Identifying modern marbles from old marbles

[Kevin]

So I know with some marbles they can be hard to tell if they are old or modern marbles, or at least for me anyway because I don't know a lot about marbles I just collect them.

I know what some old Victorian marbles look like but other than that I wouldn't be able to tell the difference from a modern cats eye marble from an old cats eye marble.

I also collect musket balls that I find when out and about which go into my marble collection.

The only way I can tell the difference between an old marble from a new marble is from condition or how decorative it is, like with modern marbles you'd get a lot that are the same but with older ones you get more of a variety of colors and design.

 

How would you tell an old marble from a modern marble? 

[Steph]

My only answer is experience.  Takes a lot of hours to master even the cat's eye portion of the hobby.  

[I'llhavethat1]

I'd agree! a lot of research and studying goes into (what eventually becomes) experience. 

Keep your eyes peeled, there are always questions being asked, good pictures and good people on this forum that can lend some assistance.

[wvrons]

About 20 years of study. Plus handle a million or 10 million marbles. It is not easy or fast. It takes time effort and work. Warning you may also lose your hair. 

[Kevin]

I've learned a lot already, I learn pretty quickly I have a lot of marbles and I also have a lot of experience with general antiques... Its would seem like a lot of the cats eye marbles are generally worthless, however I don't collect because of what something maybe worth. I do like cats eye marbles and I think its good to have some in my collection so that I have a good variety of marbles. 

A lot of modern cat eye marbles and some milky marbles I can tell there modern as there are a lot of them and they will pretty much all look the same. The vintage cats eye marbles have a distinct look about them meaning they could be 80s or 90s and some others could be older they are the ones I like as I remember those as a child.

I've been searching ebay and I've got myself a few good lots of marbles and I bought a couple modern big 22mm marbles and some other 16mm modern marbles just because I liked the look of them. I'm going to try keep my attentions to vintage marbles for my next marble hunt.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some onion skin marbles and some other handmade Victorian marbles to add to my growing collection. 

 

 

[Kevin]

It turns out that the marbles I got from the charity shop which I thought were 80s to 90s are in fact much more older, I can't say the same about all of them that I got in the bag but most are much older and many are hand made rather than machine made which I failed to notice at first. I did pretty good with those. I'll be keeping a sharp look out for anymore in those charity shops. Its amazing what things can show up in charity shops.