Silver Dime

Silver Dime story

---Currently 7 examples of the Silver Dime J spout are in known collections:
---1978 original "find" of six cans:
Based upon information from several persons who have had the cans, the first Silver Dime "find" was made by Tom Cibula and another collector who were visiting a bar in Chester, PA. They were told about "some beer cans in the basement", which turned out to be six Silver Dime J spouts. The basement was damp and these six examples have been described by "J spout" specialist Marc Tracy as "leakers" due to their missing varying amounts of the silver/red lines going around the cans.
Don Fink, a long time Pennsylvania collector, first saw the six cans during a Schmidt's Chapter meeting at the Schmidt's Brewery:

---Updating these six examples as of 2008:
---The USBC Book example was originally bought by Dick Caughey who later passed to Chet Bartol of Warsaw, IN; in 1994 to the McCoy's; in 2004 sold to a mid-western collector.
---The Class Book example is in a Chicago area collection.
---"John Holmes" example was sold in May, 2007 on ebay to a mid-western collector by Dick Caughey who recalled it had been picked up at the Downingtown Show shortly after the "find" was made. Now in a mid-western collection.
---three other examples were sold on ebay around 2001, 2002, in 2008, and are in collections.

---In late 2007 another example turned up with possibly the "silver dime" image's silver metallic being the best preseved of the seven cans.
A plumber contacted John Kretschmer and Dan Baker via their websites, saying many years earlier he had found a number of beer cans in a housing project in Chester, PA when he was opening bathroom walls to replace pipes. Among the cans found were: 1 Silver Dime; 6 Wolf's; 4 Kaiers J's, plus lesser cone brands along with a number of flat tops, Neuweilers Cream Ale and Scheidt's Valley Forge. Due to being in bathroom walls, the cans were mostly grade 1- and less. The plumber thought the housing project was built in the 1930's and guessed carpenters had discarded the cans into the openings made for the medicine cabinets.

---The Silver Dime brand in a "Crowntainer" has been reported by Bill Christiansen and a few other collectors, but a picture hasn't been located.

---Chester Brewing Company was at 2400 West 2nd St., Chester, Penna. and opened in 1898. After Repeal, nothwithstanding its small size, the brewery was notable for having colorful and graphically well-designed labels for its Chester Pilsner and Silver Dime brands in cans. Will Anderson found that in 1949 the brewery's sales were split 47% draught, 49% bottled, 4% canned. The brewery went out of business around 1954 as another of around 175 breweries that went out of business during a 7 year interval after 1948, when the brewing industry sharply contracted.

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