Remember these COKE Caps

[rgpete]

Every Saturday morning I would walk with my Mom to go down town to the butcher the one with saw dust on the floor. They would let go through the caps These are the two caps I saved. Sorry for the blurry photos

[steve B]

Yep, one of the first sports things I tried collecting. We went to a cookout and being 4 I was fascinated by bottlecaps with pictures inside. I rounded up a couple pockets full before mom found out and refused to let me bring home "dirty old bottlecaps".

I have a pretty good collection of them now

Steve B

[alanu]

Love these caps. I only have a few, really like the CFL one's that have the pictures on the outside of the caps.

[okmaybent@aol.com]

They also did Football. If you got them all you got a football. I got all but about 30 of them. So I DREW those in and my mom and dad drove me somewhere in CT to a redemption place. At first they werent going to give me the football because I didnt have all the caps. But my mom convinced them that it was too much to ask for a 7 year old and told them how hard I had tried.

I got the YA Tittle football and this will come as no surprise to this bunch but I still have the football...although its far from mint.

One of the ways I got more caps is that our church had a Coke machine. People would buy a Coke and then snap off the cap on the little bottle opener on the machine. The cap would drop down into a hole. I tied a magnet to a string and then I hung around after church (my parents were Sunday school teachers). I stuck the string down the hole and pulled up the caps one by one.

Dont get me started with what I did in 1975 when Hostess had the cards on the bottom of boxes.

[mckinneyj]

I think it was '67 - needed 5 complete sets of the football caps to redeem for a football at the local coke distributor. We used to ride around on our bikes and visit all the local gas stations that had coke machines out front. We tied magnets on the end of strings and would dip them down into the bucket under the recessed bottle opener and retrieve the spent caps - station owners didn't care. Several of us completed the 5 sets and got footballs within a few weeks that fall...

[David W]

I also would either use the magnet on a string. But the most efficient way to get bottle caps was just to ask the janitor who restocked the machine at our school to save them. he'd dump them in a box for us kids, and we'd stuff our pockets at school the next day.

We used to collect all caps, and trade them, not just sports related one.

[John V]

I recall the pain of finding a cap with a significant bend caused by the bottle opener. Much less appealing the ones that would lay flat.

[1966CUDA]

A few I picked up a while ago....which brands are the tuffer ones to obtain??

-Claude

[grainsley]

For spending money for cards when I was a kid I used to pick up pop bottles from ditches and cash them in at the local store in South Vancouver. The owners got to know me quite well,and I also shovelled snow from the front of their store for fifty cents. They knew I was going to buy cards or Sgt. Fury comics in their store right after they paid me. Smart. They also gave me the key to their pop machine to get the CFL caps in 1965. The pop machine was a slider, so if you were buying a Coke or a Sprite, you could see who was on the cap, and with careful manipulation of the botles in the sliders, you could always get the one you wanted. I know I put together at least four sets (230 in a set) and still have a couple of large bags of leftovers........yeah, I'm a packrat. Love those caps though....thanks for bringing back the memories!

Grant

[GasHouseGang]

Originally Posted by grainsley

For spending money for cards when I was a kid I used to pick up pop bottles from ditches and cash them in at the local store in South Vancouver. The owners got to know me quite well,and I also shovelled snow from the front of their store for fifty cents. They knew I was going to buy cards or Sgt. Fury comics in their store right after they paid me. Smart. They also gave me the key to their pop machine to get the CFL caps in 1965. The pop machine was a slider, so if you were buying a Coke or a Sprite, you could see who was on the cap, and with careful manipulation of the botles in the sliders, you could always get the one you wanted. I know I put together at least four sets (230 in a set) and still have a couple of large bags of leftovers........yeah, I'm a packrat. Love those caps though....thanks for bringing back the memories!

Grant

You must be a bit older than me Grant, but I remember looking for the pop bottles in alleys and ditches to get that 2 cents per bottle! Then using that money for cards, candy, or cokes. I remember these bottle caps, but could never hope to get more than a couple. I remember my neighbor though having a large collection of these (only child, his dad spoiled him). Wish I could have gotten more back then!

[grainsley]

Born in '51, and yes, two cents a bottle was huge if you could find 10 of them........that translated into four packs of cards, not to mention the bonus gum......what a bonanza!

[steve B]

Originally Posted by 1966CUDA

A few I picked up a while ago....which brands are the tuffer ones to obtain??

-Claude

Anything non-coke is uncommon, at least around here. I have the whole Boston baseball set from 67 and most of a 68 set. The 67s I'm getting close to having complete from around 8 different bottling plants.

And none of them are anything but coke.

Football is different for some reason.

My best guess in order
Sprite
Fanta root beer
Fresca

I could be wrong about the last two, but I'm pretty sure root beer outsold Fresca in the areas that sold it.

Steve B

[rgpete]

W. Ford

[okmaybent@aol.com]

I would think "TAB" would be one of the tougher ones. It was one of the first diet sodas and well before when people really cared.

[Aquifer]

I remember these, too, and a really fun story about them was part of Marvin Miller's Book "A Whole Different Ballgame." As he told it, the owners were doing all they could to block the formation of the MLB players union and Miller, in his first year, had almost zero money to fund operations. But they were able to run this tiny promotion with Coke, airbrushing out the cap logos because the owner's wouldn't allow it, and it was just enough sponsorship money to keep the fledgling union alive that first year. We know what happened after that. I have a couple that I keep just for that connection.

[hcv123]

There is another amazing thread on here on these including a breakdown of more back variations than you realize! Don't have time to search now.

[frankbmd]

I wonder if anyone broke the bottles, so that their caps would be in unbent mint condition. Mom wouldn't have gone for that idea, but I'd bet you would have a unique collection today, perhaps worth enough to repurchase the soda you lost as a kid.

Footnote: The young fellas may not realize that there were no twist off caps back then.

[steve B]

I have a few that were never put on a bottle.

Steve B

[Volod]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

I wonder if anyone broke the bottles, so that their caps would be in unbent mint condition. Mom wouldn't have gone for that idea, but I'd bet you would have a unique collection today, perhaps worth enough to repurchase the soda you lost as a kid.

Footnote: The young fellas may not realize that there were no twist off caps back then.

As a kid, probably would not have thought of it, but you could take a flathead screwdriver to the caps and carefully lift the edges so as to remove them without bending the cap very much. But, if I wasn't concerned about the Hank Aaron rookie card in my bike spokes, a bent popbottle cap sure wouldn't have bothered me in 1954.

[mannequin1]

Do you have any Fantas to sell or trade. I have many dupes/

[hcv123]

So as mentioned anything non coke is tough. There is a comprehensive thread on these somewhere on this site - it had a checklist of different backs - more than most would believe if you haven't seen it. From memory:

King size coke - probably as tough as sprite
Sprite - next easiest after coke
King Size Sprite - VERY tough
Tab (different variations) - 4th easiest after fresca
King Size Tab - super tough
Fresca (different variations) - 3rd after sprite
Fanta grape - super tough
Fanta Root Beer - super tough
Fanta Orange - super tough
There are also some "special" coke ones - Kosher, Kosher for Passover - 1 I think from a particular state with a map outline on the cap, etc.

likely a couple more I've missed

I am looking for some of the tougher Clemente variations if anyone has

[Fleerfan]

Here is a look at the 1967 Coke promotion and its relation to the 1967 Dexter Press photos:

http://fleersticker.blogspot.com/201...1967-coke.html

And here is a look at the 1968 Coke promotion and its relationship to the players union:

http://fleersticker.blogspot.com/201...promotion.html