The History of Milk Caps, Menko, and POGs
Milk was first transported by train in the spring of 1842. The 240-quart
shipment traveled in wooden churns for 41 miles from Chester to Piermont, then
21 miles to Manhattan by barge. To meet the growing demand of cities,
ice-packed railcars were designed for longer distances. The raw milk was
delivered by horse-drawn wagon and ladled from casks or metal milkcans. The
consistency of cream varied for each customer. Each stop on a delivery route
increased the risk of contamination.
Dairy distributors experimented with various methods to properly store and
transport a pure product. In April 1848,
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal reported that corked milk bottles had
remained preserved after eighteen months. On August 13, 1873, a milkman in
Elmira, New York, was reported to use pint and quart bottles that were
returned daily. The corked bottles were secured on racks mounted to the
milkwagon.
The first glass milk jar patent was issued to George Lester on January 29,
1878. The "Lester Milk Jar" was sealed with a screw-down clamp. In May 1879,
Echo Farm in Litchfield, Connecticut, delivered milk in tin-lid bottles
produced by Warren Glass Works. The "Warren Glass Bottle" was patented by
Louis Whiteman on March 23, 1880.
Harvey Barnhart and brother Samuel Barnhart patented a seated bottle opening
with a disposable fiber cap on September 17, 1889. "The Common Sense Milk Jar"
was marketed by the Thatcher Manufacturing Company in 1892. The first fiber
milk caps, or plugs, were soaked in paraffin wax.
The 1897 Sears Roebuck Catalogue lists two sizes of stoppers for "The
Common Sense Milk Jar." The more popular "No. 2 Cap" measures approximately
1.625 inches (42 mm). Thatcher would reproduce dairy logos using
electrotyping. Printing was free with orders of 50,000 or more.
Advancements in pasteurization and commercial refrigeration allowed bottles to
be transported longer distances. By the turn of the century, the cardboard
milk cap cover had become the industry standard. Dairies and bottlers
distributed metal picks designed to pry the seated cap.
Many variations of the disk cover were created by competitors. A pull tab
bottle cap was patented by Henry Bradley on August 11, 1908. The Bradley
design is made of two layers of glued pulpboard. A flexible thumb tab is cut
from the top layer.
On June 6, 1909, Frank L. Nichols patented a machine to cut, print, and staple
caps. The cap design includes a separate square tab attached with a wire
staple. The pull tabs were commonly made of tough red-colored fiber. The
American Dairy Supply Company of Washington, D.C., marketed "The Cap with the
Red Flap" as "The Certified Cap." Health authorities protested the name for
misleading consumers. On February 21, 1923, the "The Certified Cap" trademark
renewal was denied by the Commissioner. The decision was successfully
appealed.
The most popular stapled cap design was first patented by Charles C. Parker on
September 21, 1909. The caps were cut from a single layer of 40-point sulfite
pulpboard and soaked in paraffin wax. The U-shaped tab is reinforced with a
wire staple. The "Perfection Pull Cap" was first produced by the Hagerstown
Cap Company in Maryland. The company printed dairy logos for free on orders of
50,000 or more. Two-color prints were available in red, blue, green, purple,
black, and brown.
Variations of the "Perfection Pull Cap" were patented by Wilbert L. Smith and
Oren F. Baltzley in 1922. Smith was part owner of the Smith-Lee Company in
Oneida, and co-founder of the Smith Corona typewriter company. The new designs
included a recessed notch to allow for easier prying. The Smith design
features an extended wire staple to prevent tearing.
Thatcher bottles were used by over 80% of the largest American dairies in
1923. Thatcher Manufacturing provided dairy suppliers with 23 different milk
cap sizes.
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Milk cover games resemble the Japanese game of Kamimenko (紙めんこ).
Kami means "paper" and menko means "small face." The origins are
traced back to anaichi, a throwing game played during the Edo period.
Folded origami squares, or tato, were used as makeshift game pieces.
Doromenko and
Keshi-men
made of molded clay were popular before the introduction of stamped lead
namari menko.
Playing cards were introduced to Japan with the arrival of missionary Francis
Xavier in 1549. Tenshō Karuta were copied from
Nanban Karuta, or "southern barbarian cards" from Portugal.
Hand-painted game decks were first produced in the town of Miike during the
Tenshō era from 1573–1592. Western cards were banned by the Tokugawa shogunate
in 1648, leading to the creation of matching games and floral
hanafuda cards. Hanafuda were commonly used for gambling and the
cards were banned by Kansei Reforms in 1791.
Paper menko appeared as shōya-ken and kitsune-ken card games
produced during the late Edo period. The ken games are variations of
"rock, paper, scissors" known as kitsune (fox),
ryōshi (hunter), and shōya (headman). In 1828, botanist
Philipp Franz von Siebold returned from Japan with shōya-ken painted
on wooden cards. Early Meiji era examples are painted on layered
washi paper.
Nintendo Koppai
was founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi in Kyoto on September 23, 1889. Yamauchi
played illegal hanafuda games before restrictions were eased in 1885.
Nintendō (任天堂) is loosely translated as "leave luck to heaven."
The origin of the name is possibly related to yakuza gambling
culture. Nintendo originally produced artisan hanafuda playing cards.
The 48-card Daitōryō decks were hand-crafted from mulberry bark mixed
with clay. The images were woodblock printed on washi paper and stenciled
with natural inks.
An English paper machine was imported to Ōji by Eiichi Shibusawa in 1873,
and a mechanized mill opened on December 16, 1875. Shoshi Kaisha, later
known as Ōji Paper, began producing sulfite wood pulp in 1889. A toy
merchant in Nagoya first sold shōya-ken images on pulp paperboard
around 1892. The woodblock-printed cards were sold in two square sizes
that measure 2.5 cm and 5.5 cm.
Shōya-ken were sold as Kamimenko in Osaka around 1894. A player places menko cards are placed on the ground and an opposing player throws another
menko, winning any cards that have overturned. Children would sometimes
cut the square corners to create an octagonal shape. The first baseball
menko card is an unidentified player on a circular disk from 1897.
Rectangular menko cards appeared in Japan following the nationalization of
cigarettes in 1898.
The Japan Home Ministry banned lead from all toy manufacturing in 1900.
The shift from lead-based products and the introduction of machinery
helped the paper menko industry to flourish. Early 20th century menko
feature a variety of illustrations that include samurai, soldiers, and
sumo wrestlers. The "fox, hunter, shōya" images were gradually replaced by
"rock, paper, scissors" hand symbols.
Cigarette insert cards were introduced by New York manufacturer Thomas H.
Hall in April 1877. The San Francisco Examiner reported that local
children were playing a card-throwing game called "Crusoe" in March 1889.
Each player tosses or shoots a tobacco card, trying to land near a mark or
a wall. The closest player "picks up all the cards and flops them into the
air. All that land face uppermost belong to him if he calls 'heads' and
vice versa, and the next boy has a chance to throw whatever cards remain."
The game was played across America under various names including
"flipping," "scaling," or simply "cards." The games were commonly played
for pennies or "keepsies."
On February 7, 1903, The Evening Star reported that children in
Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia were playing "milktops." The game had
reached D.C. sometime before Christmas of 1902. Only caps printed with
dairy names were desired and some could sell for a penny each. Boys were
commonly seen following dairy wagons to ask customers for the covers.
The Evening Star wrote, "They are thrown on the ground, and those
that fall with the printed side on top win."
On February 4, 1906, The Washington Times reported that milk tops
were more popular than cigarette cards and postage stamps. Milk cap
gambling had been banned by several D.C. public schools. On February 24,
The Evening Star noted that milk and cream tops from smaller
dairies carried more value. "They toss them in the air, so that by this
game of chance they lose or win heavily."
In April 1908, it was was widely reported that ten-year-old Quentin
Roosevelt, son of President Theodore Roosevelt, had traded White House
garden roses for milk covers. The Columbus Journal wrote, "The
children have a game which they play by means of these disks, and,
moreover, certain prestige attaches to the boy who can show the longest
string of 'milk tops'."
According to legends, immigrants on Maui plantations played milk cover
games around 1923–1927. Japanese and Filipino residents referred to the
game as pachi (ぱち). Milk covas are stacked in a vertical
tower, each facing the same direction. A player throws a kini, or
slammer cap, and wins any caps that have overturned. A thumb tab can
produce a random spring element. The University of Hawai'i reported that
Maui contained ten dairies and 263 milk cows in 1928.
The kini was often made by gluing together two milk caps.
Kini is short for kinikini, a Ni'ihau name for the seeds of
Kākalaioa that means abundant. The medicinal
Guilandina bonduc is a thorny bush native to Tonga. Kākalaioa is commonly known as nickernut, nicker bean, or Hawaiian pearls. The yellow
flowers produce pods that each contain two glossy, spherical seeds
that measure roughly 15–20 mm in diameter. The hard seeds were commonly used as marble
shooters by children throughout Polynesia.
A photograph of two Los Angeles children playing milk tops was published
in the September 1931 issue of
Camera Craft: A Photographic Monthly. "Milk Tops" by Hideharu
Fukuyama won second place in the September Advanced Competition. The
composition has been compared to Christian Annunciation motifs. A gelatin
silver print is held by the Yokohama Museum of Art.
As the US prepared to enter
World War II in
1941, Roberts Dairy of Nebraska issued the first collection of Superman
milk caps for the
Roberts Superman Defense Club of America. Roberts later produced a series of twenty "Code Note" caps for the
Supermen of America
organization. Each full set of caps could be redeemed for premium prizes.
The demand for daily milk deliveries steadily declined. In 1940, about 45% of American households owned a refrigerator. By 1960, ownership had increased to over 80%. Pure-Pak cartons and plastic containers had widely
replaced glass for all milk packaging. The last two horse-drawn milkwagons
in America were retired by the Urbana Pure Milk Company in 1968.
The POG tropical juice drink was created by Mary Young Soon, a food
product consultant at Haleakala Dairy in Kahului, Maui. POG is an acronym
for passion fruit, orange, and guava. The fruit combination has been a
popular Hawaiian beverage since the 19th century. Frances "Effie" Cameron,
daughter of board member Colin Cameron, is credited for naming the drink
POG. The trademark application lists the date of first use as November 2,
1970. The POG trademark was filed on December 15, 1972, and registered on
January 22, 1974.
In August 1984, collector Vance Cannon created a milk cover exhibit for
Ali'iolani School reunions. Cannon placed a notice in the
Honolulu-Star Bulletin looking for other collectors. The reunion
committee used milk covers for older alumni to become reacquainted, and
the game had a brief revival on the islands.
The POG trademark was transferred to the Baldwin Pacific Corporation in
1986. Haleakala Dairy distributed "'Milk Cap Cover' game" caps for
Mountain Fresh Milk and POG juice in 1987. The caps were printed by
Stanpac Inc. in Smithville, Ontario. Stanpac operated "Perfection Pull
Cap" machines manufactured in the 1930s. The two-color discs and tabbed,
stapled and waxed. Each cover measures approximately 1.625 inches (42 mm),
the original "No. 2" size for Thatcher milk bottles.
The POG marketing campaign was headed by Charlie Nalepa. The Pogdlodyte
mascot, originally the Izard of POG, was created by Nalepa and a Walt
Disney designer. The surfing Poglodyte displaying a shaka sign was
trademarked by Orchards Hawaii, Inc. on July 12, 1988.
Blossom Iwalani Galbiso was a guidance teacher at Waialua Elementary
School on O'ahu. After observing an aggressive match of sham-battle,
Galbiso wanted to introduce a safe, but challenging activity. Galbiso
played milk covers as a child and she had previously seen caps being used at another
school.
In April 1991, Galbiso's daughter purchased two tubes of POG covers and
two tubes of Mountain Fresh covers from Haleakala Dairy on Maui. The caps
were used for various math lessons and classroom activities, and the old
game was immediately popular with students. According to Galbiso,
"Something magical occurred and the students were hooked."
Blossom Galbiso wrote, "Although I had introduced the game as 'milk
covers' they favored the red POG design from Haleakala Dairy and hence
renamed the game 'POGs'." In March 1992, the First Annual Milk Cap
Tournament was held at Waialua Elementary. By May, Haleakala Dairy was
selling 25,000 caps a month to customers on the North Shore. Nostalgia
from older generations helped the revival to spread. Branded caps from
nearly every school and business began appearing throughout the islands.
In April 1992, "Perfection" caps were used as promotional coupons for
the Hawaii All-Collectors Show, held July 31 to August 2, 1992. The
Honolulu Police Department and the Hawaiian Medical Services Association
issued 100,000 "Perfection" caps for the D.A.R.E. program in September
1992, later followed by an additional 300,000. Copycat disks with
unlicensed images and holographic foil began appearing from local printers, as well as California and Taiwan.
In January 1993,
SkyBox
trading card representatives took notice of the game while attending an
industry convention in Honolulu. In March, the company began marketing
DC Comics SkyCaps
with a promotional sheet for the
"Reign of the Supermen!"
story arc.
Sample packs of various SkyCaps licenses were distributed at
the 14th National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago from July
22–25, 1993. In June 1993, an estimated 8,000 people attended the Hawaiian Milkcaps Summer Slam! in Honolulu. KIKI-FM sponsored the SlamFest '93 Milk Cap Tournament during Kaneohe BayFest '93 on July 31 and August 1, 1993.
Throughout the summer of 1993, Stanpac was shipping roughly four million POG juice caps per week. Stanpac was the sole producer of "Perfection Pull Caps"
in North America. The company operated six original machines to fulfill
the continuous demand. Stanpac employees learned the game from a
videotape sent by Blossom Galbiso. Stanpac owner Steve Witt would visit
Galbiso in Waialua. Witt printed a limited collection of 2,000 Canada
and US flag caps to raise money for Waialua Elementary.
A series of Blossom Galbiso disks were commissioned by husband Frank
Galbiso in the summer of 1993. The "Mother of POGs," passed away on
December 27, 1994, at the age of 45.
POGs had already become a generic term for the disks and the game itself.
In September 1993, Armor All founder Alan Rypinski purchased the POG
copyright and trademark from Haleakala Dairy. Rypinski established The
World POG Federation (WPF) and the "old-fashioned game of the future"
exploded as a global marketing phenomenon. The Poglodyte mascot became
Pogman. In November 1994, Rypinski settled an agreement to retain
exclusive rights to the POG name.
POG The Game was distributed by Milton Bradley in 1994. POGs were
officially licensed by Canada Games, Animage in France, and Waddingtons in
the UK. An official POG measures approximately 1.625 inches (42 mm) in
diameter. The back of each official product contains the World POG
Federation logo or Milkcap Maker trademark.
POG Classics feature 60 designs printed on waxed, two-color
"Perfection" milk caps from Stanpac. Designer POG Milkcaps are
multicolor disks printed on white cardstock without thumb tabs, staples,
or wax. The official POG KINI are made of Ryton polyphenylene
sulfide, a flame-resistant and chemical-resistant thermoplastic. Each
POG KINI is mold-injected and decorated with holographic foil. The
POG Slaminator slammers are stamped into anodized aluminum disks.
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Billions of similar products were produced including Gops,
Flippos, TROVS, and Slammer Whammers. Serrated disks
known as Tazos were sold by PepsiCo and Frito-Lay in Spanish speaking
countries. McDonald's packaged McCaps inside of Happy Meals.
Nintendo Power distributed
Super Power Club Caps
with the monthly magazine. Marvel Comics produced Hero Caps
and
Todd McFarlane
sold Spawn caps as Spogz.
McDonald's, Nintendo, and Marvel would later distribute officially
licensed POGs. Other major partners included Coca-Cola, Disney, Keds,
Mattel, and Knott's Berry Farm. Official POGs were printed for the White
House Easter Egg Roll on April 17, 1995.
Comedian Steve Allen is portrayed as "Inventor of the POG" in
The Simpsons episode "'Round Springfield," aired on April 30, 1995.
Milhouse trades Bart's soul for a collection of ALF POGs in "Bart Sells
His Soul," aired on October 8, 1995. "Remember ALF? He's back, in POG
form."
Father Michael Orsi and the Diocese of Camden ordered 50,000 disks that
feature Pope John Paul II. Orsi considered trading cards to be
old-fashioned. The unlicensed "Pope POGs" were distributed to 126
different parishes in southern New Jersey. The disks promote a Catholic
Mass held at Giants Stadium on October 5, 1995. The Diocese of Camden
later distributed a series of 10,000 disks that include Pope Benedict
XVI. The second series of "Pope POGs" commemorate XX World Youth Day in
Cologne, Germany, held August 16–21, 2005.
The milk covers game received criticism from parents due to the gambling
mechanics involved. Teachers voiced concerns of the disks causing
distractions, arguments, and thefts. Games for cash and pornographic
disks were reported at a Los Angeles middle school in 1994. By 1997, the
game was banned by various schools in the US, Australia, Canada,
Germany, Iceland, Sweden, and UK.
Approximately ten billion collectible cardboard disks were sold
worldwide from 1994–1998. The POG craze had faded by the end of the
millennia, coinciding with the crash of the comic book and trading card
industries.
In January 1999, Haleakala Dairy was sold to Meadow Gold Dairies,
originally known as the Honolulu Dairyman's Association. Meadow Gold was
purchased by Hawai'i dairy farmer Bahman Sadeghi in April 2020. The
company continues to produce the POG tropical juice drink.
Funrise Toys licensed the POG brand for a brief attempt to evoke
consumer nostalgia in 2005. POGs were showcased as a '90s fad in
American Pie Trading Cards, released by The Topps Company in 2011.
POGs: The Official Mobile Game was announced as an Indiegogo
crowdfunding campaign on June 3, 2018.
The World POG Federation returned in February 2021. The brand continues
to produce official POG game pieces. Stanpac no longer produces
"Perfection" milk caps. In April 2022, The WPF began issuing POGART,
original POG designs rendered as digital
non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
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