Markings on the bottom of Ball Perfect Mason Blue Pint Jars

I have a couple markings on the bottom of Ball Perfect Mason Blue Pint jars.
I do not think the first marking is either a 6 or 9 because they are not writtened
properly and the 2nd marking looks like s.t.. I would like to request some help
with determining these 2 markings. Thank you. Rob

 

The first one is a 6 or 9. look at it from inside the jar. The 2nd I got nothing

 

ok, then it makes sense. Thank you for the insight and information. Rob

 

I found 5 more of these Ball Perfect Mason pint jars and one of them had a 9 with a line underneath and it was inscribed on the bottom to read from the outside bottom
unlike the 6 or 9 that is pictured above. I guess they were inscribed to either be read from the outside bottom or from the inside bottom. Rob

 

They are mold marks used to id which mold they were produced in for quality control. there are thousands of different marks that were used depending on when they were made. The machines that were used had between 8 to 12 spots if my memory serves me correctly ( could be wrong) so 1-8 or 12 were used along with other markings. also higher numbers used as replacement molds when one became unusable. Ball was notorious for using molds till they couldn't be used any more.

 

Might the mark on the other one be a 5 that was wearing out, then?

 

Could be or it could be the mold engraver had a bad weekend, these were all cut by hand so who knows. Looks like there was also an X on the base and the overall sharpness of these look more like they were done on purpose.

 

I know nothing about Ball jars - but have heard that there are now reproductions/fakes being manufactured. If I were collecting Ball jars, one of the first things I'd do is a Google search such as "fake Ball jars" looking for guidelines for how to tell real from fake.
Just sayin'

 

Jar on the right is from about 1910-1923, and the other is 1923-1933. Ball blue comes from the sand that was used to manufacture them. Story is too long to bore people with details. Let's just say they ran out of that particular sand in the early 1930's and the Ball blue color went with it. We have sold probably 300 or more of them over the last 5 years, and both those look to be real.

 

Ball still has the molds. The are making jars now in them using the exact same glass formula. The only difference is a bar code label on the bottom. Once that is removed they indistinguishable from the originals.

 

There is no doubt in my mind that these are real. When my dad passed away, neither of which knew how to organize. Just caos and alot of work. Practically cleaned out the house, the three car garage along with the 2 rooms upstairs, the back building, the hay barn with a hay loft above. I found these up in the barn loft see below and they were covered in dirt, grime etc. and were up there along long time.

 

The new ones that ball makes in various colors are easy to tell from the old ones first pictured above. on the base of the new ones are small bumps all around which are there to help grip the manufacturing conveyor,(started in the 70's or 80's to speed things along) never on the old ones.

 

The new ones made in the old molds are identical to the old ones

 

Thank you for sharing that information with me very insightful and interesting.