# Miniature Coca-Cola Bottles



## KnottaCollector (Mar 23, 2018)

Took dog for a walk in the countryside. Found several tiny Coke bottles scattered about no more than 2" high and about the width of a nickel. Looks like someone dropped them or threw them out of a car. Some have markings on the bottom, for example one had a Diamond with a capital D. Don't think they are big enough to mix a drink with, don't seem like they would even hold an ounce. Anyone know what they would be used for? Are they common, worth anything? If I can figure out how to send pic I will.

Exactly like this one I found on Ebay...Guy on that site wants 10 bucks for one. I found 85 on my walk. 2 ½ inches high

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## CanadianBottles (Mar 23, 2018)

85, wow!  I wonder how so many got to the same place. I believe they were some sort of promotional toy that came in a little wooden crate with little caps and contents that may or may not have been real Coke.  Not sure of the exact circumstances surrounding them or if they always came in the little crate.


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## RCO (Mar 24, 2018)

I'm not sure of there exact value but I think there fairly common , so I'd doubt they'd be worth a lot . have 1 that I've had for years and not sure where I originally got it


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## KnottaCollector (Mar 25, 2018)

CanadianBottles said:


> 85, wow!  I wonder how so many got to the same place. I believe they were some sort of promotional toy that came in a little wooden crate with little caps and contents that may or may not have been real Coke.  Not sure of the exact circumstances surrounding them or if they always came in the little crate.



Went back today to where the 85 were found. Looked around much closer and found parts of a smashed up wooden box with a note that said "XXX* coke bottles" (a number). Picked up 10 more good bottles and found a number that were broken. So now I'm up to 95 unbroken. 

*I'm withholding some info just in case I hear of a local claim to them, maybe a note at the post office or attached to a telephone pole, or maybe word of mouth. I figure only a person with direct knowledge would know the exact amount indicated on the note. 

In the bottle collecting world, do collectors adopt the "finders keepers" philosophy?


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## CanadianBottles (Mar 25, 2018)

KnottaCollector said:


> In the bottle collecting world, do collectors adopt the "finders keepers" philosophy?


It's not a question that comes up often as generally speaking the original owners of the bottles we collect a. did not want the bottles anymore and b. have been dead for decades.  In your case I would definitely return them to the owner if someone had lost them recently and wants them back.  They don't have a huge amount of value because even though they can sell for $5-10 each, the demand is fairly small and it would take years to sell off that many.  I have no idea what someone would be doing with over a hundred miniature Coke bottles or where they would have even gotten that many of them.


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## American (Mar 28, 2018)

I have a few "King Size" miniature cokes with white enameled lettering.  They are a bit thinner than yours, have a exact scale metal crown lid and have what looks to be coke inside of them.  They were advertising pieces for when Coca-Cola introduced the 12 OZ king size in the 60's.  I have never been able to determine how common or scarce they are.  I actually brought them to the Coke Museum in Atlanta and they had none of them on display, although it looked like they had everything else.  I asked one of the people there and they said they had never seen one, but I don't think they were experts.
At any rate, I looked at the one on eBay and noticed the shipping for it was about $12 (more than the little bottle)


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## sunrunner (Mar 28, 2018)

worth 3.00 buck. there's a few of them around . I dig them up time to time . 1930 to 1950s.


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## Mr. Hemingray (Mar 28, 2018)

These tiny bottles were whimsies, like salesman samples or promotional item. I have seen them before and they DID have tiny amounts of Coke in them with tiny steel caps. Almost impossible to find them with the original contents still in them. Pepsi made these too, but the bottles were a bit bigger.


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## CanadianBottles (Mar 28, 2018)

Mr. Hemingray said:


> These tiny bottles were whimsies, like salesman samples or promotional item. I have seen them before and they DID have tiny amounts of Coke in them with tiny steel caps. Almost impossible to find them with the original contents still in them. Pepsi made these too, but the bottles were a bit bigger.


I don't think it's THAT difficult to find the Canadian ones with contents.  I've definitely seen them before as well, and I'm pretty sure I've seen them more than once.  There seemed to have been a huge number of these ones distributed in Canada.  I'm not sure I ever remember seeing a Pepsi version, maybe we didn't get those.


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## jarhead67 (Mar 28, 2018)

Not familiar with those so are they glass or plastic? I seem to remember when I was a kid, there was a wax shaped bottle you would get on the candy shelf that had a twist off tab top and came in a few different soda flavors. Or you would just chomp down on the wax bottle and have the contents explode into your mouth.


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## CanadianBottles (Mar 28, 2018)

jarhead67 said:


> Not familiar with those so are they glass or plastic? I seem to remember when I was a kid, there was a wax shaped bottle you would get on the candy shelf that had a twist off tab top and came in a few different soda flavors. Or you would just chomp down on the wax bottle and have the contents explode into your mouth.


These are glass, I know the candies you're talking about and these are completely unrelated to those.


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## Oldsdigger (Mar 28, 2018)

*Mini Coke*

KnottaCollector, 
                        Wow so many in one find there that's amazing. I'm not sure if they were a promotional item or not. It is hard to find information on them. I found one in my collection from 20 years ago that I just unpacked ! with the same markings. From what i could find there was two markings, the diamond with the D and also a diamond with a 666 inside. One of these two was an Illinois bottle maker.  Both of them dated around 1910 to mid 1920's. If you found 85 of them that is quite impressive little treasure you found. But I'd figure $10 isn't to bad to ask. You might want to put it in your watch page and see what it sell for or if it doesn't sell then he's asking to much. There are a lot of coke bottle collectors out There so I'm sure it is on one of their radars. Here is the one I have. Of course now I can't find it !!!! If you go to general chat about bottles and look up posts by Oldsdigger it is in one of my posts about the bottles I have been unboxing.



KnottaCollector said:


> Took dog for a walk in the countryside. Found several tiny Coke bottles scattered about no more than 2" high and about the width of a nickel. Looks like someone dropped them or threw them out of a car. Some have markings on the bottom, for example one had a Diamond with a capital D. Don't think they are big enough to mix a drink with, don't seem like they would even hold an ounce. Anyone know what they would be used for? Are they common, worth anything? If I can figure out how to send pic I will.
> 
> Exactly like this one I found on Ebay...Guy on that site wants 10 bucks for one. I found 85 on my walk. 2 ½ inches high
> 
> ...


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## sunrunner (Apr 2, 2018)

the bottle is glass.


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## KnottaCollector (Apr 2, 2018)

Thanks Oldsdig. Not all the minis have anything on the bottom. I've only looked at a few and some have the diamond D + I did see one with 666, some had no markings. As I mentioned, went back to where I found original 85 and found 10 more. So far no word from anyone indicating they've lost the bottles.

Not being a collector I was wondering..... if I went to one of those bottle shows would someone there either tell me what they're worth or make an offer? If I was to sell the entire lot(95), what is your $ estimate? (wholesale or retail)


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## CanadianBottles (Apr 2, 2018)

Oldsdigger said:


> Both of them dated around 1910 to mid 1920's.



What makes you think they're so early?  All the ones I've seen looked like they dated to the 1950s, give or take ten years.  I've never seen one that I thought was anywhere near 100 years old.  Did you find them in an earlier dump?


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## CanadianBottles (Apr 2, 2018)

KnottaCollector said:


> Not being a collector I was wondering..... if I went to one of those bottle shows would someone there either tell me what they're worth or make an offer? If I was to sell the entire lot(95), what is your $ estimate? (wholesale or retail)



If you could sell them individually, they'd be worth somewhere in the vicinity of $300-$1000, depending on how many people are willing to pay a price as high as $10.  But that's pretty time-consuming to do.  To sell them as a lot you'd only be able to get a fraction of that.  You might be able to find a buyer for them at a bottle show but I'm not sure how many collectors would want to try to resell all of them, since it can be hard to sell a whole bunch of one bottle unless you're selling at a low price in a very high-traffic spot.  I've found that even selling regular embossed Coke bottles for $1 at a flea market can be difficult after a while if I've got too many.  With anything, there's going to be a limited amount of buyers who want one.


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## iggyworf (Apr 3, 2018)

Very cool! I would like to find the Pepsi version.


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## GLASSHOPPER55 (Apr 7, 2018)

Here's a mini Coke I've had since the early 70s. 3" tall and still has some Coke that hasn't evaporated yet.


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## bottle-bud (Apr 8, 2018)

*More miniature Coca-Cola*

I have in my collection several miniature cokes. I have an 8 inch tall six ounce bottle next to the 3 inch tall miniatures as a comparison. Three of them have foreign languages on them that I did not try to identify. The second pictures shows a six bottle carton that was given to me as a gift years ago. The bottles were empty when purchased. The third picture show a commemorative bottle (also a gift) for the grand opening of the Ronald McDonald House in St. Louis. The bottle is full but I doubt Coca cola as the box states "The liquid inside this bottle is non-toxic".  The other bottle in pic 3 is plastic and came from a toy of some sort, I can't remember exactly?


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## GLASSHOPPER55 (Apr 8, 2018)

Bottle Bud - That mini Coke in your last pic above (on the yellow case) reminded me they once (1951 I think) came out with a lighter that was very much like that bottle. You would pull the halves apart and it was a small lighter. I used to have one but I traded it away.


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