The Original “Popeye Patch”

[akroorka]

There have been a lot of ID questions on Popeye Patches lately so I thought that I would make a separate post on them.
The images that I show are of one of the originals, the “stinkers” that started it all.
These were bantered over a long time in an Akro vs. Vitro discussion throughout the collecting world a few decades back. 
Then, one day, during an Akro dig, a very large amount of these came out of the earth. They were all this color combo as I recall, as were the ones that were often involved in some very heated discussions before the big find.
As you can see the blue in these marbles often “bleeds” into the clear base glass. Either something went wrong during production with this type of marble, or they could have been a true “experimental run” which would explain the patch vs. corkscrew pattern (why waste energy/equipment on a test?). 
The example that I show was acquired through a purchase of “dug” Akro Agates about 20 years ago, it is an average example. These can be quite minty and well filled but most of these were out of the ground.
Now, I am not saying that other color combos do not show up as patches, of course they do, just a part of the whole production thing “stuff happens” so to speak.

Any additions/corrections to this post are more than welcomed, along with some more images.

This is just the way that I remember it.
Marble—On!!
 

[Alan]

At the New Philly show 20+ years ago, a guy said he had some Akro in his van he wanted to offer me.  In the van he opened a wood Army footlocker that was FULL of blue/yellow Popeye patches.  I have no idea how many thousands of them were in there, but it was a really, really big number.  He said the footlocker couldn't be moved (and wouldn't stand the weight of the contents if moved).  He begged me to buy some...."Name your price!" but I walked.

That was just one digger.  The total universe of dug blue/yellow Popeye patches is HUGE.  Think >15,000. and well beyond.

I think they are just errors that were dumped.  Nothing more unusual than that.

[Tommy]

Wow that's an awesome story.....thanks ..

2 hours ago, Alan said:

At the New Philly show 20+ years ago, a guy said he had some Akro in his van he wanted to offer me.  In the van he opened a wood Army footlocker that was FULL of blue/yellow Popeye patches.  I have no idea how many thousands of them were in there, but it was really, really big number.  He said the footlocker couldn't be moved (and would stand the weight of the contents if moved).  He begged me to buy some...."Name your price!" but I walked.

That was just one digger.  The total universe of dug blue/yellow Popeye patches is HUGE.  Think >15,000. and well beyond.

I think they are just errors that were dumped.  Nothing more unusual than that.