Royal3

That's a first class Akro, Jess - congrats!

Whoa, Roaddog! What a fab find! Wanna double your money?

Every lightning strike I've ever seen (four or five) and the one I owned had a translucent, moonie-type base that the lightning colors floated in, not on. It appeared that the marble in question had a very solid base and the colored lightning strike stayed on the surface, leading me to believe it was from a different source. There are an awful lot of Chinese imports these days - and the group just posted yesterday makes a compelling argument for that first one being of similar origin. Speaking of China, I recently had an email conversation with a knowledgeable, high-end European collector who said that the lightning strikes - the big, ground pontil, original ones - may have originated from China, possibly from a game in the early 1800's. Their provenance is still unknown, which makes them even more desirable - or not. They are truly stunning in hand, though, as the base glass adds tremendous depth and an inner glow that you can only appreciate in person.

Sorry, I'm a little late to this discussion. William, can you describe what the base glass was like on that marble? It appears to be an opaque white in your pictures - is that accurate?

NOW I see it! Kitty trompe l'oeil.

From the sublime to the ridiculous; a pair and then a, well, a pair...my Siamese oddity from an Akro dig, courtesy of Roger Hardy.

Four islands just took direct hits - Barbuda, St. Bart's, St. Maarten, and Anguilla - with 185 mph winds. This will not be good. So much pain - the West and Northwest have been baking, over 100 in places like San Francisco and Portland. That just doesn't happen. And now two major hurricanes, unprecedented flooding in Texas and Louisiana, with Jose possibly warming up, too. I hope that your son stays safe, Mikie. The latest models show Irma heading right at FLA. Is he east/west/central?

For those of you who know Leroy; unfortunately he's in the hospital with pneumonia, for the second time in two months. I just happened to ask after him last week, and got a response from a Judy Johnson, his daughter, I believe. He's a good man, and I hope you'll join me in keeping him in your thoughts and prayers.

Yep, the blubloods are always fun to find. Akro seemed to love oxblood, didn't they?

Just say a prayer that this monster Irma doesn't wipe out the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and then take on Florida - 185 mph sustained winds with 220 mph gusts? This is a huge, very strong tornado - with torrential rains, 15' storm surges and 25' waves. It is the strongest storm ever in the Atlantic. The satellite imagery looks like something you see on Jupiter, not Earth. First Harvey, now this. What climate change? OMG.

Best way is to put a really strong flashlight on the black - try it on varying angles - look for the telltale blood red overlay. Strong sunlight isn't bad either. It's surprising how often Akro did it.

Maybe, that's a thought, but the Toy auction is where they've done marbles in the past when I've sold a couple. I'll try to remember to call and check. I can't imagine Brian E. couldn't find some better stuff than that with his connections.

This one is mostly oxblood - so much so that's got blowouts galore, but I love it in spite of the as-mades. It's one of the old German "Leighton' types, just over an inch, in mint shape but heavily cratered because of the glass problems. Please forgive the pic - this wasn't taken for publication, but since you asked, Mikie...

I just looked at their upcoming Toy auction for Sept. 16 & 17, 2017 - their marble offerings were almost nonexistent. I wonder what happened? That's highly unusual. This is the link - just enter 'marbles' under Category and it will bring up the listings. There are only four lots in the whole auction. http://auctions.morphyauctions.com/mobile/catalog.aspx?auctionid=288

Nice, Alan - no annealing fracturing? Andrea, that first 'Leighton' type is just drop dead gorgeous. Those are my absolute favorite marbles, and that's one of the best ones I've seen! A lot of the oxbloods from Akro, I think, tried to imitate those early ones, and some - like the ones here - made a pretty good run at it considering they were mass produced instead of single gather.

It's got a face-hugger on it! Quick! Eject it from your collection! I know JUST the place lol...

Here are the two fantasy boxes of "Flinties" that bought from Craig (spara50) after his incredible find of a crate of Akro marbles: Craig - the red ones to me look orange, or are they INTENDED to be orange? Do you have the full range of colors to show us? that would be both impressive and instructional. I wanted to set in my own mind, and for newbies on the board, the difference between moonies, flinties, opals, and fire opals; other boards have had discussions about what Akro called each of these. Opals are easy; they're what Akro called their solid color marbles. As for the others, here's the late Alan Basinet's full take on the subject: "Akro Agate Flint Moonies (referred to by many collectors simply as "moonies") are translucent white marbles composed of opalescent glass, which will glow orangish when held to a light. Flinties are also opalescent, but have colored base glass (brown, yellow, green, red, and blue, in increasing order of rarity); "Fire Opal" is Akro's name to refer to their red Flinties. Akro Agate's opalescent marbles can be distinguished by their small clear "eye," a small circular area of clear glass surrounded by the remaining cloudy matrix." Indeed, on pg. 23 of "American Machine Made Marbles" is a #1 box of Akro Flint Moonies from Hansel de Sousa's incredible collection. However, right above it are two other boxes, also from his collection, one a #0 and one also a #1, that both just say Moonies, and at least in the photos, they appear to be identical. sissydear gave us her personal experiences in a post from (ahem) another board: "...I have flinties in red that are 5/8 to an inch. I have opals the same, so size won't help. If you place the marble on a flashlight so that the light shines through it and it looks like opalescent glass, It's probably a flintie since the rules no longer say they have to have eyes. It it doesn't look opalescent, I would guess it to be an opal. Sound contradictory? When I started collecting the solid colored marbles they were called opals. Some are translucent and light passes through, some are pretty opaque. So really, I'm not much help for that. I know what mine are. New rules now, I wouldn't want to be finding them now. Edna" These were taken in cloudy conditions - in sunlight they're a lot more impressive, but hey, it's Central Ohio. Beggars can't be choosers lol.

I only met him once, at the Sea-Tac show in 2008, but it was enough to know that he had a great heart and soul. He had a special fondness for peewees - he sat on my bed and started to pick through a bunch of them that I had in a box, and I finally just made him a deal on the whole box - he was grinning from ear to ear. I'm so saddened to read this today. Rest in peace Leo.

William, you have got to be having a blast - at least I hope so! Enjoy it. Thanks for sharing your journey.

Sure do, Dani, right at the center. I went back to Alan's info and he had the rarity then ranked as brown, yellow, green, red and blue. I'm assuming white would be most common.

And I hardly noticed the yellows - I bet they are spectacular. Pics just can't do fire opals justice. I still have those fantasy boxes I got from you and they just glow.

I'm really sorry that I never appreciated Peltier marbles early on. It wasn't until the late Guy Gregg gave me a bit of an education that I developed a liking. They really are highly varied and beautiful!

Too cool, Joe! I hope your company and community appreciate what a great guy they have in their midst. Best of luck, and I hope you are able to do this for fifty more years.

The green ones are especially striking. I don't think there were any of that color - or blue ones? - in that big find you had ten years ago, were there?