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ITEM 048: bicentennial Seven-Up cans
Found on: 6/18/15
Materials: steel, ink
Damage/wear: some cans dented, small amount of rust
Provenance: can manufactured at Continental Can Company between 20th and 22nd St., San Francisco, CA / bottled at 100 Rickard St., San Francisco, CA
Factory details: Cans in the Seven-Up bicentennial series came from numerous cities and were produced by the American Can Company (aluminum cans), Crown, Cork & Steel (steel cans), and Continental Canning Company (steel cans). The cans that were made by the Continental Canning Company are identifiable by the narrow seam down the side. Unlike contemporary aluminum cans, which are made from two pieces of aluminum (the body and the top), steel soda cans are made from three pieces: one steel piece wrapped around and sealed to itself, a top aluminum piece, and a bottom aluminum piece. This process leaves a visible seam.
In this case, likely because the collector was local and bought all of the cans here, all of the cans were manufactured by the Continental Canning Company in San Francisco. The plant was in a large brick building on Third St., in a (currently less and less) industrial area of the city. (Note: this building is adjacent to archivist’s grad school and archivist once went inside for the filming of a fellow student’s art film starring a teenage mountain lion.) The company left behind asbestos, but the building is now occupied by business and artistic institutions.
The cans were then filled at the Seven-Up Bottling Company, (at the time) at 100 Rickard St. in San Francisco (archivist drives past/over this address on the freeway each day on the way to the Bureau of Suspended Objects). The bottling company subsequently moved to 1590 Yosemite Ave. – now a space for small businesses and startups – and was for some time the only bottling company left in San Francisco before it too moved out. Seven-Up is currently owned by the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.
Date or date range: 1976
Still in production: no
Rare: no
Still attainable from: eBay
Value: $30-80 for complete set
Use: These cans of Seven-Up (marketed in the 70s as “The Uncola”) were produced on the occasion of the US bicentennial. There were 50 can designs, one for each state, with the year of statehood on the front and a seemingly mysterious pattern made of little “7up”s on the back. Each can also had a number, and can #1 (pictured above) contained instructions for stacking the cans into a pyramid. If done correctly, the back sides of the can showed a larger image of Uncle Sam pointing, with the Seven-Up logo in the bottom corner and a can reading “United We Stand” at the very top. Whoever owned these cans collected 35 different states. These cans also exhibit an older tab design: the pull tab, which was designed to come off completely.