They came out in 1954, ironically the same year Altes went out of business. It was probably a last ditch effort to boost sales. How tough are they? Let me quote BeerCanPete from the November-December, 2018 issue of the BCCA Magazine:
So, whether you’re a Michigander or just another curious collector, I put together a list of all the facts and trivia found on those cans. No, I don’t have a single one of them. I was fortunate to access images through the BCCA Volume I Supplement, Randy’s Michigan Beer Cans site, and with some additional assistance from TripleAlex and Kevin Foley, I was able to document all 452 Trivia/Facts found on the 20 known cans. I present them to you in the attached PDF.“Rating 5: Impossible!
For a set to rate a 5…If you dump one, it could be the best find of your life! These things are impossible! You can name your price, and buyers will be lining up for it! Maybe there’s one guy you know who supposedly has a complete set, or maybe not; there may not be one complete set in existence. These are close to “holy grail” cans!
• Altes Sportsman Ale (20 cans, 30-23 through 30-39 plus three unlisted)”
Some possibly useful information as you go through the PDF:
• The image at the top of page 1 is a summary of the set as assembled by Kevin Foley in his Michigan Beer Cans Composite (1936-2003). A complete set of 20 carries the Continental Can Company code of CCC5. Several cans have been found that carry CCC72.
• The BCCA Volume I book originally only displayed 17 cans. The Volume I Supplement now displays 18 cans (030 27 5 was added). They still need images for two more cans which I called TBD1 and TBD2 in my project.
• I identified each set of facts/trivia using the BCCA can identifier number. Under that number will be all the info found on that can.
• All 20 different can are listed in order by their numbers.
• I did find three statements that were questionable. They involved critters and whether they actually hibernate. I looked them up and included the current known facts.
• The next section lists all the identical/duplicated facts across multiple cans. Some were only duplicated once while others were reused multiple times. I listed each statement and to the left of it, the number of the can it could be found on.
• The last group of “duplicates” is actually the number of times that the cans promoted the “Michigan Outdoors” TV show. I can remember watching that show with host Mort Neff. He was known as Mister Outdoors. If you couldn’t learn something about wildlife, fishing, hunting, etc., you weren’t paying attention.
• I ended with a fact of my own. How many of you know what a “SKISH” is?
I appreciate your interest, whether you live in Michigan or you’re just curious. I hope you can find it interesting and maybe even entertaining.
Thank You.
(MI-Cans)