Vintage Coca-Cola Memorabilia Collector Guide

A short history that matters to collectors

Coca-Cola was first served on May 8, 1886. John Pemberton invented the drink, and his bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, wrote the script that Phil Mooney, the company’s historian and archivist for three decades, described as largely unchanged since. The first ad ran in an Atlanta newspaper two weeks later.

Sales averaged about nine drinks a day in 1886, yet by 1900 the drink was sold in every state. Two Chattanooga lawyers secured bottling rights in 1899 and franchised them city by city, and more than 1,200 bottling operations were running by 1920.

Why Coca-Cola is among the most collected brands

The strategy was to put the trademark on things people used every day: serving trays, tip trays, calendars and posters for soda fountains; clocks, apothecary scales and syrup urns for pharmacies and their fountains; wallets, pocket mirrors, bookmarks and pencils for customers. Mooney credited their quality to leading artists and, on early pieces, German and Czech lithographers.

Antique Trader cites the sheer quantity produced as one reason collectors like the brand, and Mooney doubted anyone could assemble a complete collection. Organized collecting took off in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and Allan Petretti’s price guide ran to 12 editions between 1974 and 2008. Collectors typically focus on the late 1800s through the 1960s.

The main kinds of items collectors find

Most vintage Coca-Cola material falls into a few categories.

• Trays: metal serving and tip trays made to advertise the drink. So many were produced that the Collectors Club suggests matching the image to a year in a collector guide. Turn-of-the-century trays show fashionably dressed women; 1920s trays show flapper styles.
• Calendars: the first was produced in 1891, and Mooney had seen only three or four. Later artists included Norman Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth, Haddon Sundblom and Gil Elvgren.
• Signs and displays: cardboard and metal signs were meant for seasonal use and then discarded, and some ended up patching roofs. Festoons, multi-piece back-bar displays replaced each season, are among the rarest pieces.
• Fixtures: clocks, scales and syrup urns made for pharmacies and fountains, plus coolers, which proved less rare than once thought, Antique Trader notes.
• Giveaways: free-drink coupons, now highly prized, plus pocket mirrors, pencils and Golden Rule rulers, which went to schools from 1925 into the early 1960s and remain common.
• Bottles and cartons: covered below. Wooden cartons were generally used in the 1940s, when paper was scarce during World War II.

Contour bottles and how to date them

Early bottlers used straight-sided bottles, usually brown or clear, and imitators such as Koka-Nola and Toka-Cola copied the script. In 1915 the bottlers asked glass companies for a bottle recognizable by touch in the dark. The Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Indiana, won. Its design was patented on November 16, 1915, entered production in early 1916 and was in use by most bottlers by 1920.

• November 16, 1915 patent date: generally found on bottles made from 1916 to 1923, which the Collectors Club says remain common.
• December 25, 1923: the renewed patent date, which earned the nickname Christmas Bottle. All patents on the shape had expired by 1951.
• Base: the original contract required the ordering city to be embossed on the bottom.
• Mold dates: most bottle makers added a mold mark and the year the mold was made, so a 49 points to a 1949 mold.
• Other flavors: bottlers sold other drinks in bottles often marked with their own name, since only Coca-Cola could use the patented shape.

Santa Claus and Christmas advertising

Coca-Cola commissioned Haddon Sundblom to paint Santa Claus, and his Santa debuted in The Saturday Evening Post in 1931. He painted the company’s Santa through 1964, and his work was adapted for store displays, billboards, posters, calendars and plush dolls, many of which the company calls popular collectibles today. Santa already wore a red coat before Sundblom painted him.

For decades after 1964 the company kept using images based on Sundblom’s originals, and Mooney said in 2009 that 1930s Santas were still used on packaging. The image alone does not make a piece old; look for a printed date, the maker and the construction.

The Collectors Club and the company archives

The Coca-Cola Collectors Club was established in 1974 to promote the preservation and collection of Coca-Cola memorabilia. It is an independent, volunteer-run not-for-profit, not sponsored by or related to The Coca-Cola Company. Antique Trader reports that it began as The Cola Clan and won permission to use the Coca-Cola name in 1986. Members get a monthly newsletter, local chapters and conventions with auctions and seminars.

The company keeps its own archive, but Mooney said private collectors own pieces it lacks. Sundblom’s original Santa paintings are among the most prized works in its art collection, and many are on display at the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta.

Reproductions, fakes and later licensed merchandise

Many Coca-Cola collectibles have been reproduced or faked. Antique Trader separates reproductions, which copy a real original, from fakes, for which no original ever existed. Some came from the company: trays reproduced in 1974 carried only a small rim notice that could be scraped off. Pocket mirrors from the early 1900s were reproduced in 1973 and have been copied since, and in the decade before 2019 fake porcelain signs with the early trademark notice were made in India and elsewhere.

Licensed merchandise is a separate category, prized by some collectors because it is affordable, Mooney noted. The problem is a recent piece sold as original. Useful checks:

• Trademark notice: early pieces place it inside the tail of the C in Coca; from the 1940s it sits under the whole script. Fakes copy the early placement, so treat it as a clue, not proof.
• Trays: in Antique Trader’s examples, originals have sharper lithography and darker backs than reproductions.
• Rims and backs: look for anniversary wording, recent dates or a scraped patch.
• References: match the design to a guide such as Petretti’s, whose prices indicate rarity rather than a sale price.
• Returns: buy from dealers who will take a piece back within a reasonable time.

Condition and provenance

Much of this material was made to be used or thrown away, so honest wear is normal. Surviving festoons are often damaged, and paper fades under ultraviolet light or suffers in attics and basements with large temperature swings. Ask for photos of the front, back, edges and markings, plus a plain account of rust, chips, tears and repairs. Provenance helps when it is documented, but a family story does not replace evidence from the object.

Where to find vintage Coca-Cola memorabilia now

Vintage pieces surface at auctions, antique shows, collector conventions and online marketplaces. The Coca-Cola company page on I ♥ Capitalism collects live, relevance-checked resale listings and links each item to the marketplace selling it, alongside the official Coca-Cola Store for current merchandise. Listings change often, so confirm details on the seller’s site.