# 5 CENTS Universal Store Bottle -age?



## NYlakebottles (Oct 6, 2021)

Found this diving buried in muck in an area that has resulted in 1920-1950s bottles.  Haven't found much info on this type of milk bottle, there's a 45 on bottom, but a quart of milk in the 40's cost more than 5 cents?  Any way to determine age of this bottle?


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## nhpharm (Oct 6, 2021)

1945 sounds about right...the 5 cents is the deposit on the bottle only and you'd get that back when you returned the bottle.


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (Oct 6, 2021)

NYlakebottles said:


> Found this diving buried in muck in an area that has resulted in 1920-1950s bottles.  Haven't found much info on this type of milk bottle, there's a 45 on bottom, but a quart of milk in the 40's cost more than 5 cents?  Any way to determine age of this bottle?


I have the matching Half Pint!  It is 1953.
ROBBYBOBBY64.


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## NYlakebottles (Oct 6, 2021)

nhpharm said:


> 1945 sounds about right...the 5 cents is the deposit on the bottle only and you'd get that back when you returned the bottle.


Thanks!


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## Harry Pristis (Oct 6, 2021)

*Florida was special, with its own deposit bottles:



*


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## K6TIM (Oct 6, 2021)

NYlakebottles said:


> Thanks!


I remember in the 1950's soda bottles were returnable for 3 cent a bottle,and the quartes were 5 cents a bottle.I made a killing all summer long turning  returning soda bottles Iwas 8 years old! Those were the days!


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## UncleBruce (Oct 6, 2021)

K6TIM said:


> I remember in the 1950's soda bottles were returnable for 3 cent a bottle,and the quartes were 5 cents a bottle.I made a killing all summer long turning  returning soda bottles Iwas 8 years old! Those were the days!


We thought we got a pay raise when the deposits went up to 5 cents.


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## Wildcat wrangler (Oct 6, 2021)

It looks like it’s from whenever they shifted from round bottles to square- so they would fit in a case? That looks half round a d half square. Am I seeing that wrong? It was around 1944 that they were shifting to square milk bottles.

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I just saw your pix at the very top- that’s pretty round!  I’d say before 1944, but just by a tiny bit, because a nickel was a lot back then….  Especially considering they were putting milk in round bottles since around the turn of the century and a nickel was really a lot back then?  Just an uneducated guess, but it does seem logical.


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## Wildcat wrangler (Oct 6, 2021)

I have a question, because the lake here, for the first time since it was filled back in the late 30’s- shockingly looks like this- even worse now , as this was a month ago: 




IMG]

So the thought occurred that things are going to show up that have been covered for a long time-  how do you locate what’s under the muck?  Do you use a probe?
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## CanadianBottles (Oct 7, 2021)

Wildcat wrangler said:


> It looks like it’s from whenever they shifted from round bottles to square- so they would fit in a case? That looks half round a d half square. Am I seeing that wrong? It was around 1944 that they were shifting to square milk bottles.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
> 
> ...


You'd be surprised at how far back they used 5 cent deposits.  The farther back you go the more five cents was worth, but the more bottles were worth as well.  In BC there's a company which marked the deposits on a lot of their bottles.  These are crude applied lip internal thread and Codd bottles, and they're marked with three or five cent deposits - and one bottle from a branch location in a more remote city is marked with a whopping twelve cent deposit, more than the deposits are today!  
In the case of the milk bottle being discussed, it's almost certainly from 1945.


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## Wildcat wrangler (Oct 7, 2021)

CanadianBottles said:


> You'd be surprised at how far back they used 5 cent deposits. The farther back you go the more five cents was worth, but the more bottles were worth as well. In BC there's a company which marked the deposits on a lot of their bottles. These are crude applied lip internal thread and Codd bottles, and they're marked with three or five cent deposits - and one bottle from a branch location in a more remote city is marked with a whopping twelve cent deposit, more than the deposits are today!
> In the case of the milk bottle being discussed, it's almost certainly from 1945.



That’s really interesting about the deposits. I didn’t think about making the bottles, further back before automated bottle machines, how much more work would have gone into making them- and naturally they were more valuable, earlier. Now u have me curious about what the deposits were here in Redding… because when I was a kid, I remember we were city people when they changed the population signs to read 9000 people! I keep running into old local bottles, and was surprised that they even had a glass house here. My dad was also raised here. We were literally in the boondocks- like a 3 cow town. I think we are over 100000, now? Anyway, thanks for schooling me! (But as much as old bottles were worth, back then, apparently dirt was worth more- they filled the privies with glass when it could have been dirt. lucky for us! I guess that was killing 2 birds with 1 stone by getting rid of the trash, as well.)


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## CanadianBottles (Oct 7, 2021)

Wildcat wrangler said:


> That’s really interesting about the deposits. I didn’t think about making the bottles, further back before automated bottle machines, how much more work would have gone into making them- and naturally they were more valuable, earlier. Now u have me curious about what the deposits were here in Redding… because when I was a kid, I remember we were city people when they changed the population signs to read 9000 people! I keep running into old local bottles, and was surprised that they even had a glass house here. My dad was also raised here. We were literally in the boondocks- like a 3 cow town. I think we are over 100000, now? Anyway, thanks for schooling me! (But as much as old bottles were worth, back then, apparently dirt was worth more- they filled the privies with glass when it could have been dirt. lucky for us! I guess that was killing 2 birds with 1 stone by getting rid of the trash, as well.)
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


Yeah it's quite surprising that anyone would have been throwing out bottles with a twelve cent deposit back then.  Though I have no idea how many of them were actually thrown out because if they're very rare it could be that the vast majority were returned.  I'm not sure what deposits looked like around the rest of the world, it could be that bottles were cheaper in areas with closer access to glass factories.  In BC they were so remote back then that the bottlers would order their soda bottles all the way from factories in England!  I don't remember seeing embossed deposit values on early soda bottles from anywhere else, if anyone knows of any others I'd be very curious to see.


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## Harry Pristis (Oct 7, 2021)

Wildcat wrangler said:


> I have a question, because the lake here, for the first time since it was filled back in the late 30’s- shockingly looks like this- even worse now , as this was a month ago:
> IMG]
> So the thought occurred that things are going to show up that have been covered for a long time-  how do you locate what’s under the muck?  Do you use a probe?
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


*You can use a hay fork to probe for glass hidden in the muck.  Avoid probing the toe of your rubber boot when your arms get tired.  *


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