Dating Coasters

This is a hard one, almost as bad as determining the value of a coaster. Hopefully some of these hints will help you come close to the age of a coaster. If anyone can add any suggestions or advice, please contact me so that we can update this information. Following are some general guidelines to use and some very specific ideas.

As a general rule, the larger coasters (4.5") are usually before 1945, the smaller ones seem to appear after this time. Maybe it was related to the war period or some other event. This should not be taken as a hard and fast rule but a guideline. Remember that there are exceptions to every rule. Also, one or a combination of several of the below suggestions might be needed to date the coaster.

A very thick large older coaster that has 'Printed in Germany' or 'Made in Germany' on the edge might be a pre-pro coaster.

Look at the picture or words on the coaster, the picture or design could be related to an event of that time period, for example WWII, a World's Fair or Olympics.

Some coasters have dates printed on them or the back might have a date handwritten. Obvious but still worth mentioning.

Look for a date below the catalog coding information, some of the older coasters have handwritten notes on them as to when they were used. Coaster colletors have sent me this information to help date the coasters

Another way to tell the age is by using some of the excellent reference guides on breweries or beer brands. These will not tell you the age of a coaster but they will at least identify the brewery operating dates. A good reference source is "Who's Who in Brew", this guide was originally published in 1978 and a copy can be purchased from Paul Burden (ABA# 151), PO Box 218, Medfield MA 02052. This guide contains the dates of operation and is very useful if you need to determine the brewery and all you know is the brand name. Another source is American Breweries II by Dale Van Wieren (ABA# 3371) this guide contains operating dates and other important information.

The following suggestion comes from one of Bob Kay's (ABA# 1383) excellent articles on beer labels from his Auction Catalogs. Bob can be reached at PO Box 1805--Batvia IL 60510-6805.

Multiple Breweries listed: You can often zero in on a time period based on the cities listed and the opening/closing dates of the corresponding breweries. Opening/closing dates for the Anheuser-Busch, breweries illustrate:

An A-B label, or any collectable for that matter, which lists only St. Louis, Newark and Los Angeles, may be estimated as circa 1954-59, since neither Miami or Tampa are mentioned. Likewise, ten cities ending in Fairfield would date an item as circa 1976-83

A final suggestion by long time collector Art Landino (ABA# 33) (which is still being researched so any comments are welcomed) to help in identifying the age of a coaster is by determining who printed the coaster or any special markings not related to the brewery. Some coasters had this type of information printed on the front or back. These appeared only on 4-inch older coasters. If we can develop a cross-reference to the markings and known dates, then we could use this information to help date other coasters. Markings and coaster manufacturers identified so far are:

• Made in the USA by Absorbo Beer Pad Co. Inc. NY

• Made in the USA by Lion Match Co., INC

• E.M. Blumenthal & Co. Chicago-Germany

• Griffin-Rutgers-INC. New York along with Made in Austria (Usually has the dates 1933 or 1934 associated with these markings)

• Made in USA by Sherman

• Kostat Reg U.S. Pat OFF

• R.G. Fenstermaker Allentown PA

• Universal Tray & Sign Co. New York

• BaVco U.S.A

• PTD in USA by Brandt & Brandt NYC

• Printed by Curt Teich & Company, Inc, Chicago IL USA

• MFD by brewer & Sons Chicago' this is impressed on the reverse

• BMT co. Germany

Micro brewery operating dates are a little easier to determine. There are a couple of real good sources to get this information. The U.S. Micro/Brewpub Coaster Guide series published by Steve Pawlowski & Jack McDougall shows pictures of all the micro coasters listed by state/brewery. This is the bible of micro coasters.

An excellent Internet source is GAK's Regional Brewery Guides Here you can look up almost all known breweries worldwide and you will find the operating dates along with other information.