Steph

No problem! Not color. If you can see similarities in structure, that's the best way to go. Like if you see marbles with ribbons laid out in the same pattern. About four marbles per thread is good. Peltier Rainbos are one of the types which people sometimes can learn quickly. Here's a box of Peltier Rainbos which might help you get a feel for what the basic Rainbo patterns are. You already have one Pelt Rainbo identified. See if you can find some more of those in your group.

These two batches are Asian and modern. We often call them Imperials, because they have been found in Imperial Toy Company packaging.

I wanna say West Virginia swirl. There were a lot of companies in West Virginia making swirls, starting around 1930. Can be hard to pin down which one would have made any particular swirl. Someone else might have a guess though.

The bottom right are Marble King Rainbows -- from the late 1950's or early 1960's. I think that color combination is called a Wasp. Might be called something else too. The bottom left is a Vitro. Might be a black-line All Red but that brown band is so wide I wanna say something else. I'm blanking. Mark or someone else will know. I think it's from the 1950's, but could maybe be 1960's depending on what it turns out to be. In that view top right looks like it could be a more modern, Asian marble. I don't have a guess for the top left. More views could help.

Peltier Rainbo. A style introduced in the mid- to late-1930's, and made for many years after that.

From these views, I'll guess Vitro Agate. Maybe a 1930's version known as Tri-Lite.

Hi Kim. Hope we can help. It can take awhile for things to click. But there are a few famous types which are easier than others to recognize. If you get those down then you can work on the others by process of elimination.

Fantastic! I'm so glad you made it a reality!

That would be nice. They're there now.

oh yeah!

http://marbleconnection.com/topic/6786-mostly-pix-peltier/?p=172063

Yeah, I think we can rule out the white and black. http://marbleconnection.com/topic/11385-so-whats-the-scoop-on-peltier-rootbeer-floats/?hl=novas#entry96178

I can imagine a tiny hint of a glow in the ones in the ad. Some luster. Some grain. Maybe. But I think a lot of Aces were opaque, in spite of intentions. I hope I don't sound too much like a broken record when I say that's related to why I think/believe/suspect the Aces didn't last very long. I don't actually have confirmation that they didn't last long, but there don't seem to be all that many of them, even considering how many are likely stuck in with folks' Prize Names. I suspect they were trying to copy Peltier's Realers. But whatever their inspiration was, I don't think they were very successful in the quality control on these. There are some completely opaque ones which I think were likely from Ace runs. I think they had a hard time getting the opalescence right and gave it up earlier rather than later. But I can't prove any of that.

Yup, that sure looks like an Ace, and sure looks yellow. Nice to see.

Thanks, Winnie. Thanks, Bo. A Buttermilk is one kind of Tri-Lite. A Superior is a different kind of Tri-Lite. (link) Keep 'em coming!

I like to keep both of those ad scans around. Since I don't have the original I don't know which is closest. But both have color info I like to refer to. The clip Galen shows has the green in the Lifesaver. It's hard to see in the other scan.

Yeah, they do seem to be a challenge to photograph. Black is the most common one people recognize. Congratulations on the blue. I'm not sure about yellow. That scan might not have true color. Check out the Ace color in this scan: http://marbleconnection.com/topic/17380-akro-aces-early-1930s/ But they at least had "yellowish" ones.

Some nice moss agates there! The blue and white might not get the appreciation which blue and eggyolk gets. I sure do like it though.

I wanted one of Jess's marbles to be a big Superior. But I don't even know if Superiors came in large size. Did they? Anyone want to share some big Vitros? That could be fun.

I'm making my peace with that.

See, that's the thing. We could sort through all the ads and find the most logical explanations for all the information and get the Akro Ace and Moss Agate names completely straight ... but it wouldn't matter. Too many collectors are attached to the names like Lemonade, Cherry-Ade, Ace (for some of the less colorful Moss Agates),etc. People don't care that the actual Aces were a different kind of marble which very often look like Prize Names. The collector naming traditions are so well-established for Akro that I don't think people care that much about what Akro actually called the marbles. Akro Specials is another case. I can call them Tri-Color Agates all day long, but people like to call three-color corks Specials. We're not going to change habits by pointing out evidence that Akro used Special as a catch-all term.

Yes, there are a lot of Ades in that box. Ades is a collector name. Akro's name for Ades was Moss Agates. And there were a lot of other marbles that collectors have different names for which Akro sold as Moss Agates. The Moss Agate was the top of their line. The name Moss Agate is sort of boring to collectors now, but Akro sold a lot of interesting marbles under that name. Good chance the marbles which some call Ringers were also Moss Agates. (One color + wispy white + some clear glass + maybe some cloudy glass if you look far enough in.)

A Hot House marble. Probably posted before but hey, it's a looker.

Here's a link http://www.ebay.com/sch/10000marbles/m.html