Vintage Coke Trays
San Fran Fizzes Over 'Ghost' Coca-Cola Sign
By Lisa Hix — Coca-Cola collectors take note: A vintage Coke sign has prompted an epic "only in San Francisco" battle royale, as passionate preservationists take on anti-advertising activists. A recent objection to this antique Coca-Cola sign—which has been lovingly restored since its discovery in San Francisco's Bernal Heights neighborhood in 1991—has caused quite a hullabaloo this year. In January, an anonymous NIMBY filed a complaint with the city, which cited the 15-by-7-foot sign as an illegal...
Coca-Cola Author Doug McCoy on the Beverage Company's Bottles
By Maribeth Keane and Brad Quinn — My grandfather got me started collecting bottles when I was about eight years old. A couple of years later, I was walking along a creek and saw a bottle sticking out of a sandbar in the water. I couldn’t get to it to tell what kind of bottle it was. So I ran all the way home and dragged my dad there to get it for me. It was a 6.5-ounce Coca-Cola bottle from about 1948. I was fascinated by it because I’d never seen the design before. When I was a kid, they sold painted applied color...
Coca-Cola's Historian and Archivist Talks About His Favorite Frosty Beverage
By Maribeth Keane and Ben Marks — Phil Mooney was the historian and archivist for The Coca-Cola Company for three decades. In 2009, we spoke with Mooney about Coca-Cola collectibles, the artists who created many of Coke’s most famous images, and some of the rarest pieces he’s ever seen. As the archivist for Coca-Cola, I’m interested in preserving the history of this company. Integrally tied to that history are all of the things that we’ve used to market and promote the products. That’s really how I got exposed to the...
Coca-Cola Collector Explains Why Things Go Better With Coke
By Maribeth Keane — I started collecting Coca-Cola in 1994. The World Cup soccer games were being hosted at the Stanford Stadium and I saw Coke bottles commemorating the World Cup games on the shelves. I thought, “Wow, that’s pretty cool,” so I bought a six-pack. I noticed that the bottles had different flags representing the countries that were participating in the World Cup games. I started looking for all of them, and eventually I got a whole set. There were six different flags. Now, pretty much...