Addresses on tins can often be linked to a time period, even down to the exact year, if you use an old city directory or telephone book.
If you're collecting local brand/company tins you probably have access to a library or historical society that have these books. By looking up the business in the directory you can determine when they moved to a new location or the address simply changed because of changes in the city's addressing system.
1963 - Zip Codes are introduced and appear on product advertising. I seemed to have misplaced my source, but I believe a two-digit city code was introduced in the 1940's. Does anyone know when Zip+Four was introduced?
If you're collecting a particular brand or have several major brands in your collection, it really pays off to know the manufacturer/distributor history. By tying in certain company events/ changes to the graphics and text on your tin you may be able to determine the time period it was introduced and used. Many companies have gone through name changes because of growth or merging. Knowing when these events took place and matching them to the name on the tin can help.
Along the same lines; if you also collect magazines/newspaper ads for these companies/brands, they can date your tin by matching your tin's description to that in the ad. Most ads have a date on them and are an excellent reference tool as well as looking great themselves in your collection. Other point-of-sale (POS) advertising, particularly die-cut cardboard, may also provide dates. Another source of information could be a merchandise catalog. As an example, Sears, Roebuck & Co. sold many products years ago and you may be able to date an item by its appearance in the catalog.
Your tin may have graphics or text that can be attributed to a particular time period. Match clothing, automobile make, and slogans (ex. war slogans-BUY Bonds), etc., to other known advertising items. (Note: In our time of nostalgia advertising -- this may not be applicable.)
The construction of your tin may also provide clues to its age. In the 1930's/40's tins were constructed of rather thick steel sheet. As time went on, the tin manufacturer realized that all that metal wasn't always needed to protect the product. They also found out that you didn't have to apply as thick a coating of paint, ink, or whatever they used to maintain a somewhat durable finish. So the coatings used became thinner.
Many tins have a copyright date on them. In some cases this can identify its age, but be cautious. Copyright (and Patent dates) can be misleading, appearing on the company's products for many years.
A copyright date may appear but the product may not have been actually marketed until the following year or later.
I'm going to be guessing here, but I would think that the "Limited Edition" became widely used after the 1970's. Many tins marked with this usually have a date associated with its issuance. It was also in the '70's, 1973 to be exact, that the UPC (Universal Product Code) label came on the scene and began appearing on products. So any tin with a UPC label was manufactured in the last twenty-five years.
Don't forget about telephone numbers. Up until the early 1950's, telephone companies used a two or four digit number, sometimes with a hyphenated suffix. During 1954/55 (in the MIlwaukee, WI. area), the old Liberty, Lincoln, Broadway telephone numbers with five digits were introduced. About 1962, rural communities around Milwaukee began using the full seven-digit phone numbers.
If someone knows when the familiar 1-800 and 1-888 numbers were introduced as well as the Area Code system, I'd like to hear about it.
**READERS FORUM**
From: BFD 2174
I have some dates that may be of help to collectors who are trying to date tins. Some of this info is in regards to processes used or the formation of different companies who did lithography on the tins.
1879 Somers Brothers come up with a process for lithographing tins
1891 Hasker and Marcuse Manufacturing Co is formed
1900 Tindeco starts in business
1901 American Can Co. is formed and Heekin Can begins busioness
1904 Sanitary Can Co starts and Edwin Norton founds Continental Can Co.
>From 1870 until 1879 one-color lithography was used.
1882 to 1914 chromolithography period
If a tin or package has the word cure on it, it was from before the Pure Food and Drug act of 1907 (or 1906--can't remember which year)
If a tin has Ginna and Co., Somers Bros., or Hasker and Marcuse on it anywhere then it is a very early piece. You really have to look for these names as the printing was very small and usually very hard to find. These companies were all in business before the the large companies bought them out. American Can Co. did a lot of the work and usually a tin would be marked American Can Co. #?. Each one of the numbers can be traced back to one of the smaller companies that got bought out. The Tin Can Book by Hyla M. Clark 1977 is a great source of dates and full of great pictures but it is a hard book to find. Hope this is of some help.
1857 - Milton Snavely Hershey, born on a Mennonite farm in Derry Church, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania (mother - Fannie, his father travelled extensively seeking his fortune when Milton was young).
Early Age - Apprenticed to the editor of a German language newspaper in Lancaster, PA. Lost his job when his straw hat fell into the printing press. Apprenticed himself to Joe Royer, a candy and ice cream maker in Lancaster.
c.1875 - Went to Philadelphia to go into candy business for himself. Anticipating a huge business due to the forthcoming U.S. Centennial, he borrowed heavily from a maternal uncle to promote his business. Without being able to recoup even his initial investments, he took to the road like his father to make it rich. In Denver he learns that the secret of fine candy making was using fresh milk.
Although regarded as a loser by friends and family, his mother, Aunt Mattie and a friend finance his venture to make "Crystal A" caramels at his Lancaster Caramel Co.
1893 - Hershey tastes chocolate at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Buys German chocolate making machinery, adding it to his Lancaster business. First he made chocolate-covered caramels.
>From 1893-4, he was producing 14 varieties of sweets and soon developed milk chocolate bars (plain and with almonds), cocoa, and baking chocolate.
April 17, 1895 is the earliest recorded date of Hershey selling commercially. He soon became a leading and recognized figure in his community. At last realizing his dream of riches, he toured the world, meeting his future wife, Kitty, who he married in 1898.
1900 - Hershey sells his Lancaster Caramel Co. for $1 million, but retains the chocolate making equipment and the right to manufacture it. Hershey buys the first automobile in Lancaster using it for advertising as well as for making deliveries.
Early advertising promoted the nutritional qualities of chocolate by featuring a background of green fields, cows and milk. Hershey invests his money in a chocolate making facility in his birthplace of Derry Church, Dauphin County, PA. and begins building in 1903. The plant is completed in 1905. The area has an abundant water and labor supply and most importantly, lots of fresh milk.
Hershey develops the town into Hershey, PA. by building a bank, a zoo, hotel, churches, golf courses and parks. For out of town workers he built a trolley system to bring them to work. He established the Hershey Industrial School for boys in the early 1900's which today is known as the Milton Hershey School, now also accepting girls as students.
1927 - Company's name is changed from Hershey Chocolate Co. to Hershey Chocolate Corp. Some of his non-chocolate holdings are consolidated to form "Hershey Estates", now known as "HERCO".
1945 - Milton S. Hershey dies at age 88.
1960's - Company's marketing/ promotional policies become more aggressive.
1968 - Name changed to Hershey Foods Corp.
1970 - Hershey Company begins a consumer orientated advertising program, buying advertising for the first time.
Today - Hershey offers the visitor: Hershey's Chocolate World, an alternative to the traditional factory tour, is at the visitor's center. Next door is the Hershey Museum with exhibits, photos, and memorabilia. Founders Hall in the Hershey School also features exhibits. A FREE visitors guide can be requested by calling 1-800-HERSHEY.
* Of course you can buy any of the many products that Hershey produces today; bulk boxes, store display boxes, individual candy wrappers and bags. Don't forget about all of the food ads in magazines and newspapers.
* The Hershey Foods Corp. manufactures certain candy brands under license by Cadbury Ltd. But when this began and are the Cadbury tins attributable to the Hershey company, I don't know. Please check your tins with any Cadbury brands and see if Hershey's name is on them.
* The H.B. Reese Candy Co. is a division of Hershey Foods Corp. and is printed on the Reese's candy bars. Most of the candy bars, etc, are manufactured by Hershey Chocolate, U.S.A. a division of the same parent company. I don't have knowledge of when these changes occurred.
* Since my last issue, I've been in contact with Jeannie Tucker, editor/ publisher of the "TIN FAX" tin collecting newsletter. This is an excellent publication and Jeannie is in the process of setting up a website to go on-line in the near future to compliment it. The two of us have agreed to share information and articles, so you may see some commonality at times. If you want information about the TIN FAX you can write to Jeannie at:
KSCN80A@prodigy.com
(MRS JEANNIE TUCKER) or by sending snail mail to her at: TIN FAX, 205 Brolley Woods Drive, Woodstock, GA. 30189.
* Sources: "Milton Hershey Tasted Chocolate in 1893; The Rest Is History" by Barbara and Ken Beem, orig. printed for AntiqueWeek (found in the "Whittle Marks", a bottle club newsletter); the internet (Hershey's); The Collectible Classics from Commerce by Roselyn Grossholz.