All about marbles

So I went to Moon Marble today. It's a little store near here that makes, sells, EVERYTHINGs marbles.

I'd known of it for a while, it seemed like a fun place. And I realized that I have a whole bunch of grandpa Fletcher's old marbles. I bet if these people know anything about marbles, they can tell me a lot about these.

I walk in and it's really cool. Marbles floor to ceiling. You can click above and see pictures of the place. Well someone came up front to greet Sophia and I and I told her I was just stopping on from curiosity. But I also brought some marbles. She told me that Bruce is making a marble right now, I can go back and watch. When he's done he'll be able to look at my marbles.

All this morning and on the way there I was curious what he would see. Don't all marbles look alike? But sure enough he was pointing out material and saying things like, "You see this groove loops down and then there are 2 hash marks? Kinda like a baseball." (I didn't see anything that looked like a baseball)

So here's what he said:

First thing. He said they came from about the 1930s and 40s. Marbles made at the turn of the century were often clay. Often imported and often expensive. So unless Grandpa started playing marbles at my age, they probably were Uncle Glenn's or someone.

He picked out a few. I'm going to do my best to recite what he said about what.

These are Akro marbles. They were the first glass marble company in America. Starting in 1910-ish. They are the most common marble from this era. (Though marbles from this era are not common) He even had a picture of them that he copied out of a magazine from 1939. He picked out a few others and told me that they came from a factory in Illinois from the same time.

These are not marbles at all. They are 2 brands of markers used in chinese checkers and other like games. Based on the hue he guessed the manufacturer, but I don't remember.

These are the ones I bought while I was there. He told me there were no modern day marbles in the mix. All of them came from the 30s. But now that I added these cool looking ones, there is a mix. You're welcome Mom.

And this one has the best story. He pulled a black-light pen light out of his pocket. While he was fishing for it he told us that in the 30s, they used Uranium in marbles to give it this green color. His black-light will make the uranium glow if it's in there. But alas, no glow. We don't have a radioactive marble.

Finally, he told me it's a great collection. Very old. Still good condition. And when talk turned to money (he didn't want to buy them, he just wanted to inform me) I told him I wouldn't sell them. He said great. "They probably have much more sentimental value than any other value."