Milk Can Collectible, Not Valuable

* Dear Collector: Recently I purchased this 12-quart milk can with a paper label. Can you tell me if it is of any worth?

Though not as valuable as a can with a dairy marking, this Atlantic Stamping Company product can fetch as much as $30. Other dairy/milk items of interest to collectors are: train tickets (yes, milk cans needed a ticket to ride the rails), milking machines, separators and the ubiquitous milk bottle.

* Dear Collector: My son found a $2 bill that several people say is worth quite a bit of money. It is a 1953 series with red seal. What do you think?

Legal tender notes (that’s what your son has) were issued in $1, $2, $5 and $100 denominations from 1928 to 1963. With wording slightly different than current green seal bills, legal tender notes are easily recognizable by their red seal. There were eight separate series 1953 bills, each having a different value, from about $15-$45 for an uncirculated note.

* Dear Collector: My husband and I are searching for a perfect rubber “Froggy (plunk your magic twanger, Froggy),” the character that appeared with Andy Devine on the early 1950s TV program “Buster Brown Gang.” We have two, one is 5 inches tall, and the other is 9 inches tall, but both have some damage.

Making his first appearance with “milin”’ Ed McConnell, Froggy later sidekicked with Devine (who himself was a sidekick to various cowboy stars).

Rubber squeeze-toy Froggys were made as early as 1948 by Rempell, and now sell for over $300. I seem to remember Froggy as being a bit on the evil side, at least for a character on a children’s show.

* Dear Collector: I have a December 1966 Modern Screen Magazine. Is it worth anything?

Featured on the cover of that particular issue were the Lennon Sisters (where are they now?). Better you should have kept one of the many copies with Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, who were the hot topic of most movie-related magazines that year. While your copy is worth $5-$7, a Taylor/Burton cover can easily double that price.

* Dear Collector: I have a set of Coalport china I inherited from my mother that she had for as long as I can remember - 75 years. Can you tell me how old it is?

The marks you describe were used by Coalport (now part of Wedgwood) from 1891 to 1920.

* Dear Collector: In our possession is the book “The Lost Battalion” by Buck Private McCollum. Copyrighted 1937, it appears to be signed by the author. Please advise us if this book has any value.

Used to promote the VFW, “The Lost Battalion” is the true account of an American outfit cut off and surrounded by German forces in World War I.

Written in the 1920s, this book went through many printings, and is still a good read today. A signed later edition, such as yours, is worth $20 to $30.

* Dear Collector: I have a 1930s Shalimar perfume bottle.

An empty bottle (by famous glassmaker, Baccarat of France) is worth $60 to $80. Triple the price if you have the original box and perfume.