# gem jar ?



## sweetrelease (Jan 2, 2009)

hi i just bought this gem jar. my question is what is the deal with the "slug plate" or what every it is on the back? who made these jars? i have a mason's pat nov 1858 jar with it on the back also. i'm thinking it is a makers mark or place for a label?thanks ~matt









 here is the mason's jar 









thanks again ~matt


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## cyberdigger (Jan 2, 2009)

I have one as well, same thing on the back..


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## cyberdigger (Jan 2, 2009)

the base says "PATd JAN 26 (backwards 6) 1867


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## sweetrelease (Jan 2, 2009)

hi bud my gem jar's base says" pat nov 26 67 and pat feb 4 73 also has A18 " i don't think it has the original lid ,as the glass lid has the hero cross and pat dates,could be wrong ,won't be the first time[]


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## cyberdigger (Jan 2, 2009)

Hey! Mine came with this lid.. covered with 1860's pats.. has an "A" in the center.. got this jar at a flea market in Ocean Grove about 10 years ago..


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## sweetrelease (Jan 2, 2009)

same lid but mine has the hero cross instead of the a. do you know anything about the marking on the back?thanks ~matt


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## cyberdigger (Jan 2, 2009)

My best guess is it's a spot to stick a paper label on. I imagine them being used back in their first incarnation.. in somebody's food storage area on a shelf with many dozens of others, full of that growing season's preserved harvest of fruits and veggies.. I don't think they'd have trusted themselves to keep track of all that food without paper labels.. don't need to be big as they will need another one next year.. yeah I say that spot is perfect for a label.. but I'm still thinking about it..


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## cyberdigger (Jan 2, 2009)

..


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## sweetrelease (Jan 2, 2009)

> ORIGINAL: cyberdigger
> 
> ..


 that is so funny charlie[sm=lol.gif] you're one cool cat ~matt


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## sweetrelease (Jan 2, 2009)

god dam it i think these jars are "grabbin" me[:-] oh well time to sell some flasks![] then again maybe not[]~matt


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## jarsnstuff (Jan 2, 2009)

Hi Guys, I think you'll find the slug plate replaces the big HGW logo that was on the back of the Hero Glass Works jars long ago.  If you happen to have a jar with that HGW logo, you'll be able to see how that slug plate covers it very neatly.  The lettered cross eventually replaced the lettered logo.  Actually, your theories sound like more fun - maybe you should stick with them!  -Tammy


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## cyberdigger (Jan 2, 2009)

"It's my bottle  I can write what I want to, write what I want to.. write what I want to..."
 (obscure)


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## sweetrelease (Jan 2, 2009)

thanks tammy , but what does the slug plate mean?? still tring to find that out. i think it was for writting down "jarred" date and goes bad on date![]~matt


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## onelowwss (Jan 2, 2009)

Nice jar, Thank you for buying it from my girlfriend last week.


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## sweetrelease (Jan 2, 2009)

well, thank your girlfriend kim for me . very nice jar !,~matt


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## jarsnstuff (Jan 3, 2009)

Hm, guess I wasn't real clear about the slug plate thing...  it's a way of altering a mold - say, for whatever reason they didn't want that HGW logo to show up on the jar so they cut out that part of the mold & put in that plain hourglass shaped plate in its place.  Voila!  a generic Gem jar.  -Tammy


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## sweetrelease (Jan 3, 2009)

thanks tammy, but why the hourglass shape? just seems to me that they made the hourglass shape for some reason. what do you think? i would think if they were just tring to get rid of the HGW mark they would have done something like a circle or something like that.just throwing some ideas out there .~matt


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## coalbottlemolly (Jan 16, 2009)

A pic of my GEM jar. It has no slugplate on the back, but it is a nice jar. Needs to be cleaned a little better.


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## coalbottlemolly (Jan 16, 2009)

The bottom outer circle on mine says:  Patd.Dec1761  REIS  Sep 168.
 Inner circle reads: Patd Nov 2667  Jan1969
 A big B in the center


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