# When did the SLUG PLATES disappear??



## Nu_B_2_bottles (Aug 14, 2006)

SLUG PLATES  They disappeared when?? Have found several online references for this but they all seem to vary. One site as early as 1903........another.....they disappeared in the 1920s?? Can we narrow this down any?? Thanks!


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## KentOhio (Aug 15, 2006)

I'd say late teens/ early twenties.


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## madpaddla (Aug 15, 2006)

I would agree with Kent.  Some milks etc might have made it to the late 1920's.              Ben


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## DiggerBryan (Aug 15, 2006)

I'd say late 40's for the milks.  I've got one from 1948.


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## DiggerBryan (Aug 15, 2006)

Sorry should have been more specific. I meant SOME milks but not very many.


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## Nu_B_2_bottles (Aug 15, 2006)

Thank You all very much. Seen several slug plates out there on different types of bottles. Sometimes it seems as if all the dating information you can get is not very helpful. The bottle mold type, the top, and sometimes a slugplate seemed to make the bottle not fit in any single time frame. Specially when you consider 1903 the end of slugplates.(Thanks to inaccurate information) Which brings up the other half of the question.(Which may be more appropriate in the before 1900s forum.?) When did the use of slug plates begin? A website says 1869. Another post Civil War . Will we find pontilled bottles with slug plates?? One entry said that only 1 out of every 100 dug bottles has a slug plate. Sound accurate?? How about mass production of these bottles?? Several thousand with an identical slugplate?? Thanks again.....your information has been very educational to myself and hopefully to others.


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## GuntherHess (Aug 15, 2006)

You first start seeing crude slug plates used in the 1870-1880 period not to say that people didnt fool around with them a bit earlier.. They really started using tons of them in the 1890s. I havent done a serious count but it seems like by that time at least half the medicines, beers, soda, whiskeys, etc were slugplate. That is to say "half of the different bottles out there , not half the total bottles" The makers that could justify thier own mold designs like Bromoseltzer, OK Baking soda, Fletchers Castoria, etc. made huge numbers of those bottles compared to the slugplate products. By definition slugplates were used to reduce the tooling costs for smaller production runs.
 Whitall Tatum was a huge slug plate user along with the other big glass companies.


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## GuntherHess (Aug 15, 2006)

Here is one of the earliest bottles I have found with what appears to be a slug plate. It is pontil marked. Probably from from around 1860 +/- a few years.


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## Road Dog (Aug 16, 2006)

I'm thinking it began in the late 1850's. I've had lots of old Sodas with Pontils and Slug Plates. I just sold this one.


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## GuntherHess (Aug 16, 2006)

The early things that look like slug plates are crude and non-standardized.
 I kind of wonder if they are true slug plates (molds intended to have interchangeable embossing) and not just modified molds (a section cut out and a new plate welded in).


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## Road Dog (Aug 16, 2006)

It would be nice if someone had some old Molds. I know they are around. I have seen pics.


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## GuntherHess (Aug 16, 2006)

Molds are pretty rare, not many survived. Most of the ones I have seen have been in museum collections. Seems like most were melted down as scrap.
 Maybe a good thing or we might see a lot more fakes being imported.
 I see circa 1890s slug plates for sale every so often.


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