The largest privately owned Coca-Cola memorabilia collection is ready to find new owners. Jan Schmidt and her late husband Bill dedicated many years to collecting numerous items for their collection and they even managed to open their own museum, called the Schmidt Museum of Coca-Cola Memorabilia. Since Tuesday however, the museum has closed its doors and the 80,000-items collection will soon become available for the public.
Rare posters, serving trays, bottles, lighted signs, Santa icons, colorful jewelry and even vintage delivery trucks will be sold in a series of auctions and are actually expected to create a bidding war. Many Coca-Cola enthusiasts, art lovers and antique collectors will be fighting for the valuable objects. The entire collection is worth some $10 million.
The Schmidts started collecting all these items in 1972, but many of them are much older than that. Take for instance the 1895 bright-yellow poster that reads “Drink Coca Cola. Delicious. Refreshing. Cures Headache. Relieves Exhaustion. At Soda Fountains 5 cents”. Because it is the only one of its kind to have survived over 100 years, the piece is worth $30,000. The gallery below will give you an idea of what the famous collection contains.
