From CG : I have acquired one of the 1908 "topless" Vienna art plates from the Western Coca-Cola Bottling Company. It can be found on page 330 of Petretti's 11th Edition Guide, top left, except mine has the original elaborate gold frame and is still mounted to the black box. It is just as I found it, but needs to be cleaned. I do not plan to keep this for my personal collection, and am making this item available to the readers of my Fizz first before listing it on auction, so - please do << click here >> to see its photo and  E-mail me with any questions. If anyone is interested, please to contact me to discuss its transfer to a new home. Any reasonable offers will be considered.

From Robin : Would anyone be interested in purchasing old Coca-Cola bottles, about 200 of them. They are empty and in very good condition. I also have other old bottles. Contact me @ (406) 362-4636 or E-mail me.

Also if anyone else has bottles or other soda-related items to offer, E-mail and let us all know.

Be sure to send me your UP FOR GRABS item listings! E-mail to: Up For Grabs 

From Karen : I am looking for a Fort Valley, GA, Coca-Cola bottle. I do not know if one was made with that city embossed into it, but if there is one, I am searching one out for a friend.

From Ted : Wanted to buy any Rochester and Peru Indiana hobbleskirt bottles. Also interested in buying Indiana straight-sides, amber or aqua. 

From Mike : I am interested in buying all wide-mouth, glass, 1 and 2-liter soda bottles from '70s and '80s: Coke, Dr. Pepper, 7Up, Squirt, Pepsi, etc. I am also interested in information that will lead me to these bottles.

The Indianapolis Museum of Art is organizing a forthcoming catalog and retrospective exhibition on the Overbeck Pottery in Cambridge City, Indiana. The museum is seeking museum-quality examples of Overbeck art pottery, china decoration, textiles, works on paper (designs and drawings), ephemera (submitted designs) and photographs for loan to this ambitious and nationally significant exhibition. Contact Jennifer Howe at (513) 731-8133 or E-mail: jenleahowe@yahoo.com. 

There are also WANTED items listed <here> at the bottom of the page. (I will be adding more in the coming week.)

Do you have a particular item, or items, that you have been looking for a long time to complete part of your collection, or something you want - but have not as yet been able to find? Send it so all of us can help you look. You never know where it may turn up! E-mail it to My Missing Item

Sweet Interruption
It is a contemporary twist on a traditional favorite. Barq's Floatz will roll out to cities in Mississippi and Louisiana, the Barq's homeland, in a 12-ounce long-neck bottle with a frosty look and topped off with a bright red bottle cap. The Barq's brand was created in 1898 by Edward C. Barq, Sr., a native of New Orleans. It was acquired by the Coca-Cola Company in 1995 and is now America's #1 root beer.

Billion Sweeps
In just over one month of activity, Pepsi’s Play for a Billion promotional site, www.billionsweeps.com, enlisted its two-millionth registrant June 11th. The site, developed and managed by Yahoo!, will be active until August 15.

SoBe Synergy
South Beach Beverage Company formally announced that it will add a new family of "healthy refreshment beverages" to the popular SoBe beverage lineup this summer. The SoBe Synergy line has been designed specifically as a vending category entry, and adds five new great-tasting flavors to the company’s existing SoBe better-for-you beverage options. Packaged in 11.5 oz. cans, SoBe Synergy flavors include Kiwi Strawberry, Fruit Punch, Mango Orange, Lemonade and Grape. Each flavor will boast 50% real juice content and will be fortified with vitamins, calcium and zinc. SoBe Synergy’s low calorie content (80 calories per 8 oz. serving) and lower sugar content (compared to 100% juice products) is also expected to attract consumers. If you have questions regarding SoBe Synergy or any other SoBe beverages, please contact Kristine Hinck at SoBe (khinck@lizmail.com or 203. 899.7163.) 

Get Paid to Play
It's pretty uncommon to get paid to do nothing, but lucky winners in Dr Pepper's ‘Get Paid to Play' promotion will receive a $1,500 ‘paycheck' for kicking back and enjoying their summer however they wish. July through October, consumers can instantly win cash, media players and disposable cameras by looking behind peel-off stickers on specially marked 32- and 44-ounce Dr Pepper fountain cups. In addition to 10 $1,500 grand prizes, 250 second place portable DVD/CD/MP3 players and 5,000 third place disposable cameras will be awarded to boost consumers' summer fun.

New bottles or cans, or anything soda, in your area ?
Please send the info so all of us can know @ Whats New

June 20-21 - Denver, Colorado
Antique Bottle Collectors of Colorado’s Annual Show & Sale (Sat. 9 AM – 4 PM, early admission Fri. 3 PM – 7 PM) at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, 15200 W. 6th Ave., Denver, Colorado. INFO: MIKE HOFER, 304 Shepperd Ave., Littleton, CO 80120, PH: (303) 797-7507.

June 20-21 - Houston, Texas
Gulf Coast Bottle & Jar Club's 34th Annual Antique Bottle, Advertising & Collectibles Show and Sale (Early Admission Fri., June 20th 7-10 PM, $10; General Admission Sat. 9 AM - 4 PM, $2) at the Marriott (formerly Radisson Hotel), 9100 Gulf Freeway, Houston, Texas 77017. PH: (713) 943-7979. Wide variety of bottles, cans, fruit jars, inks, milk bottles, drug store collectibles - Coca Cola - Dr. Pepper - 7 UP - Orange Crush, Texas memorabilia, oil company items, and lots lots more. For Sales Table and Show Information, please contact: BARBARA PUCKETT, 907 W. Temple, Houston, TX 77009, PH: (713) 862-1690 or E-mail: bjcoll@hotmail.com or red1@wt.net.

The Coca-Cola Collectors Club National Convention will be held June 29 through July 5, 2003 in Chicago Illinois. This will be the 29th national convention for the largest Coca-Cola collectors club in the world. Events will include swap meet, convention store, brunch, Twins vs White Sox baseball game, trading center, silent and regular auctions, fun night, seminars, displays, swap meet and room hopping. The convention hotel is the Hyatt Regency O'Hare at the O'Hare International Airport. For hotel reservations, please call 800-233-1234 or 847-696-1234. Convention rate for the room is $95/night for 1-4 people. Parking is $5 per day. For information about the convention, please contact Beth Markowitz at 717-848-3282, fax 717-848-5582, or e-mail markowitz@cyberia.com.

If you would like to view the full 'events calendar,' I now maintain  < click here>.
Any new events  in your area? E-mail it so all of us can know, to: Upcoming Events

I still have a few of the last issue of the Spring Bottles & Extras around, if anyone wants to request a sample, please do >>email<< me and let me know, along with your full mailing address. I would also like to thank those who requested samples of the other two. I hope you are enjoying them. When I get extra copies again, I'll pass it along.

I was at the Knoxville show yesterday for early admission, and plan to be there again today. There are lots of bottles there, many of them hard-to-find high-end bottles. Makes me wish I'd robbed a bank before attending. During the time I was there yesterday, there just wasn't enough time to see it all. :) So, I go back today.

The Louisville (KY) National Show show is at the end of the month, and I am looking forward to seeing many of you there. 

Until next week, Happy Collecting! CokeGirl

By Michael Elling, Sharon, Tennessee

Photographed below is an example of a yellow label NEHI Rums Dry "Waiter" bottle that has a bottler city name, along with the standard, green glass, bottle. (Click thumbnails to see full-size image.)

Standard Rums Dry Barrel Design is always on green glass, shows familiar wooden barrel in stunning yellow/red colors. This prewar item has Good Housekeeping Seal and also embossed "fill ring" to insure precise measure of 6 fluid ounces.

Standard Rums Dry Waiter Design is always on clear glass, shows waiter bringing product, and includes class illusion to "Smart People" who are the customers. This unique Greenville, SC, waiter bottle reveals local bottler commitment. This item however, contains smeared and missing letters from text, and a registration of the pictures off center to the label field and shoulder monogram. The reverse text says, "NEHI ROYAL CROWN BOTTLING COMPANY, GREENVILLE, S.C." Collectors normally shun bottles with these obvious quality problems.

In Greenville, South Carolina. Rums Dry was the NEHI brand name of a pale dry ginger ale, which found a market in areas where ginger ale had a tradition of being used for medicinal purposes, or was being used as a mixer for alcoholic drinks.

Available from 1933, very few NEHI bottlers actually marketed it. Over a period of 20 years, I have only found evidence of 6 other bottlers than at the headquarters, Columbus, Georgia. These are: Blackstone, VA; Bluefield, VA; Columbia, SC; Fostoria, OH; Orangeburg, SC; and Staunton, VA. All of these bottles show the most common picture label, the wooden storage barrel wherein all genuine ginger ale beverages are aged and mellowed.

But in 1938, a unique brand design was introduced as a yellow painted label; the Rums Dry For Smart People waiter bottle.

These are all 6 oz, clear glass, monogrammed shoulder, bottles with two unmistakable "barrel hoop" wear rings that provide the label with very good protection. Centered in a circle, a restaurant waiter is shown hurrying along with a beverage tray including a bottle and two standard drink glasses. Collectors refer to this design as the waiter bottle and rarely have more than one in their collections because they are all considered to be company bottles of Columbus. Now, we have proof that an additional bottler also marketed the product in their own bottle at Greenville, SC. The surprise is that the bottle is not prewar, as one would suppose, but is a Laurens Glass Works manufacture with a mould date of 1954!

This bottle was seen in a recent eBay auction issued by Donald Diamond, of Blackville, South Carolina, a familiar and respected name among eBay bottle bidders. Now collectors are alerted to be sure to check all the reverse sides of these waiter bottles in the hope that they can attain a Greenville, and possibly others as well.

If you have a soda-related subject that you would like to see here as an "FYI" article, or have information you yourself would like to contribute, don't be shy, send it to: FYI Idea