# Kuhn's Poison Numbering System 101



## Poison_Us (Apr 3, 2011)

Well, I see many people have dug/found poisons lately and don't know what they have, "is it a poison?", "what's it's number/value?" and so on.  So I thought I would post this as a beginners intro to the wonderful world of Poisons.  Fist, a direct quote from our website in the Poison Impostors page.

First, lets cover the characteristics of most poison bottles.

 1) Itâ€™s embossed with words like: Poison, Poisonous, Not To Be Taken, For External Use Only...etc
 2) Itâ€™s embossed with a skull and crossbones.
 3) The bottle is of an odd shape (Coffin, Triangular, Diamond, 5 to 8 sided or Figural).
 4) Itâ€™s textured (Ribs, Flutes, Hobnails, Diamonds, Stars, Lattice, Bumps or Scallops) on the face and/or edges.

 Poisons  can have only 1 or any combination of the above.  Item 3 is where some  bottles can be mis-IDed if itâ€™s the only characteristic it has.  Then  the proof would have to come from the deciding factor of:

 5) It has a label stating itâ€™s a poison in some manner.

 This is  where some bottles fall short.  They have the shape, but no label.   Also, color has nothing to do with the contents.  Just because itâ€™s  Cobalt or Amber, does not make it a poison by any means.

 Ok, now that we know what to look for in poison bottle characteristics, let examine the Kuhn's numbering system.
 Firstly, it will always begin with a 'K' for Kuhn, obviously.  The next digit will be a letter describing it's shape or category (list below).  Then followed by a '-' and a number.  This is just the order it was entered in the books and has no baring on it's value or rarity.  Let's take a look at the shapes/category list.

 C = Cylindrical
 D = Diamond
 E = Octagon
 H = Hexagon
 I = Irregular Hexagon
 J = Jug
 O = Oval
 R= Rectangular
 S = Square
 T = Triangle
 U = Unusual Shape ( usually your figural bottles)
 V = Triangular round back
 X = Bug Poisons (usually regardless of shape)
 Z = Embalming Fluids (regardless of shape)

 The 'U' category is a kind of Catch All, when it doesn't fit in any of the other categories.  Like there are a very small amount of 5 sided poisons, but there is no 'P' category (for Pentagonal) as of yet.  So they fall in the 'U' slot. You can see a few of these on Rob's site here: http://www.collectiques.org/rob.htm.

 Hope you enjoyed our little lesson today.  Maybe someone will do the same for Flasks as well some day as that system is confusing to those who are not in the field as many are not in ours.  

 Class dismissed.  [&:]


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## peejrey (Apr 3, 2011)

Um Sir, When will the test be? []
 Nice explanation on the characteristics of poison!
 I have at least 3, I have one that has the label, and box,......
 Wasn't most medicine back then poison????


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## Poison_Us (Apr 3, 2011)

Yup, many of which are considered your "Quack Meds" as there was little understanding of what some chemicals did to the human body.  So, playing on the ignorance of an uneducated nation...there was money to be made.

 No test, just a 2 minute infomercial I guess.[8D]

 It's rare to find any old bottle with it's label in tact, but even harder to find the box as well, depending on how many were made and in what time period.  So congrats to you for having that. [&:]


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## peejrey (Apr 3, 2011)

If you ever want to see it let me know...
 It's even got part of the original contents....
 May I copy you're info Sir?
 Or is it copyrighted?


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## Poison_Us (Apr 3, 2011)

By all means, copy away.  Use any info I offer, or any images we have on our site.  They are just pix of bottle, not original works of art, so feel free.   
 And sure, would love to see what you have.[]


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## RED Matthews (Apr 3, 2011)

Hi Poison_us;  I really appreciate your information and the help we get from your concentrated collecting.  
 RED Matthews


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## PermInk (Apr 3, 2011)

thanks so much for posting this!!


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## Poison_Us (Apr 3, 2011)

Your welcome, all.  Of course, there is more info on the website, feel free to explore.  Doing some changes right now in fact.....[&:]


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## old.s.bottles (Apr 3, 2011)

It all makes sense now...thanks


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