Coca-Cola Headquarters Flag, ca. 1970
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GUEST:
This flag comes from Atlanta, downtown headquarters. It flew there, I know, in the early '70s. I think they got rid of it around the '80s.
APPRAISER:
How did you acquire it?
GUEST:
My father worked there doing construction, and they demoed this room that was, I guess it was the maintenance room. It had lots of shelves and doors, and it had some lockers.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
And he loaded up all this stuff, and about ten years later, I wanted to get a locker for my daughter. When I pried it open, this was sitting in there.
APPRAISER:
Wow. It's kind of like, kind of like buried treasure.
GUEST:
Ah! It's, like... (laughs) Yeah, it's a Coca-Cola flag. I didn't have a whole pole big enough to fly it, so I folded it up and shoved in my closet. It's been there ever since.
APPRAISER:
It's a great scale, and you wouldn't have had a flag this big for any other purpose besides a headquarters or a manufacturing plant. Not the kind of flag you'd see at the grocery store or your drugstore. (chuckles)
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
So look at the quality of it, it's two-piece construction, we can see here.
GUEST:
Nice.
APPRAISER:
And then this is actually sewn, individually sewn and cut out. We got image on both sides.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
And it's just a beautiful flag. Coke is one of the most iconic American brands. Also, it's probably one of the most, longest-collected brands. We see collectors back from the early days having early Coke signs, just because it's just a great image. Now, there's a lot of ways to tell the date based on how the logo changed over the years.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And this particular configuration, with the "enjoy" above, tells us it's the post-1969 and used to the present day. Size can be tricky for collectors sometimes, because too big can be too big. This could take up the whole wall. Condition's overall pretty good for a flag that was flown, even if it has a few little blemishes that could probably be fixed. So you found it in a locker, what a great find.
GUEST:
I know! It would have been standing there still, probably. (laughs)
APPRAISER:
All that said, at auction, I would conservatively estimate this at $1,500 to $2,000.
GUEST:
All right. $1,000 or $2,000, that's good.
APPRAISER:
(chuckles) It's a beauty.
GUEST:
Thank you, I appreciate it.
Appraisal Details
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