Earliest Date on Low Profile Cone Top, Concave Bottom

[Conehead]

I'm not sure if we have discussed this before but what is the earliest date stamp on a Low Profile CONCAVE bottom cone top?

A lot of the California breweries put a date stamp on their cones so it is easy to check.

I don't have access to my cans to picture the bottom but I do have the date stamps noted in my notes.

Even if you don't have one earlier than what I am posting tell us what you have just for discussion purposes. Let say post cans earlier than May 1st, 1936.

Here are my two earliest.

This Tacoma USBC #186-17 is date stamped 1-9-36

This is the B & B without a mandatory listed, USBC #151-5, date stamped 3-14-36

[Leon]

But what do these dates tell you, the day that can was filled or something else? LEON.

[bantam10]

It tells me that concave bottom cones are older than I thought

[foreigncanman]

I have seen a flat bottom white Rainier with 1 16 35 pn the bottom (or Jan 16 35 cannot remember) This would predate the sale of the beer (can)Tom

[Leon]

Seems like we talked about these dates along time ago. I was confused even back then



viewtopic.php?f=1&t=930&hilit=RAINIER+DATE

[Leon]

I have seen a flat bottom white Rainier with 1 16 35 pn the bottom (or Jan 16 35 cannot remember) This would predate the sale of the beer (can)Tom

I'd guess thats because that's when the Beer was brewed & not when the can was filled.

[menke]

wow, that's early! A couple thoughts, though. Smaller brewers would have to buy cans in quantity larger than they could use in a short period, sitting on empties for months or years before having the opportunity to fill and sell them. If they bought flat bottom cones in Fall 1935 they may well have filled them much later. Big brewers would be filling cans as fast as they arrived, likely far more accurate for seeing exactly when the concave bottom hit the market. And not every single can plant would have started producing the new package on the same day, regions served by some can plants might lag behind while continuing to produce the earlier package.

Somewhere online there's a list of brewery production volumes... I've long been collecting Ballantine fill dates for this reason. They were in the top 10 back in the 30's with Beer and Ale; I figure their cans could tell us within a week of when the patent info changed, when the beaded lid came in, and other FAA reg changes. With those dates as a working theory, we could potentially date many otherwise undatable cans! Maybe now that my restored house in under contract I'll have time to dig out my notebook and collect enough date codes to complete the project.

1/16/35 would be kind of amazing, coming out a full 8 months before any other cone appeared on the planet. Maybe some ink is missing on the stamp and it was really 1936? hard to say... Also, cans are filled days or weeks or months before they get to retail. Cans sold on Jan 24, 1935 had to have been filled weeks ahead in order to work their way through distribution to every retailer. So a fill date on an early Baldy would be earlier than that.

And big breweries would have been blending multiple batches, likely brewed on different days, for a packaging run. Most of the dates are most likely the packaging date. Other beers that are "age-dated" reflect the opposite of today's freshness emphasis- the focus then was on properly produced beer instead of stuff being rushed to market, prohibition-style, with clouds of yeast and not-so-mellow flavors. Awfully hard to tell which scenario applies, some 80+ years later...

[Conehead]

But what do these dates tell you, the day that can was filled or something else? LEON.

For those not sure what we are talking about, here is the date message on many cans....not all cans with dates had this note. This is the side of the Tacoma LP below.

Leon....thanks for the thread link! Good information. I don't remember that one at all.

Jim

[Conehead]

1/16/35 would be kind of amazing, coming out a full 8 months before any other cone appeared on the planet. Maybe some ink is missing on the stamp and it was really 1936? hard to say

Matt. I was kinda of thinking the same about problems with the ink stamp. Some of these stamps are really hard to read and I'm sure quality control wasn't a big issue. I thought my Tacoma with the 1-9-36 stamp was really early and wondered if it should be 11-9-36 which would make more sense to me. I wish I could get access to the can and post an image of it.


Come on guys............Let's see some pictures of date stamps on early Low Profile cones.

[Leon]

If it is Stamped that early & legit I'd be surprised. would be about 2-3 months earlier then I'd expect. The Tacoma doesn't show up in the Dec.35 Ad & the March 36 ad doesn't show it & those in ad are still FB/IR. Some in March 36 ad signed up in Dec 35. LEON.

[Leon]

The Tacoma does show up in the September 36 ad. LEON.

[foreigncanman]

interesting because the can was an indoor can white Rainier. If I ever see it again I will take a picture. I was always intrigued by the date on the can. Defintiely a nice indoor can and from what I remember clearly stamped.Tom

[Leon]

I asked a buddy of mine to look for the earliest date he could find advertising the Tacoma low pro Cone Top in the vast archives of the Newspaper Subscription he has. What he came up with was this. LEON.

uhh, click pic to supersize

[Scott]

1/16/35 would be kind of amazing, coming out a full 8 months before any other cone appeared on the planet. Maybe some ink is missing on the stamp and it was really 1936? hard to say

Matt. I was kinda of thinking the same about problems with the ink stamp. Some of these stamps are really hard to read and I'm sure quality control wasn't a big issue. I thought my Tacoma with the 1-9-36 stamp was really early and wondered if it should be 11-9-36 which would make more sense to me. I wish I could get access to the can and post an image of it.


Come on guys............Let's see some pictures of date stamps on early Low Profile cones.

My Tacoma cone is dated January 17, 1936. The date stamp is very clear. My downgrade had a March 1936 date on it.