# Snorkelling Finds



## KnottaCollector (Oct 24, 2016)

Cleaning up the basement I found 3 bottles I fished out of Balsam Lake near Lindsay Ontario nearly 20 years ago. As my username indicates, I am not a collector, just curious about the botttles' history and if they're worth anything to anybody.  In my 60's now and for the life of me, I never saw these bottles when I was growing up. I have no reason to say why I held on to these in particular, maybe it's the glass embossing but here's the descriptions.

One is Vess Dry, looks like a green skirt. Along with VESS DRY on both sides there are the words at the top reading " REGISTERED" on one side and "6 1/2 FLD OZS.' on the other. Near bottom one side says "6 1/2 OZs." and the other reads "BOTTLE PATENTED". At the very bottom underneath is a triangle with what looks like a faint 'C' inside it. When observed more closely it looks as if the bottle has two seams. Bottle 8 3/4" tall

2nd one reads KUN*Z (Embossed handwriting) with the words "BEVERAGES" below it on one side and the other side reads "FIRST FOR THIRST". Bottom edge reads "CONTENTS 8 OZ" and the very bottom has a 6 point star with a symbol that looks like a 'U' with some other squiggle within it. The words "TRADEMARK REGISTERED" are also on the bottom but run along the bottom rim. This bottle also has seams. Bottle 8 1/4" high.

3rd bottle has the word "COKE" printed within a diamond on one side along with the words "10 FL. OZ" & "Trade Mark Registered". Other side has "COCA.COLA" in handwriting with the same other words contained in the opposite side diamond as mentioned previous. One side in English reads "NO DEPOSIT NO RETURN" while the other says en Francais "NI DEPOT NI RETOUR" On the bottom one can read "COCA-COLA LTD" with an 'L' & a '9' at opposite ends of a symbol. Below that is the number '10'. Bottle is 7" high with seams.

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## CanadianBottles (Oct 24, 2016)

Vess Dry was a franchise across North America I think, I didn't know they were in Canada but the C in a triangle means Consumers Glass, which was a Canadian company.  K u n t z was a Waterloo company, I don't think they distributed up by Lindsay, it was probably brought there by a tourist.  Those two would probably be from before your time if you're in your 60's.  Hard to say for sure without a picture but I think they're 30's bottles.  As for the Coke bottle that one would be from within your lifetime, from late 70's I believe, but they may not have been used everywhere.  They aren't really common finds considering I almost never find even a shard of that kind of bottle.  As for value yeah they're worth something to someone, but probably not a whole lot of money.


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## RCO (Oct 24, 2016)

none of those bottles would be local to the Lindsay area , there was a bottler called " Lindsay bottling works " and a couple others , some in Peterborough as well . 

looked thru my book and was a distributor in Peterborough for both the Vess and ****z during the 30's and 40's , so that is likely where they came from but neither would be considered a local Peterborough bottle 

The Vess  , have seen it before might be $10 or $15 in an antique store . 

the ****z is , fairly plain bottle , I've seen it before a few times but don't have one , I'd also say $10 - $15 maybe 

the no deposit coca cola is from 60's and not that old , I still find them fairly often in various locations around here


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## KnottaCollector (Oct 24, 2016)

Not sure if I'm doing this right but I hope the picture of the 3 bottles come through this time. Thanks to the respondents for their replies. Balsam Lake, a link in the Trent Waterways system, has been a tourist destination for many years. Most of the time I would find anchors, lures and things that fall off a passing boat. I just happened to find a few bottles that day. Not uncommon to find bottles and cans underwater but to my dismay the most common reminder of humanity found below the surface today has got to be golf balls. 



RCO said:


> looked thru my book


What is this book and where does one find it. Not that I'm looking for one but I wouldn't mind taking a gander at one just to educate myself a little more? 

Since CB doesn't have the Coke bottle and RCO doesn't have the Vess or K u n t z bottle I'd be more than happy to give them to you if you deem them worthy. One condition: you have to live in the Niagara Peninsula for an easy transfer although I am in Peterboro area many times during the summer


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## RCO (Oct 25, 2016)

I live in the Muskoka area , there are a lot of golf balls to be found underwater . but I did find one location in a lake in muskoka where I found 1000's of bottles if you look thru my old posts there is one about it . I've literally pulled 1000's of bottles out of an area near a busy set of docks . mostly coca cola and Browns beverage of gravenhurst  our local bottler back then 

I don't have the vess or k beverage but not really sure I'd be in the Niagara area any time soon , was down there once last year but that's not a normal place for me to go , you could ship them in a small box but that cost around $14 or so


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## KnottaCollector (Oct 25, 2016)

RCO said:


> I live in the Muskoka area , there are a lot of golf balls to be found underwater . but I did find one location in a lake in muskoka where I found 1000's of bottles if you look thru my old posts there is one about it . I've literally pulled 1000's of bottles out of an area near a busy set of docks . mostly coca cola and Browns beverage of gravenhurst  our local bottler back then
> 
> I don't have the vess or k beverage but not really sure I'd be in the Niagara area any time soon , was down there once last year but that's not a normal place for me to go , you could ship them in a small box but that cost around $14 or so



Hung around MacTier/Bala/Lake Joe areas as a teenager.  If I ever get a chance to revisit and if I still have the bottles I'll be sure to contact you via this forum using private message.


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## CanadianBottles (Oct 25, 2016)

Thanks for the offer!  Unfortunately I live out in Eastern Ontario and have never even been to the Niagara region before.  Plus I'm trying to cut down on the number of non-local bottles in my collection, I'm getting too many!  I definitely appreciate the offer though!  

Hey RCO, what do you think of my theory that those NDNR bottles were only used in more remote areas where it was difficult to return the heavier bottles?  The only time I can remember finding one is when I was camping far from any major cities.  That would explain why you find so many while I never see them in the wild, since I've never lived anywhere that far from a major city.  Knotta, do you ever remember seeing those type of thin glass throw-away bottles for sale?  Out of us three I think you're the only one who is old enough to remember the era that they were used.


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## KnottaCollector (Oct 25, 2016)

CanadianBottles said:


> Thanks for the offer!  Unfortunately I live out in Eastern Ontario and have never even been to the Niagara region before.  Plus I'm trying to cut down on the number of non-local bottles in my collection, I'm getting too many!  I definitely appreciate the offer though!
> 
> Hey RCO, what do you think of my theory that those NDNR bottles were only used in more remote areas where it was difficult to return the heavier bottles?  The only time I can remember finding one is when I was camping far from any major cities.  That would explain why you find so many while I never see them in the wild, since I've never lived anywhere that far from a major city.  Knotta, do you ever remember seeing those type of thin glass throw-away bottles for sale?  Out of us three I think you're the only one who is old enough to remember the era that they were used.



I was born in '53. When I was 11 my family moved to St. Catharines from outskirts of Pembroke. Personally I can't remember seeing that particular coke bottle. I do remember other non refundable soft drink products in my teens but I think they were a local bottling plant's stuff and cheaper than Coke. As a kid you got to recognize the shape of a non refundable bottle and basically ignore it when hunting for a 2 cent bottle, which was equivalent to a bag of candy back then. So if I did come across that Coke bottle then I probably thought it was just another non refundable, worthless to a kid.

I'm pretty sure I have a 4th soda bottle from that day on Balsam but I can't find it. I believe it was KIST.


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## CanadianBottles (Oct 25, 2016)

Yeah St Catherines would probably be too large to have throw-away Coke bottles if my theory is correct, especially since it's right by Niagara Falls.  I'm not sure what sort of throw-away bottles a local plant would be using in the 60's, maybe those generic paper label green bottles?  I think it was only national brands using embossed throw away bottles in Canada.  That Coke bottle would have indeed been worthless to a kid, you couldn't get a refund for them.  (Although you would have probably been in your mid-20's when that bottle was in use, unless they were voluntarily putting out bilingual bottles before the bilingualism law came into effect, which I don't think they were).  That's why I find it so odd that I never find the throw-away bottles but the refund-type bottles I find so frequently in the woods that I don't bring them back with me unless they're from the 30's or earlier.
As for Kist yeah those were pretty common ACL bottles in the 40's and 50's, they had an embossed bottle too which was less common than the ACL versions.  I'm not sure I've ever come across one of those in person.


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## RCO (Oct 25, 2016)

CanadianBottles said:


> Thanks for the offer!  Unfortunately I live out in Eastern Ontario and have never even been to the Niagara region before.  Plus I'm trying to cut down on the number of non-local bottles in my collection, I'm getting too many!  I definitely appreciate the offer though!
> 
> Hey RCO, what do you think of my theory that those NDNR bottles were only used in more remote areas where it was difficult to return the heavier bottles?  The only time I can remember finding one is when I was camping far from any major cities.  That would explain why you find so many while I never see them in the wild, since I've never lived anywhere that far from a major city.  Knotta, do you ever remember seeing those type of thin glass throw-away bottles for sale?  Out of us three I think you're the only one who is old enough to remember the era that they were used.




i have no idea where the ndnr bottles were used or such ,its possible there was regional differences in there use . 
its possible they pushed the ndnr bottles in remote areas more cause they knew or had issues with people returning the returnable bottles in those areas . I know some of my local bottles say on them specifically to return them , its clear they had issues with people not returning them


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## CanadianBottles (Oct 26, 2016)

Yeah it was always a worry for bottlers back then of how to get people to return the bottles because bottles were expensive back in the day.  Up until the 1920's or so they would have legal warnings on them, most commonly "This bottle not to be sold" which was a vague way of saying that only the drink was your property, not the bottle, but some even went as far as to emboss their bottles with the much more explicit "[FONT=&quot]THIS BOTTLE IS OUR PROPERTY ANY CHARGE MADE THEREFOR SIMPLY COVERS ITS USE WHILE CONTAINING GOODS BOTTLED BY US AND MUST BE RETURNED WHEN EMPTY" which covered up a whole half of the bottle.  Others tried to appeal to sympathy with: "Please return this bottle, it costs us more than the milk it contains," or shame: "Stolen from _____ ," and a few even tried to strike the fear of God into the people using them by embossing them with "Thou Shalt Not Steal."  By the 1950's they'd figured out that deposits were the most effective way to get them back but by then glass had gotten so cheap that they stopped trying to get people to return the bottles at all.  Today when bottles are reused I think it's more of an environmental concern than actually being a particularly cost-saving measure, and I think it's only the standard brown beer bottles and glass milk bottles that are getting refilled these days.[/FONT]


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