Was this the inspiration for Coca-Cola? Incredibly rare 130-year-old Cola bottle is discovered after being bought for $5 at flea market

Jim Vergo bought the French Wine Coca bottle for $5 at a flea market

He only realised what he had bought when he found it was embossed with the name of John Pemberton, the inventor of Coca-Cola



Pemberton marketed it as 'nerve tonic' and extolled its medical qualities



An empty glass bottle bought for just $5 at a flea market turned out to be an incredibly rare 130-year-old forerunner to Coca-Cola.

Jim Vergo, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, bought the French Wine Coca bottle after it caught his eye among a heap of bric-a-brac and took it home to put in his collection.

It was only when he noticed the bottle was embossed with the name John Pemberton, the inventor of Coca-Cola, that he realised what he had just bought.

This empty glass bottle, which was bought for just $5 at a flea market, is in fact an incredibly rare 130-year-old forerunner to Coca-Cola

French Wine Coca was the brainchild of Dr Pemberton, a pharmacist who had fought in the Civil War, and was a blend of wine, alcohol and cocaine launched in the early 1880s.

Pemberton marketed it as 'nerve tonic' and extolled its astounding medical qualities, claiming it could cure morphine addiction, headaches, constipation and even impotence.

Its paper label boasted it was: 'The marvellous invigorater! The great nerve tonic! The queen of stimulants! The intellectual beverage!'

The concoction was an instant hit but with laws tightening around the use of alcohol in 1886, Dr Pemberton developed a non-alcoholic variation using the kola nut.

He named the new elixir Coca-Cola after its two main elements - cocaine and kola nut.

It wasn't until 1929 that the drink became completely free of the narcotic.

It was only when Mr Vergo noticed the bottle was embossed with the name John Pemberton, the inventor of Coca-Cola, that he realised what he had just bought

Coca-Cola went on to become the world's best selling drink. An estimated two billion glasses of Coca-Cola are now drunk worldwide every day.

After being studied by experts the bottle, now for sale for $5,000, was revealed to be the best example of only three French Wine Coca bottles known to exist because its label is still in tact.

It is the only one ever to come up at auction, and is now estimated to sell for 1,500 times the price Mr Vergo paid for it just six months ago.

Mr Vergo, a casino poker dealer and amateur antiques collector, said: 'It caught my eye and I could see that it was related to the coca plant because it had a coca leaves on the label and it said "wine coca".

'It was embossed with the name Pemberton. I'm not a big Coca-Cola collector so it wasn't until I got home that I Googled and saw that it was Dr. Pemberton, the creator of Coca-Cola.

French Wine Coca was the brainchild of Dr Pemberton, a pharmacist who had fought in the Civil War, and was a blend of wine, alcohol and cocaine launched in the early 1880s

'It sounds like it's the only one like it in the world with the label in tact. If that's the case then a Coca-Cola collector needs to own it.'

Tom Slater, director of Americana at auctioneers Heritage, said: 'The bottle, embossed with Coca-Cola creator John Pemberton's name and retaining 90 per cent of the original label, has been dated to the 1880s and is believed to be one of just three such bottles known to exist.

'This is as rare a piece of pop culture relating to the world's most beloved beverage as you are ever likely to see.

'The mostly intact original label establishes the example we are selling as being in the finest condition of the few specimens known to exist.

'Condition is nearly as important as rarity to serious collectors of antique advertising items.

'When these two qualities converge in the same item, as is the case here, interest from hobbyists increases exponentially.

'There's really no telling what something like this is potentially worth since nothing like it has ever really been up for public auction.

'We're opening the bidding at what we feel is a conservative jumping off point and we'll await the verdict of the marketplace.'