Old Pepsi bottles are hard to come by, but finding an antique Pepsi bottle can be a valuable addition to a collection. If you are wondering how to identify and tell the age of an old Pepsi bottle from all the fakes out there, then you are at the right place. This HobbyZeal article will help you determine that the Pepsi bottle you found is really antique, and also tell you how to date it.
Pepsi-Cola faced bankruptcy twice in its history, in 1923 and 1931.
The history of Pepsi can be traced all the way back to the summer of 1858, when a pharmacist by the name of Caleb Bradham was trying to find a way to draw more customers to his store in New Bern, North Carolina. He realized that there was nothing better than a drink for such a purpose.
After experimenting with a variety of nuts and syrups, he finally created a beverage which soon became popular all over town as ‘Brad’s Drink’. Bradham soon realized the market potential of this drink, for which he sought a trademark in 1902, by the name Pepsi-Cola, named after two of its main constituents – pepsin and kola nuts.
Bradham began selling his beverage at soda fountains, but it dawned on him that if he offered it in bottles, sales would shoot up, since people could consume it anywhere. The company began by offering the drink in glass bottles manufactured by local glass makers, and it was only in 1940 that the first standardized Pepsi-Cola bottle entered the market. Since soda bottles aren’t made of glass anymore, these old Pepsi bottles are valuable as a collector’s item. As such, let us learn how to identify an old Pepsi bottle.
When deciding the value of an old Pepsi bottle, its year of manufacture, the logo color, and condition of the paper label, if present, are important. Logos with the colors red, white, and blue, which reflect the patriotism of the Second World War, might fetch anywhere between $20 to $25 each. Bottles with logos of red and white, which were made after 1948, might not get such a high price.