Amber and Brown Sea Glass

Sea glass is found in various shades of amber and brown. Ok, before I go any further, the bulk of amber sea glass in Puerto Rico did not come from Budweiser bottles! The beer bottle sources are: Heineken, Beck's, India, Medalla, Tigre and some of the familiar US brands.

India and Medalla are Puerto Rican brands. Tigre is a Puerto Rican beer which is no longer made. Heineken and Beck's were bottled in amber glass in Puerto Rico up until about fifteen years ago! Malta India, a popular sugar cane soda, also has contributed to the abundance of amber sea glass there.

Clorox, Lysol, medicines and snuff use to come in amber bottles. Judging from all of the sea glass pieces I have with Clorox embossed on them I would say a lot comes from Clorox bottles. This helps to date sea glass as Clorox came in glass from the early 1900's to the 1960's. Imagine the mess from dropping a bottle!

I have a piece with a peanut embossed on it so peanut butter jars can be added to the list. The odd piece comes from old victorian windows as I have a few pieces with victorian era window patterns on them.

There are still some mysteries I have a piece with a large "N" embossed on it, some pieces with ridged patterns and a piece with a beautiful leaf pattern and "San Juan, PR" embossed on it. At this point I do not know what these pieces are from. Sea glass embossed with patterns, letters, words and numbers are ultra rare no matter what color.

Oh - I almost forgot. Codfish liver oil was also bottled in amber glass. My mom recalls the nightly ritual of taking codfish oil before her parents tucked in her mosquito net in for the night in Puerto Rico.

Common sea glass color in Puerto Rico





Member Of The North American Sea Glass Association