Bucket List Bottles and relics! The elusive SC Dispensary!

Stef45

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With my new permission in hand and a couple hunts already in the books, I decided to start grinding the area where I believe a house was and where i was finding the majority of the relics (See last post). About 1/4 through grid pattern, I got a whisper that sounded like deep coin or even deeper iron. The second the shovel was 3 inches deep I could feel some glass/pottery. I carefully dug a plug and saw bricks, glass, and pottery. I suspected a privy since it was close to where i believe the house stood 80+ years ago. The first bottle I was able to see looked to be a cork top and I got really excited...Little did I know it would be ONE of FOUR SC Dispensary quart bottles. These bottles have been on my bucket list since i started detecting and i have only found pieces of them in the past. I won't go into a great amount of detail on the history of the SC Dispensary since many have been posted here in the past. But down here in the LC its the bottle everyone wants to have. All the SC intact bottles i found were all from the Carolina Glass Co.

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I went on to dig 3 Beer bottles as well that ended up being "The Germania Brewing Company" out of here in Charleston. The brewery was basically the only one in SC during the Dispensary times and was originally the Palmetto Brewing Co, which started up before the CW. I believe that the Palmetto brewing Co that we see today was the first post-prohibition brewery in SC when it started back up in 1993. The Germamia Brewing Co was in biz from around 1896 to 1915 when SC went dry (What a terrible idea!). These two bottles are the only two varieties that i have been able to find and really wish they would have been intact. I will still display them though.

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On to my oldest Coca-Cola Bottle and she's a beaut! All of these bottles came out of a hole about 2 feet wide by a foot and a half deep. This was right up against one of the SC Disp bottles and I couldn't believe it went I dug it. It has that aqua tint to it and is a 1906 variety. Not sure how collectible these are but I love it! Not sure what that makers mark is, haven't been able to narrow it down. looks like a diamond with a C in it.

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Along with the 4 intact SC Disp bottles i also dug about 4 other broken ones. One that came out broke was a Flask variety and damn that one stung when it came out broken. The Two bases are bases to SC Disp bottles as well. One from the E. Pacham Jr Co which used this mark from 1896-1902. The other is from the C.L. Flaccus Glass Co. They had a contract to make SC Disp bottles from 1898 to 1903 when the Carolina Glass Co bought the contract.

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Since i found this privy/bottle dump about 1/4 of the way into my grid I didn't have much time for signals but the ones I did get were solid! My very first J hook, which i found about 10 yards away from the .69 cal Minnie Ball I showed last post. In Charleston you just never know when you'll dig CW relics, they are literally everywhere and anywhere. The IHP is 1883 which is the oldest coin from this site thus far and the Wheat is a 191? D! Really wish i could make out that last number because it could make it a semi key date wheat! There has to be more silver and from the the same period somewhere.

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Overall it was an awesome hunt with a bunch of firsts and bucketlisters. I gave the owner one of the SC Disp bottles and one of the Beer bottles. I wasn't able to dig out the whole pit but i'm going to try next time. I also have a lot more land to cover, so hopefully i'll be able to pull some more good relics out. I filmed some of the bottle extractions but i have to figure out how to edit on iphone vid. Thanks for reading and as always, good luck.

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Upvote 31
Awesome saves...
 

I'm certainly not a bottle guy, but would love to stumble across an intact prohibition era SC distillery bottle. The fact that you dug 4 is nuts... hopefully a few more feet reveals the 19th century stuff.
 

I'm certainly not a bottle guy, but would love to stumble across an intact prohibition era SC distillery bottle. The fact that you dug 4 is nuts... hopefully a few more feet reveals the 19th century stuff.

Yeah that will truly date the site...so far it looks like a 1880-1890's site. Need you to get back and help me out with the sifter!
 

Your Coke might be from Chattanooga Glass Company 1901-1913


Ill look into that one! Thanks for the heads up. Would make sense geographically.
 

Nice going on the glass it's always a good day to get a bucket lister intact.
 

Some killer glass there!
 

Great recoveries and write up. Man, that's hard work but, very rewarding for sure. I hope the deeper stuff is better yet.
 

Like I told you I love to find bottles in the LC especially if they say Charleston on them. I've found several but it kills me when ya see one and pull it out and it starts out looking great and then turns out to be 3/4 of one. Those are great findsNick.
 

Congrats on some great looking bottles Stef. I bet they will display very nicely.
 

Great finds.. Always find the dispensaries broken.. Congrats!!

Yeah man so did I for about a year and a half! But then boom! Never know what will be in the hole. I just shot you a follow on insta as well...good luck and thanks
 

Great recoveries and write up. Man, that's hard work but, very rewarding for sure. I hope the deeper stuff is better yet.

Hey i appreciate it. Yes i'm very interested in what could be underneath it. If theres nothing than its for sure a late 1880s to 1890's. Either way i gotta find me some gold and silver!
 

Like I told you I love to find bottles in the LC especially if they say Charleston on them. I've found several but it kills me when ya see one and pull it out and it starts out looking great and then turns out to be 3/4 of one. Those are great findsNick.


Thanks bud! And yeah thats how it was with the flask...you could tell right away that it was a flask and when i finally got it out it was broken in half...sad!
 

Congrats on some great looking bottles Stef. I bet they will display very nicely.


Starting to run out of room! Not good...the wife is going to have to renegotiate the built in book shelf.
 

Awesome hunt man :occasion14: I bet it was a heck of a feeling to start pulling those complete bottles out of that area. Like VMI said, hopefully the earlier bottles will be a bit deeper. Cant wait to see what else you find there.
 

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