What's old is new again

This week in the U.S., a new – but “old” – Coke bottle is hitting store shelves. It’s a limited-edition 8.5-ounce bottle based on the design of Coke bottles in the early 1900s.

Before the 1916 introduction of the contour Coca-Cola bottle, Coke was sold in straight-sided bottles. These same bottles were used for other beverages, so the diamond-shaped paper label was the only thing that distinguished them as Coke bottles. Very few original paper labels from these early bottles have survived, making bottles with labels great collectibles.

The vintage bottles in the stores now don’t have paper labels, but have a very similar look and feel to the bottles used from 1900 to 1916. To further set today’s bottles apart from those of a century ago, the new bottles have Coca-Cola embossed in the glass.

These special bottles of Coke (sold in four-packs) follow another limited-edition bottle from late last year – that one was based on the 1899 Hutchinson bottle, the earliest bottle used for Coca-Cola.