It is the time of the year to give and I give you Flinties, my best research

[akroorka]

 I give you all the results of my research done on this type of marble. I hope that you all enjoy it and as always, opinions are most welcome.
Just a bunch of solid colored marbles—but wait—these are Flinties. I have seen many arguments about Flinties but very few images showing what they are. This is my best shot at showing what they are.
I have researched the heck out of these. Simple? No.--- Hard to find? Maybe.---Searched for? No.
Flinties are often described as having “fisheyes”. They may look like fisheyes when backlit but in hand they look more like little open “window” areas. These are found at the cutoffs—but not in every Flintie.
Now, with that said, Akro “solid” colored marbles were named “Opals” by the company. They were not “opalescent”, they were solid colored/opaque glass but they do show up with “eyes” or open holes at the cut-lines sometimes. Just a product of the manufacturing process, as it was with “Flinties”.
Not all Flinties have “eyes”—just a product of the manufacturing process once again—but a lot of them do show them----at the “cut-lines”, usually at both sides. If you shine a light through these “eyes” they light up, and a large, distorted, out of focus “fish eye” will reveal itself. They all need to be turned somewhat to be fully appreciated. Some Flinties just light up with opalescence but always with a “fisheye” effect.
Flinties look to be solid to the naked eye. They are in fact opalescent/translucent when back lit. The yellow is less so and the greens are almost not “opalescent” (“opalescent” meaning showing a reddish glow when backlit).
Ignore the reflections on the top of some of these that I posted, it is just reflection from a light reflector that I use.
Some of these were incredibly hard to get a focus on—my camera saw something that I could not----depth.
The white one is the only one that I have that I would call a “Flintie” They can be incredibly close to a “Moonie”. This one has “ eyes”, barely discernible. Moonies do show windows/eyes sometimes. I always thought that Moonies were more of a slag/swirl type but they do show cutoff lines and “windows” at times.
The Blue and Red ones I posted have no “eyes”.
The “ Flinties” that I have found range in size from 13/16” down to 9/16”. 
There are some other manufacturers that produced opalescent, opaque looking marbles, check the cut-lines closely; most of the others have a swirl effect to them. Flinties are more like a patch in respect to the cut-lines.
These marbles were commonly found in the Akro #200 tin in the ¾” size, (4ea) along the top/bottom edge of the insert boxes and the #150 tin in between the insert boxes, (4ea) and 11/16” along the outside right hand edge of the insert box(5ea), sometimes in multiple colors. 
The red or “brown” ones were boxed as “Flinties” in boxes marked as such. The other colors show up marketed as “Fire Opals”; I have found no evidence to suggest that they were not Flinties, just renamed for marketing purposes. I have found these “Flinties” mixed into Akro “game marbles” boxes as well, all sizes.
I cannot remark on the rarity of the various colors other than that the brown and red are more common in my world. They are all hard to find and I have backlit every “solid” or “opaque” marble that I have ever come across.
If you have anymore”eyes or “fisheyes” to post, I would love to see them.
My last Image shows the”windows” to look for, backlight these and you will see the “fisheye” that I mentioned. I wish that I could show you the “fisheye” effect that I mention. I am not capable but you will see it when you backlight them.
Marble—On!!! ----and back-light those “solids” before you toss them!!
 

[Ric]

Nice post about some pretty cool and often overlooked marbles. Here's my best attempt to capture the "Fire" . . .

[cheese]

The inside of a 3/4" flintie, dug at Akro. Shows more of what's behind that "fish eye".

 

[cheese]

A group of them that stayed together all these years, 3/4", most show eyes but not all. 

 

[cheese]

A group of marbles that I believe were the contents of a box or bag, all found together and all mint and matching. Shows one way flinties might have been purchased back then. And I have a couple HTF colors but no pics. Purple being the main one. I'll see if I can get it out and get some pics. It is dull with surface wear though.

 

[Tommy]

Great thread.........thanks Akroorka for sharing your knowledge and research 

Cool pics everyone..man I got some backlighting to do....

[akroorka]

58 minutes ago, cheese said:

The inside of a 3/4" flintie, dug at Akro. Shows more of what's behind that "fish eye".

 

Vey cool Cheese. Every picture tells a new story. Thanks!

[akroorka]

53 minutes ago, cheese said:

A group of marbles that I believe were the contents of a box or bag, all found together and all mint and matching. Shows one way flinties might have been purchased back then. And I have a couple HTF colors but no pics. Purple being the main one. I'll see if I can get it out and get some pics. It is dull with surface wear though.

 

Another great addition to the topic Cheese.

It must have been a rare box or bag because I know from experience that those yellow and white corks do not grow on trees.

Nice group! Love the blue snakes as well !

Flintie--On!!

[Dave 13]

Thank you Art for sharing your findings with us ,so many wonderful people in the marble community willing to share / teach others. thanks for sharing your pics Ric and Chuck 

[spara50]

I was fortunate enough to get a 10,000 count crate of mixed Akro Agates many years ago. Mixed in were mostly corks, but 100s of flinties, flintie style marbles, moonies, unique patches, royals and a few hundred 9/16" clear uranium glass marbles. The variety of colors in the flintie styles were amazing.

In the pics below you will see many had the dark or black 'smile' line in them instead of the typical clear point. If you look closely some have slight corks, some are patches but all in the flintie colors. The box set I made up of my favorites. Many I would not known were Akro if they didn't come out of the crate. 

 

[Chad G.]

30 minutes ago, spara50 said:

I was fortunate enough to get a 10,000 count crate of mixed Akro Agates many years ago. Mixed in were mostly corks, but 100s of flinties, flintie style marbles, moonies, unique patches, royals and a few hundred 9/16" clear uranium glass marbles. The variety of colors in the flintie styles were amazing.

In the pics below you will see many had the dark or black 'smile' line in them instead of the typical clear point. If you look closely some have slight corks, some are patches but all in the flintie colors. The box set I made up of my favorites. Many I would not known were Akro if they didn't come out of the crate. 

 

Thanks for posting the pix Craig, never in a million years would I have guessed some of those as being Akro !!

[akroorka]

This is just an excellent post Spara50. I truly appreciate it. You have unlocked a few mysteries for me.

I have the proof , that I need at least, to reassign the” Akro Crow” marbles that any hard core Akro collector is familiar with.

“Akro Crow” marbles have been sold for years. As far as I know, they were all dug. The dark part of these marbles, in some cases, does resemble a “Crow”, at least in some of the better examples. The ones that I display were more affordable.

The dark part is actually the interior of the marble, not so dark, just darker than the rest, the interior. Do not get me wrong, they are cool marbles and I purchased these just for one reason, to backlight them.

I am now convinced, as I always believed, that they are  “Brown Flinties” that just did not make the mark for the manufacturer (Akro Agate).

I back lit them and found one that did indeed display an out of focus opalescent “fisheye”. The other two that I have (they can be quite expensive) are too thick/opaque to shine any light through but they do light up with opalescence at the edges.

Thanks to Chad, for the link that provides me with this great silver background. (I really love this stuff)

And Thanks Spara50 for sharing what you have. I have Flinties that display with the open areas such as you have shown; they are just an easier ID with the little windows as described earlier. Backlight what you have and be rewarded! Flinties are cool marbles that were intended to be such and a very nice find.

Marble—On and Share on as well!!!

[Steph]

How did I miss this topic?!

 

"Fire Opal", by the way, was the winning name in the Prize Name contest.  That winning name was supposed to be what the two color opaque corks were called from then on.  But instead the weird "Prize Name" label stayed attached to the corks and "Fire Opal" got pinned on the colored flinties you mentioned. 

[William]

This is a great thread, I will be going through a few jars of "game" marbles that I had sorted aside too investigate as I knew little about Flinties. Love this info 👍