Been working with a great group of folks excavating Paleoindian and Historic components of the site around the Lodge at Wakulla Springs, FL. Its about 15 miles straight south of Tallahassee. People showed up there at least 14,000 years ago when mastodons roamed the land and have stayed til today (its a State Park now).

One of the things we have been trying to relocate is where the WWII GI's getting trained as frogmen lived. Well we found probably 100 cans- almost all #10s and 16oz food cans that once had paper labels. AND, about a dozen beer cans that look to be mid 1950s or so, maybe a hair earlier. Of course we were hoping for olive drab WWII cans after I explained those to our crew.

Everything seems to have been burned over and bulldosed off the side of a small hill. I can read parts of just three crushed cans- and they are all the first purely red and white (no gold) Budweiser flats like 44-13 or 44-32. This seems to only exist in the 3 city variety (before Tampa) and I wanted to ask if anyone could tell me a year when these were 1st made, and maybe how long they lasted before the next design change.

Been tearing the office apart and can't find the Bud book to save my life. Don't have any pictures of them worth a hoot.... So here is where they were found (well behind me when I took this photo a couple weeks ago with my crappy phone.... I'm on the diving tower waiting for cave divers to decompress after filming Pleistocene animal bones below 200ft for 80+ minutes (6 hour deco, yuck). The ranger is trying to run off a 5ft gator who has become fond of the swimming area.... All in a days work....

Thanks, Andy

@hemmings So according to the American Breweries II, the A-B brewery opened in Tampa in 1959. Tampa would have made the fourth brewery and never produced a split label white version so it would of had to have been at least prior to 1959.

Supposably the white Split Label ceased Production in March of 1958. LEON.

I just finished looking online at "1950s Budweiser ads" and the website http://www.vintageadsandstuff.com/adsbeerbudweiser.html showed quite a few examples. The gold-split Buds were last advertised in 1956. The white-split Buds in 1957. The non-split Buds in August 1958. These are Life magazine ads and there are gaps in the listings and not every ad showed the cans. So, this would narrow it down to 1957-1958.

Thanks Guys, Just started looking at all the ads... very cool. I found the Beer Cans of AB book and it says production started in 1956.
Leon, the end date of March 1958 narrows this down pretty tight. Thanks,..... Do you have a source for that I could use? Andy

Those ads are great. I collect Indian beer stuff and AB is really the only brewery that I've found used really negative images of Indians repeatedly. I should start a thread just on this topic as I would eventually like to write a book about Native American advertising called the Good, the Bad, and the Comically Absurd. will see if I have pics to use for that.....

The BC of AB has many dates wrong, especially when it comes to the 16s. It was a good guide for its time but back then, information was difficult to come by and the general collector didn’t scrutinize to the same level as we are afforded some 40 years on.

Some are obviously tabs where they should be flats or have an earlier listing of breweries on the face but have earlier or later dates associated.

It’s great to have newspaper and magazine ads to narrow it down almost to the month.

hemmings wrote: ↑Thu Jun 14, 2018 9:08 pm Thanks Guys, Just started looking at all the ads... very cool. I found the Beer Cans of AB book and it says production started in 1956.
Leon, the end date of March 1958 narrows this down pretty tight. Thanks,..... Do you have a source for that I could use? Andy

Yes, I do have a source. Page 12 of The Beer Cans of Anheuser-Busch Book. BUT, As Chris T (shortopener) noted the info is not all 100% accurate which is why I choosed the word Supposably in my comment. LEON.

Thanks Leon, Getting it to within a 3-5 year range should be good. Hard to believe that is 60 years ago now. Andy