Fruit/canning jar help please

CladSpends2

CladSpends2

Sr. Member
Jan 11, 2010
495
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Wilton, Maine
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Hello guys and gals. I know you are going to first flame me for not posting a pic, but I have had zero luck posting a picture on this site. With that said, today at a lawn sale I bought a Putnam lightning fruit jar. It is a half pint in size, light green in color and is mold number 30. There are three pat. dates on the cover, the latest being in '82, 1882 that is! On the bottom it says "trade mark" curved around the base, then "lightning" straight acrossed and a circle in the middle about the size of a nickel, and under that "PUTNAM" and below Putnam the number "30". I have researched enough to know that that means it is mold 30. There are air bubbles in the glass, so I know it is very old and there are no nicks, cracks or flea bites that I can find. I have searched Ebay, but can't find any of mold 30. I do find that some of the green glass and smaller half pint sizes are quite valuable. I bought this from a lady who was probably 80 yrs old, so I am pretty sure it is not a repro. (I found out there are some out there) Does anyone have a price guide to fruit jars and willing to let me know what I have. Thanks in advance for any help. This forum is full of information and been a great help to me. I hope someday I can give a little back.

T.
 

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Thank you for the URL, I have checked it out and will again, but as of yet I can't find an exact match. I do appreciate the help though.

T.
 

CladSpends2 said:
Hello guys and gals. I know you are going to first flame me for not posting a pic, but I have had zero luck posting a picture on this site. With that said, today at a lawn sale I bought a Putnam lightning fruit jar. It is a half pint in size, light green in color and is mold number 30. There are three pat. dates on the cover, the latest being in '82, 1882 that is! On the bottom it says "trade mark" curved around the base, then "lightning" straight acrossed and a circle in the middle about the size of a nickel, and under that "PUTNAM" and below Putnam the number "30". I have researched enough to know that that means it is mold 30. There are air bubbles in the glass, so I know it is very old and there are no nicks, cracks or flea bites that I can find. I have searched Ebay, but can't find any of mold 30. I do find that some of the green glass and smaller half pint sizes are quite valuable. I bought this from a lady who was probably 80 yrs old, so I am pretty sure it is not a repro. (I found out there are some out there) Does anyone have a price guide to fruit jars and willing to let me know what I have. Thanks in advance for any help. This forum is full of information and been a great help to me. I hope someday I can give a little back.

T.
Click to expand...
with Jars there really is no definite way to help without seeing it.. to a untrained eye 20 jars could look exactly the same but to a trained eye they could all be slightly different...meaning prices all could be different.. I have a redbook # 9 an Redbook # 10 if you get a pic I can help btw mold number does not affect price any most of the time...
 

Thank you, Creeper, I told you I was still learning from this site. LOL I will try and post a picture right now. If I can't get it to upload, would it be alright if I send it to you in an email?

T.
 

IMG-20120805-00068.jpgIMG-20120805-00071.jpgIMG-20120805-00069.jpg
 

From what I can come up with your jar is RB#1489 VARITY 3 pat dates jan 5 75,reisd june5 77 patd apr 25 82 aqua pint.. is this correct? if so 8-10.00
 

Creeper, I am on a camping trip, but I am 99 percent sure your dates are correct. My wife and I had just both thought it was a half pint, not a pint. We weren't smart enough to actually pour water into to it to see what it held though. LOL. Again I appreciate your help.

T.
 

CladSpends2 said:
Creeper, I am on a camping trip, but I am 99 percent sure your dates are correct. My wife and I had just both thought it was a half pint, not a pint. We weren't smart enough to actually pour water into to it to see what it held though. LOL. Again I appreciate your help.

T.
Click to expand...
I wasn't sure either still learning sizes, but there was no 1/2 pint listed.. So i went with what they had listed.. If the dates I had are incorrect there could be one more possibilty..
 

Creeper, your pat. dates are correct and thanks again for your help. However, I am more confused than ever as this is definately a half pint jar. 8 oz's of water fills it to the bottom of the neck. It could take a bit more if filled to the absolute brim, but not enough to take 16 oz's and that wouldn't leave any room for the wax seal I remember my Grandmother putting on the top of her jars. I have seen half pints on other sites, like the one that Sterling gave me and they go for big dollars compared to what you quoted me. That is why I was so shocked to thank you in my earlier post and had to go back and do it. I was so disappointed I forgot my manners. Like I said, more confused now. Diggum.........I was surprised that you weren't the one to quickly post a value range for me on this. I have read your posts for so long and know you are one of the most knowledgeable people on here I practically feel like I know you. Did you find good news on your jars? Again, thank you to everyone for their help on this. I am going to have to do some more searching and just hang on to it for a while. It won't hurt me to do so and it is interesting at the very least.

T.
 

T, Thank you for the accolades. :notworthy: Unfortunately, fruit jars are something I don't come across too often down here in the cesspool that is S. Fl., so I don't know too much about them. These are the only ones i've ever come across believe it or not, so of course I bought them. From what I can find out mine are common... old, but common. Not much value (few dollars), i'll fill them with marbles some day and sell them that way.

As for yours, they may be worth a bit more since they are actual 1/2 pint jars, usually the small ones are worth more from what i've recently found out. Also, they made repro's of your jar. I figure, if they are gonna make a repro of something then the originals must be worth a little bit of money, no? Here is an intersting article I just found concerning the reproduction 1/2 pints- http://home.earthlink.net/~raclay/ReproLightnings.HTML
According to the article the repros don't have mold numbers embossed on the base so yours may very well be real but i'm no expert. You should email the writer of the article, Bob Clay, his addy is at the bottom of the page in the link provided.

ps- I just re-read your original post and see that you've probably already read the article in the link I gave, but I wouls still email Bob and link him to this thread to get hisopinion. I'm sure he could tell you in a second what you have.
 

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I am confused also cause at first I thought it was a 1/2 pint but since the redbook didn't list a half pint I thought maybe I was wrong an it was a pint...
 

Diggum................ Thanks for the link, I re-read the article and sent the gentleman the pics of my jar. I really don't believe this is a repo, as I got it from an old lady on a lawn sale that for the most part was selling her deceased husband's belongings. She had others, pretty much like yours, but I could tell this was the oldest one and picked it out from the litter. Of course, we have all had to learn, old isn't necessarily valuable, but when in doubt..........LOL. Creeper, that web site does discuss the fact there are half pints, and like Diggum said, if they are making repo's, there must be some value in the originals. This one has the pat. dates and the mold number, which the repo's don't, so I think I am good there, but keeping my fingers crossed. Again, thank you both for the help.

T.
 

CladSpends2 said:
Diggum................ Creeper, that web site does discuss the fact there are half pints, and like Diggum said, if they are making repo's, there must be some value in the originals. This one has the pat. dates and the mold number, which the repo's don't, so I think I am good there, but keeping my fingers crossed. Again, thank you both for the help.

T.
Click to expand...
Are you sure your looking at the right jar?? If it was known to exist an had alot of value it would be in the Fruit jar redbook which has prices for over 10.000 fruit jars.. So either I am not looking at the right jar or you are geting your confused with another.. like I have said before 20 jars could look exactly the same to a untrained eye but to someone who has been dealing with jars for awhile they could be 20 different jars...
 

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