Bottle Cap Memories

I decided to run this article again in honor of my “baby” sister who has been fighting cancer for three years now. It is a story from our childhood that brings back good memories for me. I hope you will humor me and enjoy this rerun.

A few weeks ago, I made the long nine-hour drive to see my family in southern Ohio. On the way to my sister’s house, we drove by Stonelick State Park, which brought back a flood of memories from early childhood. As a young family in the 1960s with one income and one car and a little ranch house in the suburbs, we often spent summer weekends fishing at various state parks and old farm ponds. As a young child, I often got bored if nothing was biting or it was hot or buggy outside.

To bide the time, I would walk around the ponds and lakes looking for bottle caps in the dirt where litterbugs had left those little cork lined pieces of Americana. My little sister and I would make a game out of it, seeing who could find the most or the ones in the best condition. We would wash them at the waters edge and bring our treasures to mother to admire while she set up our picnic lunch. What great memories!

You can imagine my surprise when I was flipping through a recent issue of “Country Living” magazine and there was a whole section about collecting vintage bottle caps, soda bottles and crates! People were making displays with these old bottle caps that were quite colorful and interesting. Perhaps you remember picking up pop bottles (That’s what Ohioans call them) and turning them in to the store to get the deposit back. Now I am really dating myself! When we went to Pennsylvania to visit the cousins, we would all walk along the road looking for bottles to turn in and get money to go across the street to the old general store and buy penny candy.

OK, I digress… so back to the bottle caps. There were nearly 2,000 soda companies back in the day before the giants of Coke and Pepsi bought up everything and ran the little companies out of business. There used to be as many kinds of soda to choose from as there were penny candies. According to eBay, most vintage bottle caps in unused condition sell for at least $2 a piece and used ones in good condition for $1. Early or rare caps prior to the 1940s can bring as much as $20 each. Wow! Why didn’t mom let me keep all those dirty bottle caps picked up from the dirt at the lake? Unusual caps by Howdy Doody or Micky Mouse Club can sometimes bring $60 each.

As usual, condition is everything. Caps that are bent or rusty have very little to no value. Some collectors will tolerate a slight dimple in the top of the cap from an opener but new old stock caps are the most desirable. Happy Collecting!

Jillinda Falen has been buying and selling antiques for over 35 years and is a licensed REALTOR® and estate liquidation specialist. You can contact her through the Houston Home Journal or via email at jcfalen@gmail.com

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