A few months ago, I started adding mid-1960s Coke bottle caps to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. I didn’t know a lot about them–I still don’t, really–but I’m having fun collecting them. What’s the attraction? Well, first, most of the caps come from team sets that were distributed regionally, and team sets typically contain players that never appeared on football cards. I always enjoy adding new players to the Gallery. Second, condition doesn’t seem to be critical with these caps. Nearly all of the ones I see are used, and most are somewhat corroded. Perhaps for that reason, they’re relatively inexpensive. Third, there are lots of them! Including those from the Canadian Football League, I count over 3500. And that doesn’t include variations for the different Coke products: Tab, Fresca, Diet Coke, etc. Collecting them all will be a challenge!
One set I added recently was the 1966 New York Giants “G” set. There’s also a “C” set, the difference being how the caps are numbered: G1, G2, G3, etc., or C1, C2, C3, etc. You can kind of make out in the picture above that Bob Timberlake is number G31. I don’t know why there are “G” and “C” variations; maybe one of you readers can enlighten me.
I was delighted to discover the Bob Timberlake cap in the set, because it filled a hole on the Gallery’s page of Heisman Trophy candidates. Timberlake, who played quarterback for the University of Michigan, finished 4th in Heisman voting in 1964, but he played only one season in the NFL, and, to my knowledge, he never appeared on a card while he was playing. (He did appear, many years later, in a few modern Michigan tribute sets. It will be a looong time before I can add those to the Gallery.)
Eight sets down, dozens more to go! Check out my progress on the Gallery’s Coke Caps page.
