# Found this on a hike today. It’s the oldest bottle I’ve ever found but I’m trying narrow down a date range



## cowsgomoo (Oct 23, 2020)

It has an applied finish that can be felt inside the bottle with my pointer finger. The base has no markings but I included the side that has a D above the base slightly. I think I can make out a Pontil mark on the bottom but I don’t have enough experience with bottles of this age to know for sure if that is what I’m looking at or not.


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## CanadianBottles (Oct 23, 2020)

I'm afraid it's not that old, it's an early ABM bottle so should date to around the 1900s or 1910s.


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## cowsgomoo (Oct 23, 2020)

CanadianBottles said:


> I'm afraid it's not that old, it's an early ABM bottle so should date to around the 1900s or 1910s.


What feature on the bottle did I miss that would clue me into that so I don’t spend an hour staring at it to arrive at the wrong conclusion lol


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## CanadianBottles (Oct 24, 2020)

cowsgomoo said:


> What feature on the bottle did I miss that would clue me into that so I don’t spend an hour staring at it to arrive at the wrong conclusion lol


The seam goes right to the top of the lip and there's a suction scar on the base.  It's a wider than usual suction scar so I can see how you missed it.  But the seam going right to the top of the lip is the biggest indicator, you won't see that on a 19th century bottle.


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## hemihampton (Oct 24, 2020)

Some people would say 1900-1910 is pretty old. I'd guess it could date into the teens possibly. Still over 100 years old.  LEON.


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## cowsgomoo (Oct 24, 2020)

CanadianBottles said:


> The seam goes right to the top of the lip and there's a suction scar on the base.  It's a wider than usual suction scar so I can see how you missed it.  But the seam going right to the top of the lip is the biggest indicator, you won't see that on a 19th century bottle.


Thank you for your help!


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## martyfoley (Oct 24, 2020)

It would be nice if it had a pictorial embossing.  Some flasks like that have a pic of a ship or other pic which would add to the value of the bottle.  Without any embossing it just makes it a common bottle without much value I'm afraid.  Keep on looking you never know what you'll find!


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## RCO (Oct 25, 2020)

you generally won't find really old bottles on a hike , more likely bottles from the 50's till now would be lying around the woods and such . 
anything really old is likely buried underground or been found long ago


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (Oct 25, 2020)

RCO said:


> you generally won't find really old bottles on a hike , more likely bottles from the 50's till now would be lying around the woods and such .
> anything really old is likely buried underground or been found long ago


I thought that also, but I live in a very densely populated part of NJ. I still find bottles from the teens all day long. I agree lots of 50s but more by roadways. Go deep in the woods into areas No one in their right mind would go. That's where I find old surface finds. 
ROBBYBOBBY64.


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## RCO (Oct 25, 2020)

ROBBYBOBBY64 said:


> I thought that also, but I live in a very densely populated part of NJ. I still find bottles from the teens all day long. I agree lots of 50s but more by roadways. Go deep in the woods into areas No one in their right mind would go. That's where I find old surface finds.
> ROBBYBOBBY64.



one reason I'm not finding old bottles on the surface here might be tree growth , my area had been largely deforested in the 1880's due to logging and attempts at farming . most of these lots are now entirely forested again 

so a bottle from 100 years ago might be a lot harder to find in such conditions 

I do check roadway embankments and places people don't go often and do find things here but a lot of modern bottles and cans from the 60's till now


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (Oct 26, 2020)

Older towns hold older bottles i guess. My area is rich in revolutionary war history. You never know what you will find. Happy hunting. 
ROBBYBOBBY64.


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## PlaneDiggerCam (Oct 26, 2020)

RCO said:


> one reason I'm not finding old bottles on the surface here might be tree growth , my area had been largely deforested in the 1880's due to logging and attempts at farming . most of these lots are now entirely forested again
> 
> so a bottle from 100 years ago might be a lot harder to find in such conditions
> 
> I do check roadway embankments and places people don't go often and do find things here but a lot of modern bottles and cans from the 60's till now



Same with me. However if you research where old roads were only in the 1800s sometimes old bottles were pitched off these roads. I've found some pre-1910 bottles, especially BIM stuff, by walking these old roads.


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## willong (Oct 28, 2020)

PlaneDiggerCam said:


> Same with me. However if you research where old roads were only in the 1800s sometimes old bottles were pitched off these roads. I've found some pre-1910 bottles, especially BIM stuff, by walking these old roads.


Likewise for old railroad grades. Check especially near significant cuts and old trestle sites. Remember that, despite steam shovels and blasting technology, much of the nineteenth century construction was still done by hand. Stands to reason that if a project took awhile, then workmen were in the area to discard bottles emptied during their lunch breaks.




See the gully descending the hill behind the V of the cut? In the 1970's, I found BIM bottles on the uphill bank of the fill that crosses that gully. They might have been discarded by the men excavating the cut or those constructing the bridge. I'd be willing to bet that more were likely tossed into Sheep Creek itself--it's an impressively deep drop to the water in that narrow gorge!

I also stumbled across the remains of a tiny log cabin on a flat above the background of this historic photo. I suspect that it had been inhabited by tie hacks during the RR construction phase. Their small surface dump was still untouched when I found it. Unfortunately, the inhabitants appear to have been teetotalers--there were no whiskey, beer or bitters bottles evident.


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## PlaneDiggerCam (Oct 28, 2020)

willong said:


> Likewise for old railroad grades. Check especially near significant cuts and old trestle sites. Remember that, despite steam shovels and blasting technology, much of the nineteenth century construction was still done by hand. Stands to reason that if a project took awhile, then workmen were in the area to discard bottles emptied during their lunch breaks.
> 
> View attachment 213685See the gully descending the hill behind the V of the cut? In the 1970's, I found BIM bottles on the uphill bank of the fill that crosses that gully. They might have been discarded by the men excavating the cut or those constructing the bridge. I'd be willing to bet that more were likely tossed into Sheep Creek itself--it's an impressively deep drop to the water in that narrow gorge!
> 
> I also stumbled across the remains of a tiny log cabin on a flat above the background of this historic photo. I suspect that it had been inhabited by tie hacks during the RR construction phase. Their small surface dump was still untouched when I found it. Unfortunately, the inhabitants appear to have been teetotalers--there were no whiskey, beer or bitters bottles evident.


Lots of bottles were also pitched from the train too. Sometimes they wouldn't break from the pitch. But yeah, definitely walk old roads, abandoned rail lines, etc.


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (Oct 29, 2020)

RCO said:


> one reason I'm not finding old bottles on the surface here might be tree growth , my area had been largely deforested in the 1880's due to logging and attempts at farming . most of these lots are now entirely forested again
> 
> so a bottle from 100 years ago might be a lot harder to find in such conditions
> 
> I do check roadway embankments and places people don't go often and do find things here but a lot of modern bottles and cans from the 60's till now


Too close to the roads and people throw them from their cars. Lots of 50s, 60s stuff. The occasional 20s or 30s. Any old attractions that closed down? Resorts or parks. Usually a slew of surface trash. Around a lake or any place you can legally go that wasn't clear cut. The last place I found was an area that is 2 1/2 hours way and that is one way. Actually 3 seperate spots. Sometimes you have to travel. Spots i have searched 20 times at least always seam to find something i missed. It is really weird like that. No matter how hard I try there is always something I missed, some amazing stuff too! Always worth another look or two.
ROBBYBOBBY64.


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (Oct 29, 2020)

Kings highway is i believe one of the oldest highways in the country. I have walked some stretches but no revolutionary stuff yet. Also I don't know that the highway hasn't moved so. One of the best surface find I ever had was an old road that was re-engineering.  The old stretch of roadway was left in the woods... it was like a time capsule of old bottles all over the surface due to an old rest area that obviously sold refreshments. It too was just a foundation in the woods.
ROBBYBOBBY64


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## RCO (Oct 29, 2020)

ROBBYBOBBY64 said:


> Too close to the roads and people throw them from their cars. Lots of 50s, 60s stuff. The occasional 20s or 30s. Any old attractions that closed down? Resorts or parks. Usually a slew of surface trash. Around a lake or any place you can legally go that wasn't clear cut. The last place I found was an area that is 2 1/2 hours way and that is one way. Actually 3 seperate spots. Sometimes you have to travel. Spots i have searched 20 times at least always seam to find something i missed. It is really weird like that. No matter how hard I try there is always something I missed, some amazing stuff too! Always worth another look or two.
> ROBBYBOBBY64.



I have found items at spots I've been to many times before , the flat top 7 up can was found on a woodlot I had checked many times before 

there are some old pioneer roads here but there pretty remote , its also hunting season now so its best to avoid those areas until that's over 

I usually find bottles in the water at old hotel sites , not so much on the ground , although it might depend how much the site has been cleaned or grown in 

our search season is nearly over here although sometimes I can still find stuff in November if we don't get a lot of snow


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## EdsFinds (Oct 29, 2020)

I'm doing the same thing here in South Jersey. I'll either walk the wooded embankments off the roadsides for old sodas, or there are abandoned old factory/building sites that have since been reclaimed by nature. I find a lot of surface bottles in these areas. Ha, my favorite site right now is an old brick factory. The funny thing is that they demolished the buildings and there are tons of bricks and debris all around the site and yet somehow these bottles have survived amidst and through all the demolition and time! Go figure...bricks + bottles = smashed glass, right? Not entirely!


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## GLASSHOPPER55 (Nov 4, 2020)

Around 2005 I found a rare local hutch bottle just laying on the surface behind where an old house once stood. It was gone but some old outbuildings still stood. I still can't believe it happened and though I've probed the place to death I never found anything else  like it.


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## sunrunner (Nov 6, 2020)

NJ. has plenty of old dups left. there just harder to get to . when i lived there back in the 1950s 60s and 70s junk was all over .


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