Bavarian Cone "All Gold"

 

This month I am going to show a can that's a little bit of a mystery. I know what the can is, it's clearly a Bavarian's Old Style Beer from Bavarian Brewing in Covington, Kentucky. But the mystery is the coloring. The regular Bavarian can had red letters for the capital B in "Bavarian's" and "Beer." The other can has only gold lettering. Here they are.

So, is this a real difference or did something happen to the all-gold lettering can. I took it to a show and people looked at it and opinion was divided. I can see bits of red paint in the Bs in the all-gold can so I am almost certain it's just a discolored can and not a real variation. Bits of show up very clearly in bright direct sunlight, much less so in indoor lighting. However, the Bs in the all-gold can are shiny and not dull like the rest of the lettering. Is this from the discoloring?

So, what's the answer? It's not uncommon for can to become discolored, especially if they were can dumped from a lake bed or otherwise spent decades under water. Even cans buried in the ground can, in some cases, take on odd colors from a chemical reaction between their paint and the soil.

The best way to determine if this is a real can or not is if an indoor version shows up. It's not impossible. Several collectors have sworn there was another all-gold lettering version in a collection somewhere. So if one does show up we can compare it to mine and see if mine is real. I suspect it's not, but I'll keep my all-gold version on the shelf, just in case. Who knows, maybe the red bits I can see are the discolorization!

Here are the other sides of the cans.