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How to Identify an Antique Green-Ribbed Soda Bottle

Soda pop bottles are collected by people who have a penchant for nostalgia and by those serious collectors who look for the rarities as an investment. Antique soda bottles were made in a time before the use of plastics and were made from colorful glass. Some of the bottles have raised, molded lettering, which makes them uniquely different from the glass soda pop bottles found today. Collectible bottles will sometimes have a paper label still attached, listing ingredients not often found in the soda most people drink in these modern times.

Things You'll Need

Magnifying glass
Guidebooks
Internet access

Instructions

- 1
  Look at the colors. Antique green-ribbed soda bottles were emerald to dark olive-green in color, with ribbed edges up by the neck of the bottle. Feel the bottle for heaviness. Antique green-ribbed soda bottles were made with heavy glass to withstand the carbonation process of the time.
- 2
  Examine the shape of the bottle. Most antique soda bottles had a common shape, but some were more rounded or cylindrical, and with fluted tops. Check the neck of the bottle. Some had longer necks, while others were thicker or stout in size. Look at the top of the bottle, where the spout is located. Check to see if the top is fluted, as in hand blown, and ribbed at the tip.
- 3
  Look on the bottom of the bottle with a magnifying glass. Genuine antique soda bottles have valve marks or were hand blown, and will have a hollow section, called an open-type pontil scar. This is the part where the glass stem was broken off after the bottle was mouth blown. Look on the side of the bottle for mold seams. The modern factory-made soda bottles -- made after 1952 -- don't have mold seams like on the antique bottles, which were fitted together in sections.
- 4
  Examine the embossed markings on the bottom of the bottle. Look up the markings in a price guidebook at the library. Try to research the mark in the most up-to-date guidebook available. Sometimes guidebooks will also have current market values of antique soda bottles, as well. Check online at soda bottle collector websites if you can't find the proper guidebooks to help identify markings.
- 5
  Don't confuse collectible or vintage bottles with antique. Some early green "krinkly" types of bottles -- made from green glass -- were manufactured from 1920 to mid-1960. This era of ribbed bottles came in different designs and was used for Orange Crush soda, among others. There were also more modern brands later on that used green glass; though the characteristics of the glass is very different from antique or vintage.
- 6
  Check any soda bottles for modern characteristics, such as seam-free design, lighter glass and lack of detail on the bottle. Beware of reproductions. Some newer bottles on the market today are made to look antique. Reproduction glass won't be as thick or heavy, and won't have the attention to detail or the pontil scar on the bottom.

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