Well , she is very happy , and they leave . I start to randomly pick
You have to kiss a lot of frongs before you find a Prince !
through the boxes . There are a few rusted out flats , common Iron City cans , 29 Grain Belt
Northbound Brewery & Smokehouse
pull tabs and 1 flat top Grain Belt , a shit pot load of common Schells cans , miscellaneous commemorative flotsam , and next I pull out a Jennings black flat top !!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy Flippen Bat Shit !!!!! My jaw drops and I put my eyeballs back in their sockets . The can is rusty , scratched and off grade but , one side has color and is pretty decent . I grab my waxes and cleaners for these type of cans and start gently polishing away . This can has issues and plenty of patina but , this is a rare bird indeed . IF , this can was in mint or near perfect condition , my guess is that it would bring easily a couple of grand , and probably much more in today ’ s market . I clean as best as I can but , I can ’ t bring her back to mint . I love her just the way she is .
So , no pot of shiny gold for me , just rusty gold . I ’ m happy with a dumper . It goes on my shelf . Not perfect but , very displayable . I do not recall ever seeing one of these cans in person and I ’ ve been at this for about 47 years now . If I see the seller again , I will buy McDonalds for her and the kids . Now a little history of this can . These cans were made by Cold Spring brewing company , specifically for Jennings liquor store in St . Louis Park , circa 1950 ’ s . A private label brand . There are 3 variations of the flat top , a black label , a dark blue label and a light blue label . The one I own is the black label , the tougher of them all . There is also a blue label , pull tab can that was produced , and fellow collector ( Brent Kastler , past editor for the North Star chapter ) discovered this pull tab can under similar circumstances about 15 years ago .
One of the more interesting aspects about these cans , is that at the bottom of the can on the face , it says , *** Dial Wet Brew ***. So , back in the day , you would use your old rotary phone ( if you are a younger reader , there were rotary phones before cell ) and dial that number in to Jennings liquor store and order more “ Wet Brew ”. Think I ’ ll have a wet brew right about now . This stuff is still out there , keep chasing that rainbow , you just never know . Till next time , Jay .
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