COLLECTING CHAMPAGNE TOPS

[Barry]

Hi. I'm collecting Champagne Tops, known in French as 'plaques de muselets' or 'capsules de Champagne'. I collect the tops from all sparkling wines, not just genuine Champagne.
(I also collect crown caps from beer, soda, etc. - but that's another story...)
I'm talking about the little metal cap that protects the champagne cork from being cut by the wires - those which are lithographed, printed, or embossed.

If anyone reading this is willing to keep champagne tops for donating to my collection, I'll be very grateful. I can also use duplicates for trading.

Thanks!

[Jerry D Mead]

Barry...Please! Pick one folder in which to place your message...don't keep repeating it in one folder after another. Most of us read all the folders when we check in and it's irritating to open one after another only to see the same message.

Thank you for participating...come back often.

[This message has been edited by Wine Curmudgeon (edited 11-02-99).]

[This message has been edited by Wine Curmudgeon (edited 11-03-99).]

[Barry]

Oops...sorry! I didn't know the etiquette of the folders. I though that people mainly visit one or two folders of their particular interest. I picked only 3 folders that seem relevant. Which one do you think I should choose for this purpose?

[Jerry D Mead]

I'd say you're probably where you should be here...or perhaps in Collectables. But trust mee, you've got it covered this time.

[This message has been edited by Wine Curmudgeon (edited 11-03-99).]

[tomstevenson]

Have you got REPERTOIRE DES PLAQUES DE MUSELETS DE CHAMPAGNE Barry? For those into stamp collecting, this is very much like a small-sized Stanley Gibbons catalogue (and if that's no longer available, it shows how long it is since I collected stamps: about 40 years!). It illustrates each cap (for Champagne only, of course) and gives you the current collector's value. My copy is the 1996 edition and therefore not current, but no Champagne cap is worth less than 50p (80 cents) and the most sought after, Pol Roger 1934 with a languette (small tongue) is worth a staggering £250 ($400!!). Mind you, if it does not have a languette it is worth only £45 ($72). Still, the last time that a full case of PR 1934 came up at auction (as far as I'm aware) was at Christie's in 1995, when it sold for £520 ($832). Even if the capsules did not possess languettes, the lucky bidder could have drunk all twelve bottles for nothing and sold the capsules for a small profit. Had they had languettes then the capsules alone were worth almost six times the value of the wine!

write to:
Claude Lambert
La Petit Journal des Collectionneurs
38 Grand Rue
51240 Aulnay l'Aitre
FRANCE
Presumably there is a fax or email address, but I don't know it. The telephone number is, however, Int+33 (326) 74.08.79