Man returns bottles from 1913 for deposit and 108 years of interest in Pennsylvania

A penny-pinching man in Pennsylvania tried his luck at returning a century-old crate of empty beer bottles for the deposit and it worked — with 108 years of interest.

The customer was not identified, but Irving Cliff Brewery of Honesdale reports in a Facebook post that it made good on the deposit guarantee. Honesdale is about 30 miles northeast of Scranton.

“A local antique collector was cleaning out an old storage shed when he discovered this 1913 original ICB wooden beer crate with seven Blue Flint cork and cage Bottles,” Irving Cliff Brewery wrote in the Sept. 7 post.

“Being an ICB customer, the man brought the crate back to the brewery for the deposit. Calculating today’s 5 cent return on each bottle plus 108 years of interest.”

The refund came to $60 for seven dusty bottles.

The practice of offering glass bottle deposits has largely faded, as more beverage companies have gone to plastic bottles. Nowadays, glass bottles are recycled rather than returned for a deposit. (Paying interest is not part of the tradition.)

Irving Cliff Brewery employee Addie Lord told WLTX that the bottles will go on display next to other objects from the company’s long history. The brewery was founded in 1851, which means the seven bottles of beer were purchased about 62 years after it opened for business.

“We were ecstatic that he gave them to us. ... You know, they’re the original thing,” Lord told the station. “He’s been using most of that money on our Rip’s Purple Magic.”

That’s a signature “wheat beer infused with raspberry and blueberry,” according to the brewery’s website.

The year the bottles were made, Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated as the nation’s 28th president, stainless steel had just been invented and the world’s tallest skyscraper was the 60-story Woolworth Building in New York, according to Onthisday.com.

It’s also the first year the Internal Revenue Service began collecting income tax from Americans, the site says.

Cork and cage bottles come with a top and wire hood connected to the neck. They are often used for “bottling certain styles of beer that require a higher-than-normal carbonation level,” Northernbrewer.com reports.

This story was originally published September 17, 2021 at 7:42 AM with the headline "Man returns bottles from 1913 for deposit and 108 years of interest in Pennsylvania."