# Who'd make a "0" mold number?



## morbious_fod (Sep 20, 2009)

I was farting around a small "flea market" today and found this jar with a bunch of jars on a table. I was intrigued so I picked it up for three bucks, including a glass and metal lid that I hadn't seen before that was in decent shape. The reason that this jar caught my eye was that the mold number on the bottom is a "0" which I had yet to run across. I'm not even a collector of jars really; however, who would start a mold numbering system with a 0? Anyone else ever run into these, or have an explanation for the 0 mold number. Just seems a bit odd to me. 







 Looks like a regular old Ball jar.


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## morbious_fod (Sep 20, 2009)

This is of course the bottom. 






 I would have thought it was a ten that the one got filled in but that 0 is dead center of the thing.


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## cyberdigger (Sep 20, 2009)

So, that's not an open pontil? []


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## RED Matthews (Sep 20, 2009)

Hi morbious_fod;  I am quite sure you will find that this jar is the result of being made by the early Owens glass machine operations, actually before it became Owens Illinois.  There is a ring around the 0 that indicates the vacuum lift of the parison glass gather from the forehearth.   .RED Matthews


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## sandman (Sep 20, 2009)

I have the same jar in HG that has a zero on the bottom as well except mine is an underlined zero.


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## sandman (Sep 20, 2009)

Here's a pic of mine.


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## sandman (Sep 20, 2009)

Or its a a weird looking 10.


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## morbious_fod (Sep 20, 2009)

> ORIGINAL:  cyberdigger
> 
> So, that's not an open pontil?


 
 Yeah it's that uber rare pontiled ball jar. LOL!




> ORIGINAL:  RED Matthews
> 
> Hi morbious_fod;  I am quite sure you will find that this jar is the result of being made by the early Owens glass machine operations, actually before it became Owens Illinois.  There is a ring around the 0 that indicates the vacuum lift of the parison glass gather from the forehearth.   .RED Matthews


 
 You know I never even thought I would have been even that old. Thanks for the info.


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## RED Matthews (Sep 22, 2009)

Hello again,  I was out in the garage looking for a bottle with a plain "/ O " on the bottom.  I knew I had one and I did.  It also had a patent date embossed on the bottom.
 It has a bordered embossed label that could be slug plate - but I don't think so.  Anyway it is embossed around the outside with:
       "/ THE DUFFY MALT WHISKEY COMPANY "  around the top.
         an elaborate D M W Co embossed emblem in the center 
       and "/ ROCHESTER N.Y. U.S.A. "  around the bottom of the oval.
 It has a tooled to band finish and the bottom has: "/ PAT D AUG 24 1886 ". with the D high.   The O is in the center of the bottom.  In the background of the O is the markings of the swinging shear that cut off the lifted gob of glass to created the bottle.  This mark and the O tell me that this is an early Owens Manufacturied bottle.  
 Someone who was a VP of O-I wrote a book that I have that told about the early Owens machine set-ups.  There was someone on the Forum that lived near the Canadian plant where Owens made and operated these early machines; I couldn't find his name, either.  I did find my bottle in Carlo&Dorothy Sellari's Price Guide.  It was listed on page 115 and the pattern elongated circle was referred to as a watermelon circle,. with the W M W Co. monogram and the pd'd AUG. 24-1986.  They also said that a plain letter or a number could be found in the bottom center.
 This old price guide compiled in 1989 showed a value of  $ 3 - 6.00.   Not for sale, because it repesents a stage of manfacturing history.   RED Matthews


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## madman (Sep 24, 2009)

http://www.todayinsci.com/O/Owens_MichaelJ/OwensMichaelJ.htm heres a link about early machine made bottle production, hey morb since yer jar dates from 1922 to 1933 i doubt that its an owens mark  ive dug toc bottles in toledo oh. where the early bottles were produced  with just an o and always wondered if it was an early owens mark, since your jar is later,  it would have a o in a square embossed on the base,  but that said, ive never seen a ball jar of that era with an owens mark on the base, just numbers, my guess is its a zero......


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## morbious_fod (Sep 26, 2009)

> ORIGINAL:  madman
> 
> http://www.todayinsci.com/O/Owens_MichaelJ/OwensMichaelJ.htm heres a link about early machine made bottle production, hey morb since yer jar dates from 1922 to 1933 i doubt that its an owens mark  ive dug toc bottles in toledo oh. where the early bottles were produced  with just an o and always wondered if it was an early owens mark, since your jar is later,  it would have a o in a square embossed on the base,  but that said, ive never seen a ball jar of that era with an owens mark on the base, just numbers, my guess is its a zero......


 
 I'd say you are most likely right about that. I kinda figured that my jar was a bit too late for that process, but I didn't know for sure. Thanks for the info.


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## morbious_fod (Oct 13, 2009)

I finally spotted another one of these in a Half gallon (?) size. It was big that's all I know. So they aren't uber rare but they aren't just coming out of the wood works either.


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