As soon as I saw the 16-ounce Coca-Cola molds, I knew there would be a mad dash for them when the bidding started. Some Coca-Cola products are very collectible, and these were likely among them.
I’ve come across molds at auction and elsewhere before – German chocolate and Belgium chocolate molds, and a 1930s ice cream mold of an African American man – but not molds of Coke hobble-skirt bottles. They were made of heavy metal that seemed to weigh a ton, and the lettering was printed backwards.
One Coke collector noted that a lot of molds were handmade and the words were carved backwards so that they would appear correctly when the glass bottle was embossed. Sometimes, collector/author Doug McCoy said at collectorsweekly.com, errors were made and the wording or a letter would be printed backwards. These are called error bottles, and some of them are collectible.
He also said the molds were made of very expensive metal, and when a bottle design was retired, the molds were often melted down and reconfigured for the new bottle.
Coke first made embossed 16-ounce bottles in mid-1955, along with bottles in 10, 12 and 26 ounces. Starting around 1915, the soft drink had been sold only in 6-ounce and 6.5-ounce Georgia green hobble-skirt – also called contour – bottles. Also in 1955, Coke produced ACL (Applied Color Lettering) bottles, with the logos in the color white and baked on the glass, according to McCoy. These ACL bottles were said to have taken over the market.
The molds at auction were not a complete set but two half-molds. A 16-ounce clear Coke bottle I found on the web had the words “Coca-Cola” embossed on one side and “Coke” on the other. The auction molds had the full name only, so the other half was missing. Here’s what a complete 16-ounce mold looks like.
A check of eBay showed that Coke molds were not instant sellers. The asking prices ranged from $850 to $150, but most were not sold. A complete 10-ounce mold with all pieces sold on eBay for $470. A 10-ounce sold at auction in 2010 for $900.
