AKRO PATCHES

In basic terms, an Akro Agate patch marble is a corkscrew that didn't twist. Therefore, one may find marbles that have the same colors as many of the corkscrews but instead of spiraling from one pole to the other, there will simply be a short strip of color(s) on the base glass. They are generally considered to have been produced by error. These are rare, and are most often seen in Popeyes. Blue/yellow Popeye patches are the most common, thanks to a recent find of many thousands of them by diggers at the old factory site. Other Akro patches were purposefully made by the company; these were marketed with names assigned by Akro Agate.

Uniques are patches that have an opaque white base with a wispy brushed brown patch covering about one third of the marble, with a small space on the patch that allows the underlying white to show. The Hero is the same type of marble but lacks the space. Both of these are pre-"Freese improvement" marbles. Collectively, these two types are often known as "birds," because when viewed from one angle the patches have a shape suggestive of the breast and head of a songbird. "Grebes" have a reddish orange to orange brown patch; "brown thrashers" have a dark brownish red patch; "golden tawnies" have a yellowish orange to orangish brown patch; and "rainbows" have all the colors seen on the previous three varieties.

Royals have an opaque colored base with an opaque or translucent patch. Again, the patch covers about one third of the base. Another type, the Moss Agate, has a fluorescent milky light brownish white base with a translucent colored patch covering up to one half of the marble. Hy-Grades have a transparent blue or brown base with a patch of brushed opaque white covering about half of the surface. Finally, there is the Helmet, which has a transparent colored base with an opaque colored patch covering about half the marble, and a colored stripe on the patch. Viewed from the correct angle this marble will resemble a head with a football helmet on it, hence the name. There is strong evidence that Vitro Agate actually produced these marbles, and in fact the colors and the seams do resemble those of that company.

Other patches by Akro Agate tri-color patches that are practically indistinguishable from those of Vitro Agate, as the colors and seam patterns are the same. Perhaps the companies used similar machinery. The patches, which have an opaque milky off-white base, normally have two separate patches. Each patch begins and terminates at seams on opposite sides of the marble. Color combinations include green and red, green and yellow, red and blue, and yellow and blue. Sometimes these patches will have a fourth color, too. In other instances, one of the patches will be oxblood. The colors are always dull and on the surface, and were thus manufactured late in Akro Agate's history.

Other oxblood patches are also known, and most appear to be of larger sizes. Examples I have seen often have oxblood and a patch of one other color brushed on the surface, with a clear glass base containing a core filled with white filaments. These were probably experimental.