Tin Signs Almanac

Tin Boxes

2011-07-24T09:09:00.000-07:00

Tin box

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A variety of tins used for Altoids breath mints.

A tin box, or tin for short, is a metal container with a re-closeable lid. Despite its name, a tin box seldom involves more tin than a thin plated layer whose purpose is to inhibit corrosion.

Construction

The lid, which sometimes is hinged to the rest of the box, is often held in place when closed by friction. In other cases, two protruding parts can pass each other only when the lid and the rest of the box are deformed slightly: pressure from the user's hands is sufficient to produce this deformation, while the parts resist this somewhat, and are flexible enough to recover their normal shape when released.

Usage

Modern tin boxes have been used to hold items such as breath mints, throat lozenges, instant coffee, cocoa and even CD-ROMs for an internet service provider. In the past even more products were stored in tins, many highly decorated. Businesses tried to encourage the re-use of tins they provided, with the effect of the tins advertising them. One common use of the tin was as a children's lunchbox and in the UK as biscuit tins.

Highly decorated "holiday tins", usually containing cookies, candy, or popcorn, are sold during the holiday season and are popular gifts. Similar festive containers are used in Europe for sweets, biscuits, cakes and chocolates, mainly at Christmas, rather than in the summer holidays and in countries with British associations, they are usually called biscuit tins. In the year 2007 the German company dosenwelten started a new concept with digital printing on already shaped tin boxes. In these days it is possible to produce already printed tin boxes from one piece.

Plastic road signs to stop thefts

2011-06-03T10:57:00.000-07:00

8 March 2011 Last updated at 04:03 ET

Plastic road signs in Surrey to deter metal thieves

Surrey County Council believes the road signs have been stolen by scrap metal thieves

Plastic road signs are to replace aluminium signs stolen in Surrey in an attempt to deter scrap metal thieves.

Surrey County Council (SCC) said 16 signs with street names, chevrons and turnings had vanished in recent weeks.

They will be replaced by polycarbonate plastic versions which have no sell-on value. About 40 metal drain and manhole covers have also been stolen.

The council said the total cost of replacing the covers and signs would be about £16,000.

'Highway robbery'

The items have been stolen from Woking, Egham, Chertsey, Camberley, Dorking, Capel and Headley.

Councillor Ian Lake, the cabinet member for transport, said: "This highway robbery is stupid beyond belief.

"These signs and manhole covers are put there for people's safety and to steal them for the sake of a few pounds is reckless and irresponsible.

"Money is tight at the council and we shouldn't have to be paying out taxpayers cash to make up for the actions of a few idiots.

"This money would be much better spent filling in potholes or on making safety improvements."

£300 welcome sign stolen

2011-06-03T10:54:00.000-07:00

3 June 2011 Last updated at 09:33 ET

Welcome sign stolen from Lincolnshire market town

The two support posts are all that remain of the sign

A decorative road sign welcoming visitors to a Lincolnshire market town has been stolen.

The sign, which marked the boundary between Lea village and Gainsborough, is thought to be worth up to £300.

Steve Whiles, from Lincolnshire County Council, said the sign had been taken even though it had been fitted with vandal-proof nuts and bolts.

He said the theft of metal for its scrap value was a "serious issue" across the county.

"The cost must run to thousands of pounds for iron work and metal that are taken for scrap value," said Mr Whiles.

"The sign was probably worth between £200-£300 but I think this could have been taken as more of a collector's item."

He said talks would now take place with Gainsborough Town Council in the hope of replacing it and using securer fixings.

State police tracking stolen 'Open for Business' sign leads | The Kennebec Journal, Augusta, ME

2011-06-03T00:55:00.000-07:00

State police tracking stolen 'Open for Business' sign leads | The Kennebec Journal, Augusta, ME

huge array of collectible tins and tin signs.

2011-05-18T08:02:00.000-07:00

Tin collection front and center

By Melody Martinsen, Acantha editor

The Hortons remodeled their shop, adding a check out counter on the south wall and new shelves with swing-out doors to display many of the spice and tobacco tins.

Days Gone By Antiques in Choteau is currently home to one of the largest collections of vintage tins and canisters in the state — a collection so unique and varied that business owners Paul and Donna Horton have remodeled their display area to accommodate the vast array of collectibles.

During a recent interview, Paul Horton said the collection includes approximately 2,100 pieces, most of which are product tins that used to contain tobacco, coffee, spices and dry goods. Other pieces are tin signs, cardboard store displays for products, pocket mirrors, recipe booklets, German pipes, rare books and tobacco paraphernalia.

“This is absolutely the best collection of tobacco tins and tins in Montana and maybe in the region,” Paul Horton said.

His wife, Donna, said, “When people come in, they are just in awe.”

The Hortons were friends of the grandson of the collector, who died last year at age 89, and left his sizeable collection to the grandson. After picking out some favorites, the grandson then consigned the rest of the collection to the Hortons to sell through Days Gone By.

Days Gone By Antiques owner Paul Horton stands in the new barnwood showroom, built in the middle of his store, to help display a huge array of collectible tins and tin signs.

Paul Horton said the collector and his wife traveled every summer across the country for nearly 50 years, looking for mint-condition vintage tins. “He knew tins very well and he wanted the high-end items,” Paul said. “He was constantly upgrading his collections.”

The collection includes tiny tobacco tins plus large canisters that held such things as marshmallows. There are perfume tins, popcorn tins, small tin pails that held peanut butter, and much more. The Hortons have so far taken and displayed about 1,400 pieces of the collection and have probably another 700 pieces in storage yet to be put up for sale.

Some of the more unique items in the collection include roly-poly canisters, used to store Dixie Queen Plug Cut Tobacco back in the 1930s. These tins now sell for $300 to $500 each. Other tobacco-related items include Prince Albert, Union Leader and Lucky Strike pieces.

Another rare item is the Franklin Coffee tin, rated as a 9 on a quality scale of 1 to 10. This tin will bring from $400 to $800.

Referring to the same quality scale, Paul said of the collection, “It’s almost all from 8 to 10. It’s just a quality collection.”

Most of the tins date back to the early 1900s though some may be even older. The array of spice tins include the brands of Durkees, Crescent, Knox, Pocono and others. One of the high-end pieces is a rare Busy Biddy brand 1.5-ounce dry mustard tin that will sell for about $150.

Paul said the attraction for tin collectors is usually the beautiful, artistic graphics that adorn the cans; the graphics plus the condition and the limited numbers of the tins all play into the selling price. “Graphics are at least half of it and then the rarity kicks in for the other half,” he said, holding up a G.F. Foster’s allspice tin bearing the Parrot brand logo on the front.

Donna said, “You can’t get things made like that today.”

Paul said a more common tin, such as a grade 9 Caswell’s Coffee tin, would only fetch about $50.

The Hortons said they spent at least six months cataloguing the collection and researching the appropriate price for each piece.

To display the collection, the Hortons added a new glass-topped and fronted showcase and built a new checkout counter against the shop’s south wall. Paul then built a wall display case along the south wall that includes double-sided swing-out doors. Most of the smaller tobacco-related items are in the glass display case while many of the smaller tins are in the wall display.

With help from family friend Dick Storment, the Hortons also built out of old barnwood a new show room in the center of the store. “It was quite the project,” Paul said. The barnwood show room allows the larger tins and many of the tin signs to be tastefully displayed in a rustic setting. “We get a lot of wows when people come in,” he said, adding “ They may not be into tins, not everyone is, but they appreciate the effect. ... People spend hours in here just looking.”

Many of the tin signs on display in the show room are very rare and valuable. One, a DuPont gun powder advertisement, is listed for $1,895. Paul noted that the rare signs have sold briskly though, “We still have quite a few cool ones.”

The Hortons plan to keep the tin collection at front and center in their store for at least a couple of years. Items that are not moving after that time, they may post on e-Bay or sell through live auctions on the Internet. Paul said the store has done very well so far without extensive advertising though they did put out statewide advertisements prior to Mother’s Day.

The tin collection isn’t the only thing that’s new at Days Gone By Antiques. Storment has also created his third window display for the store. He started the window displays with a showing of his own extensive Howdie Doody memorabilia collection. Then he created a U.S. presidents display and now his collection of First Ladies history and memorabilia is on display in the big bay windows.

Storment says the items in this display are not overly unique, but are interesting and provide history and information on the women who served as First Ladies and White House hostesses during the early days of the nation. This display will remain up for several weeks until it is changed out for a Fourth of July-themed display this summer.

Days Gone By Antiques welcomes browsers, shoppers and any visitors. The store hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Road sign theft can have fatal consequences

2011-05-08T20:39:00.000-07:00

May 8, 2011

We need them

Cumberland Times-News

— Theft of road signs costs Garrett County about $5,000 a year, as we reported recently, but other locations have similar problems.

For one thing, college town street signs frequently wind up on the walls of dormitory rooms.

Other than as souvenirs, why do people take them? Garrett County officials indicate they sometimes are sold to scrap metal salvage operations or to use as a side plate for four-wheelers.

Although some of the attrition stems from damage in accidents, at least of the traffic signs that must be replaced are the result of theft.

It’s not just an expensive nuisance. Road signs are placed where they are for important reasons. For one thing, they provide information that motorists and pedestrians need. For another, they are a vital safety feature.

Because someone apparently thought it was a prank, a stop sign was removed from a busy four-way intersection in Florida 15 years ago.

Three young men in a car drove through the intersection without stopping and were killed when their vehicle was hit by a large truck.

Three teen-agers were convicted of first-degree manslaughter in connection with the sign’s removal and sentenced to 30 years in prison, with 15 years suspended and five years’ probation after their release. An appeals court later threw out the convictions because of prosecution errors. The state eventually dropped the case rather than re-try it due to lack of evidence.

Regardless of the defendants’ guilt or innocence, three lives young lives were needlessly ended before their time.

Theft of road signs in Garrett County is subject to prosecution as a misdemeanor offense that could result in up to 18 months in jail and a $500 fine.

Those who observe such thefts should report them to police. A monetary reward may be awarded but, more than that, a life may be saved.

Campbell Soup advertising sign brought $93,000

2009-03-22T20:11:00.000-07:00

Investing in Tin Signs is a lucrative businesss. You can even double your money in few years, when you buy the right ones and sell it at known auction houses. Just a single tin sign purchase can bring you thousands in profit.

A 1905 tin sign advertising Campbell's Soups was sold in July 1991 at Oliver's Auction Gallery in Kennebunk, Me., for $93,500, more than double what one of these signs brought in 1989.

In Automobilia, a Yearning for the Days of Youth

2009-03-20T22:24:00.000-07:00

By CLIFF ROTHMAN

Published: Wednesday, May 17, 2000

LEILA DUNBAR remembers the family outing to search for old tin automotive signs at the antiques fair in Brimfield, Mass. It was 1973, and she was 12. ''We slept in a borrowed van, right on the side of Route 20, the tractor-trailers rolling by and causing the van to sway all night,'' she said.

They would spend the two-day fair scouring the field for the handful of road signs for sale, like those for Champion Spark Plugs or Mother's Root Beer. Her dad, she remembers, paid maybe 50 cents for the 1-by-2-foot artifacts from the 1930's and 40's.

Brimfield now comprises 15 to 20 shows over eight days, with vast sections devoted strictly to automobilia, as the artifacts have come to be known. And those tin signs? They are about $175 to $200 each. Read more...

Stone Mountain Museum in Georgia Auctions Its Entire Collection.

2009-03-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

The entire contents of a Stone Mountain museum will be auctioned off on March 21-22, including a collection of antique cars, Coca-Cola memorabilia and vintage bicycles vintage tin signs etc...

At the right there is a Columbia Grafonola litho on tin sign, Good condition w/edge damage on top & right side, 19"H x 25"W.

The bid starts at $50 it is estimated to bring in close to $50,000 maybe more!

There is also the Ted's creamy Root beer sign age unknown in good condition is expected to bring in $100,000 to see the entire auction click here.

How Tin Signs are Produced

2008-11-30T22:03:00.000-08:00

There are five processes to produce a tin sign.

Image Processing
Proof
Plate Making
Printing & Drying
Finishing

Image Processing

First the Graphic Artist produces the image from scratch, once it's been accepted and licensed the job will be photographed to produce transparencies. For full-color images a color separation has to be made to provide a single-color image, this is used to produce a single color printing plate for lithography or cylinder, once it is done and checked it will be sent to plate or cylinder making operation.
A photographic negative is used when letters or lithographs are involved in original image, these are done by printing negatives into film.

Proof

At this stage a proof is made for job control and approved by the client.

Plate Making

Photmechanical plating is the common method of plating, these plates use light sensitive coating on which images are produced photographically, four plates are made for four color images.

Printing & Drying

The four plates are being attached to plate cylinder of the press machine. Each plate of printing press prints a single color to come up with full color. Four plates have colors of magenta, cyan, yellow & black, which one after another presses over the job to come up with the full-color. After printing the subject can be dried depending on the paint used. The drying is done using either a heat dry or a non-heat dry method. Heat dry method is done by hot air and non-heat method is done by absorption.

Finishing

Finishing is being done by trimming, folding the edges and laminating the surface if needed or required.

Tin Signs as Medium of Outdoor Advertising

2008-11-03T20:27:00.000-08:00

Tin Signs are similar in effect to posters. They are not so easily effected by the bad weather or mischievous boys. Their life is longer than that of the poster. To get successful returns from this class of mediums, you must place them in good locations. On bridges, at turn-outs, cross roads, and at shopping places of trolley and buses.

Most cars stop at sharp curves and automobiles slow up at such points, so these locations are good for Tin Signs. The principal points along State roads are good to catch people's eye when they come to town to visit. All outdoor advertising must be refreshed every once in a while.

In New York and Los Angeles immense sums have been paid for the rental of the side of a building for the use of Tin Signs. To make Tin Signs effective, then, they must be in locations where they will be seen by the greatest number of people, the matter must be catchy and consist of short sentences or commands, and the signs must be kept in a fresh condition at all times.

I fell in love with Tin Signs

2008-11-02T17:24:00.000-08:00

First time I fell in love with Tin Sings was when I went to a bar. Something clicked in me, I knew from that point on it's forever. I started collecting and decorating my house with tin signs, I always bought them in sets John Wayne's set, Stooge's set, Marilyn Monroe's set, etc. it reached a point that my family started complaining about it, but I knew I can't help myself.

I found them in garage sales, Thrift stores, malls and recently on internet. They come in variety of designs, my favorites are Hollywood celebrities, Automobiles and old Coca-Cola signs. First I started decorating the living room walls next was the bedroom and bathroom even the garage. I found out there cannot be damaged by heat or moisture only I have to wipe them up with a rag to remove the dust.

They are fairly inexpensive they come in at least four different colors, they are frameable and handling them are safe. They are parts of American heritage, they show the present and the past of this great country in vivid colors. I know I'm in love with them forever, I hope you will too.

Tin Signs Almanac

Tin Boxes

Tin box

Construction

Usage

Plastic road signs to stop thefts

Plastic road signs in Surrey to deter metal thieves

£300 welcome sign stolen

Welcome sign stolen from Lincolnshire market town

Related Stories

State police tracking stolen 'Open for Business' sign leads | The Kennebec Journal, Augusta, ME

huge array of collectible tins and tin signs.

Tin collection front and center

Road sign theft can have fatal consequences

We need them

Campbell Soup advertising sign brought $93,000

In Automobilia, a Yearning for the Days of Youth

By CLIFF ROTHMAN

Published: Wednesday, May 17, 2000

Stone Mountain Museum in Georgia Auctions Its Entire Collection.

How Tin Signs are Produced

Tin Signs as Medium of Outdoor Advertising

I fell in love with Tin Signs