really old pieces of glass “were created when the glass was created,” Cima says. They are the result of old-fashioned glass fabrication methods, not aging.
Black glass is one of the oldest bottle colors going back to at least the early 17th century in Europe. American made, mouth-blown black glass bottles of any type were uncommon after about 1880.
Glass has been used for thousands of years, historians believe the first glass bottles were made in 1500BC in Mesopotamia! The oldest unopened wine bottle in the world was found in Speyer, Germany, dating back 1,700 years!
Most collectible bottles are over 10 years old and value usually increases with the age of the whisky. Whisky over 30 years old is the most sought after as it is the rarest. Any whisky bottled at over 50 years old is highly desirable and a very limited number of distilleries have released whisky over 50 years old.
Typically, the liquor bottles would be marked with a pair of numbers, such as “56 – 44”. The glass company logo or “manufacturer mark” would also appear somewhere on the bottom of the container. The number (usually, but not always) on the LEFT was the LBPN, and the number on the RIGHT is a date code.
These numbers are commonly referred to as the “resin identification code” or “recycling number”. They are located on the bottom or side of the container and are responsible for classifying the type of plastic resin used in the production of the container.
Let's say it is “43R-000499.” The “43R” means that the windshield conforms to the European standard of safety regulation #43. The “000499” that follows indicates the approval number assigned to the windshield.
This is a Pre-Prohibition era, antique, clear glass Hip Flask, Liquor bottle or Whiskey Bottle. I believe this style of flask is referred to as a Shoo-Fly Flask, popular from the late 1800s until the early 1900s.
Subcategories: The label also could indicate distinctions within a type of spirit. For example, Scotch should be marked as single malt or blended; Cognac as VSOP, XO, etc.; Tequila as blanco, reposado, and so on. Proof/abv: The amount of alcohol by volume (abv) in a spirit. Most spirits are around 40% abv, or 80 proof.
The “22” is a liquor bottle permit number, the “77” is the year date code, the logo which is a stylized “G over C” stands for the glass company.The “D-1” is a distiller code number. “
Number 7 plastics are used to make baby bottles, sippy cups, water cooler bottles and car parts. BPA is found in polycarbonate plastic food containers often marked on the bottom with the letters “PC” by the recycling label #7.
The bottles can be very valuable today, with the earliest in the series worth several thousand dollars or more in mint condition. Some Coca-Cola bottlers carried a line of seltzer, adding carbon dioxide to water to make it effervescent.
Most people know the little triangle symbol at the bottom of plastic bottles means 'recycle' but what they don't know is just because it has a triangle on the bottom, doesn't always mean it can be recycled. The numbers indicate the grade of plastic and can also tell you about the safety and uses of that item.
Many bottles from the late 1800s and early 1900s—such as McKearin & Wilson's “American Bottles” glass bottles from around 1830—can be worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars if in good condition.
Introduction: My name is Chrissy Homenick, I am a tender, funny, determined, tender, glorious, fancy, enthusiastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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