What Coca-Cola collecting actually involves

Most of the hobby is looking. You walk flea markets, antique malls and estate sales, pick up anything red and white, and read the small print: the trademark line under the logo, the patent line on a bottle, the maker's name on a tray rim. Back home you match the piece to a price guide, check what it sold for recently, and decide where it goes on the shelf. A typical outing is an hour or two and often ends with one small purchase or none. Collections tend to grow around a theme, such as one decade, one kind of object, or the bottling plant in your home town.

Shelves crowded with Coca-Cola memorabilia: tin signs, bottles, cans, a toy cooler, a polar bear and a model train — Shelves of Coca-Cola signs, bottles, cans and toys

A wooden wall covered in round, rectangular and bottle-shaped Coca-Cola tin signs

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Pick a corner of the hobby to start in

Four ways in, one to begin with

Bottles And CansThe cheapest way in. Embossed contour bottles from the 1920s to the 1960s carry the name of the town that bottled them, and common ones cost a few dollars. Commemorative bottles and cans from other countries extend the hunt.

Start here

Turn over every contour bottle you can find and read the base and the skirt. Write down the town on the bottom and the patent line on the side, then use them to put the bottles in date order.

The history of the contour bottle

Signs And TraysThe showpieces. Tin serving trays, metal signs, thermometers and clocks carry the famous artwork and the highest prices, and they are also the most reproduced things in the hobby.

Start here

Before you buy a tray, look up that exact design in a price guide and learn its year, its size and where the maker's line sits on the rim. Then handle a few at an antique mall and compare them to what the book says.

Paper And AdsFull-page magazine ads, calendars, blotters and playing cards. Ads cut from old magazines are plentiful, cost a few dollars each, and show the complete run of the company's artwork.

Start here

Buy one full-page magazine ad from a decade you like. A dealer's box of loose pages usually prices them at a few dollars, and the magazine name and date are often penciled on the back.

Modern and commemorativeHoliday cans, Olympic pins, polar bear figures and anniversary bottles made from the 1980s on. Sold new or nearly new, easy to find, and rarely worth more later, so buy these for the look.

Start here

Pick one narrow theme (Christmas, the Olympics, one sport, one country) and buy only that for your first three months. A theme keeps a cheap, endless category from swallowing your shelf space.

Open a corner to see its first step. Bottles And Cans, Signs And Trays and Paper And Ads each add their own care and display gear to the kit. Modern and commemorative pieces need nothing beyond the base kit.

Read before you date a bottle

The history of the contour bottle Free official account of how the bottle shape came about and changed, useful before you start dating bottles

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How to date a piece and spot a copy

Read the trademark line.

On older pieces the words "Trade Mark Registered" sit inside the tail of the first C. From about 1941 into the early 1960s "Reg. U.S. Pat. Off." appears under the name instead, and later pieces carry a small ® symbol.

Read the bottle.

A contour bottle marked "PAT'D NOV. 16, 1915" dates from about 1917 to 1928, one marked "PAT'D DEC. 25, 1923" from about 1928 to 1938, and one marked "PAT. D-105529" from about 1938 to 1951. That date is the patent, not the year the bottle was made.

Check for a painted label.

White painted lettering on the glass in place of raised lettering arrived in the late 1950s, so a painted-label bottle is from then or later.

Look at the print under a loupe.

Early trays and signs were printed in solid layers of color. A regular grid of tiny dots across the whole picture points to a later photographic copy.

Read the rim and the back.

Reproduction trays from the 1970s and later often carry a line of small print with a later date or the word "reproduction", sometimes scratched or painted over.

Be suspicious of perfect condition.

A ninety-year-old tray was used to carry drinks. Even wear on the high spots and rim is normal, while rust in odd patches over bright, unfaded paint suggests a copy that was aged on purpose.

Learn the word "fantasy".

Belt buckles, pocket knives, mirrors and brass tokens with early dates on them are often designs the company never issued in that era. If a piece is not in any reference book, assume it is one of these.

A red fishtail-shaped Coca-Cola sign on a white and green storefront panel — A fishtail-shaped storefront sign

A red brick wall painted with a white Drink Coca-Cola sign

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Your first month, step by step

Tick these off as you go

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Keeping pieces safe on the shelf

Keep everything out of direct sun.

The red fades faster than any other color, and a faded tray or sign loses most of its value.

Dust painted tin and enamel with a dry microfiber cloth.

Polishes, glass cleaner and scouring pads take the printed surface off with the dirt.

Wash empty embossed bottles inside with warm soapy water and a brush.

Never soak a bottle with a paper label, and never put any bottle in the dishwasher.

Store paper flat in acid-free bags with a backing board, in a room you live in.

Attics and basements bring the heat and damp that brown paper and rust tin.

Stand trays upright on easels with nothing leaning against the painted face.

Leave rust, dents and scratches alone.

Repainting a sign or tray, however carefully, cuts its value far more than honest wear does.

Dusty glass bottles standing in a worn red plastic Coke crate — Dusty bottles in a worn red crate

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What trips beginners up

Expect most of what you see to be recent. The company has licensed nostalgic designs since the 1970s, so the 1920s artwork on a tray says nothing about when the tray was made.
Expect common pieces to stay cheap. Contour bottles were made by the billions, and most 1950s and 1960s examples sell for a few dollars however old they look.
Expect condition to decide price. The same tray can sell for ten times more with bright color and a clean face than with scratches through the picture.
Stop trusting the date printed on a piece. A patent date on a bottle or a copyright year on a tray is the date of the design, and both were reused for decades.
Stop buying on the asking price. Check what the piece sold for, since printed price guides and dealer tags both run high.
Stop buying everything with the logo on it. Without a theme the shelves fill in a month with pieces you would not pay for twice.

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Hazards worth knowing

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Old painted signs, coolers and toys can carry lead paint.

Do not sand or scrape them, wash your hands after handling flaking paint, and keep them out of reach of small children.

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Do not drink the contents of an old sealed bottle or can.

Full cans eventually corrode from the inside and leak onto the shelf below, which is why many collectors drain them through a small hole in the base.

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Rusted tin has sharp edges and chipped bottle lips cut.

Run a cloth, not a fingertip, around a rim to check it.

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Point a UV flashlight at the object and never at a face.

Reflections off glass are bright enough to matter, so keep sessions short.

Close-up of a red Coca-Cola crown cap on a glass bottle against a teal background — A crown cap still on its bottle

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Where to keep learning

The fastest teacher is another collector with a table of pieces you can handle. The Coca-Cola Collectors Club has local chapters that hold swap meets, and its yearly convention fills hotel rooms with dealers who will explain what they are selling. The company's own history pages are a reliable source for dates of bottles, slogans and artwork, and the World of Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta shows originals of the pieces most often copied, which is the best training for your eye. For prices, rely on sold results rather than asking prices.

The club, the museum and where to hunt

A red upright Coca-Cola bottle vending machine against a barn wall, with two serving trays and three bottles hung above it — A bottle vending machine with serving trays hung above

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Why the kit is this small

Nothing on this list is a collectible. The only essential is a price and identification guide, because every decision in the hobby starts with knowing what a piece is. The loupe and UV flashlight are the two checks that catch most reproductions, and one avoided mistake pays for both. Cloths cover the only cleaning most pieces should get. Everything else depends on what you collect: brushes, putty and risers if you go for bottles and cans, easels for trays and small signs, and archival bags for paper. Add those when the first pieces arrive, not before.

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Fill the crate

Compare the options on each line, then set your tiers and check out from the crate panel. Clicking a card selects it there, and clicking the selected card again takes that line out. The price guide, the loupe, the UV flashlight and the cloths start in the kit. The bottle, tray and paper gear joins when you switch on the add-on it belongs to.

Coca-Cola collectibles price and identification guide

Essential · Reference

Shows thousands of genuine pieces by year with photos, so you can match what is in your hand to a real item and see which trays, signs and bottles are scarce and which are everywhere.

budget

B J Summers Guide to Coca Cola : Identifications Current Values (B J Summer's Guide to Coca Cola Identification)

4.4(4)

$19.40

Coca-Cola Collecting

What Coca-Cola collecting actually involves

Pick a corner of the hobby to start in

How to date a piece and spot a copy

Your first month, step by step

Keeping pieces safe on the shelf

What trips beginners up

Hazards worth knowing

Where to keep learning

Why the kit is this small

Fill the crate

Coca-Cola collectibles price and identification guide

10x loupe with light

365nm UV flashlight

Lint-free microfiber cloths

Bottle brush set

Museum putty, gel or wax

Clear acrylic display risers

Large easel stands for trays

Magazine-size archival bags and boards