A/B/C

[allcans]

A

• ABA - American Breweriana Association. The 2d largest breweriana collector's group, the ABA publishes a very nice magazine every other month.
  
• Airfilled - A can that never held any beverage but still has both its top and bottom lids. It may have been created as a sample by a brewery or a can company. These sometimes have added interest for collectors if there is some indication that the can was meant as part of a display. Air filled cans are usually not worth extra to most collectors and are sometimes worth less.
  
• Alu bottle - bottle made of a aluminum. In some countries, it is also referred to as a bottlecan. Most of these have a crown cap top, except alubottles from japan that have a screw top.
  

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B

• Bank top -A can made with a slot in the lid for coins. Usually produced by a brewery or a can company as a souvenir. To most collectors they do not have an added value over a can used to actually hold a beverage
  
• BCCA - Brewery Collectibles Clubs of American. Founded in 1970 as the Beer Can Collectors of America. The BCCA is the largest of the breweriana collectors clubs with almost 4,000 members.
  
• BCU - abbreviation for beer can unlimited.
  
• Beer Can Collector's Bible - Written by Jack Martells and published in 1976, the Bible has photos of both flattops and pull tabs from the United States. It does not list cans larger than 12 oz. It does not give values to cans but it does give reference numbers, indicates approximately when a can first appeared, and has lots of interesting information on dating cans, different types of cans, etc. Still useful for the novice collector!
  
• Beer Can Flats - a sheet of beer cans that were never cut and rolled into individual cans. May also refer to a single unrolled can.
  
• Beer can unlimited - Published in the late 1970s and early 1980s by Maverick Publishing in Missouri. An early attempt to give monetary values to beer cans. Its reference numbers are still commonly used to indicate a specific can. For example, BCU 32-2 would be the 2d can on page 32.
  
• Bible - See Beer Can Collector's Bible.
  
• Bottle can - See alu bottle
  
• Bottom opened - Can is made empty by making 2 holes in the bottom. This is done, so the can will look like it is still full, when on display.
  
• Breweriana - Any collectable related to brewing or beer including cans, bottles, labels, signs, trays, openers, stationary, etc.
  
• Button top - an attempt to replace the pull tab, which separated a piece of the top of the can when pulled, with round, hinged piece the consumer pushed into the can to open. Used most commonly in the 1970s. Coors beer used them first but ran into a lot of complaints from customers that it was hard to press open the little button holes. They are NOT more valuable than cans with normal pull tabs.
  

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C

• Camouflage Can - A can produced in olive green for the U.S. military from 1944-45. It used to be thought that the cans were colored olive green as camouflage, but it is now generally believed that they were painted green simply because the US Army had almost everything it purchased painted that color. Most camouflage cans are rare and are highly desirable to collectors. Many were shipped to troops overseas and so can not be found in the US easily. Also known as Olive drab cans (OD cans)
  
• Can in a Can - When you find a can in a dump that had been placed inside another, larger can before being thrown out. Cans in a can are usually in much better shape that normally you find in a dump.
  
• Canvention - Annual meeting of the BCCA, where members and nob-members can talk about breweriana and exchange breweriana.
  
• Chapter - a device invented with the beer can which was used to punch holes in the can's lid in order to pour out the can's contents. The derivation of the term is uncertain.
  
• Churchkey - Tool used to open the early flat top cans.
  
• Cone top - a type of can with a spout on its top, produced from 1935 until about 1960, although it was most common in the 1930s and 1940s. Conetops were originally marketed as being acceptable to consumers because they closely resembled the already familiar beer bottle. Conetops went out of vogue in part because they could not be filled as fast on the brewery production line as flat top cans, they did not stack easily in refrigerators, and because as time passed. consumers became used to drinking beer from a can which negated the conetops advantage in looking like a bottle. There were several types of conetops; j-spouts, low profile, high profile and crowntainers
  
• Crimped steel - a can, most commonly produced in the 1970s and 1980s, made of three pieces with the can's body indented slightly to fit into the lid and into the bottom piece.
  
• Crown cap top - Top used on most alubottles, where you have to remove the cap with a bottle opener.
  
• Crowntainer - a conetop produced by the Crown, Cork and Seal Company from 1940 until the mid 1950s. They were most commonly used by eastern and midwestern brewers.
  
• CS - abbreviation for crimped steel