Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Any Coleman Lanter Collectors Here

I have a vintage Coleman lantern "big hat" style with the green top and nickel bottom. No markings on the bottom or date. Can't find another like it on Ebay or anywhere. Just curious.
Lonnie

I didn’t know they had s lantern forum

i got a few of them that my dad collected. i never really paid them much attention. i have them hanging in my shop at camp along with a bunch of old kerosene lanterns.

Like this one?

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I have it in my Favorites.

Right above the Watchingthegrassgrowisexciting forums.

I have an old s.s. Single mantle Coleman. Only one I’ve seen.

My grandad used to have a couple of those.

Then he got the double mantle ones, and was really in high cotton.

That old single mantle one would burn all night.

Not a collector per say but I keep my eye out for the rare and vintage ones when trolling flea markets and garage sales.

I’ll tinker with the, make sure they work maybe use them a time or two in the back yard then sell them.

It is about time someone shed some light on this.

theres a probably a dog schit collecting forum out there if you look hard enough

I have my Gpas here. I still use it.

I sure like them a lot better than the propane crap.

Something about the sound when camping.

I dig the stoves too.

Did this one up to run bulbs.

papalondog,

To tell you how "out of touch" that I evidently am, I own several double-mantle lanterns & a single 1-mantle Coleman, that I pick up for "peanuts" at garage & estate sales. - I had no clue that they were "collectable".
Most people, who sell them in SATX, seem to wonder WHY I'm buying "that old junk". = In one case, I bought a 2-mantle at an Austin garage sale & as I was leaving a nice fellow told me to follow him home, as he had two that he just hadn't yet bothered to put out for the trashman. .
(I recently got 3 of them, missing the glass globes, out of a trash heap a few months ago, replaced the glasses & started using them at the creek-bank & campsite.).

I definitely do NOT like the propane-powered replacements.

NOTE: Our children's charity program here in Bexar County would like to find a THREE-BURNER Coleman gasoline camp-stove for our overnighters, IF any of our members have one that is "cluttering up the garage".
(MOST places around here won't allow campfires and/or cooking fires, due to the fire risk. but camp-stoves are OK.

yours, tex

If you turn down the fuel valve till you see the light dim just slightly your fuel will last a lot longer. When the valve is full open there is more fuel going to the mantels than they can use. I was a heater/stove design engineer at Coleman over 30 years ago and am still good friends with the engineer that designed the lanterns. The reason they came out with the two mantle lantern was to sell more fuel and mantels. They don't put out much more light than a single mantle lantern. Coleman fuel is just unleaded gas. Back then gas was leaded and the lead would plug up the generator that atomizes the gas. When unleaded fuel became the norm for cars they came out with the dual fuel lantern that would use Coleman fuel or unleaded gas which are the same thing. Fun little facts.
John

Thanks for the tips John. I have a couple of the small red single mantel ones, that I pack in Elk hunting. Not a collector though.

I have three of the Coleman 200-a models which is the red single mantle lantern along with a green double mantle green 220 model ( 1960's model
) with the case I would like to find homes for. Just don't use them any longer.

doctor_Encore,

Please check your mail.

yours, tex

Great for floundering on the Texas coast with a good SS reflector. I could never see much difference in illumination between the single or double mantel lanterns. In fact, i had a small back pack single mantel lantern that was simply amazing.

Truth^^^.

I've got several but Im not going to post pictures of them beside a shot of bourbon, spyderco folder, a royal flush, a morgan dollar

Cause that would just be fuggin GAY

I had no idea people collected these.

That one with the light bulbs is cool!

Them old cases are pretty cool.

I'm always on the look out at yard sales for them. The wife and her friends are watching out for em too for me. But they get scarfed up around here. Apparently the antique fishing lure people are also lantern hoarders too.


Yard sales around here mostly suck-ass. 99% of it is baby clothes, baby toys, ferret and fish tank crap, random piece of crap fishing poles, and general white trash junk...jars, tv that dont work, grandpa's smoke-jumper boots with rat holes gnawed into them

Is it just me or do they seem to throw more heat than light.

The case is brilliant.

Kingston,

The cases that are HARD to find (as the people who have them won't part with them) are the WWII-era MILITARY cases that are made from heavy-gauge steel & have a hole drilled in the top to fit the screw on the lantern.. - I need SIX & have been able to buy ONE.

yours, tex

You sure about that? I thought Coleman fuel (or "white gas" as my grandpa called it) was naphtha.

I have one of the red single mantle lanterns that belonged to my grandfather and one of the green double mantle lanterns that belonged to my dad. The thing I enjoy most about using them is the memories the hisssssssss invokes when they are lit up at night.

Have buddy that collects them, but he cannot light one to save his ass.

I have several, All run on regular unleaded. But with ethanol you should not store the fuel in them long term. If you do like to keep a couple around for power outages. Nonethanol boat gas with some Stabil in it or regular Coleman fuel is a good idea. Few drops of motor oil in the pump and new mantles resurrects most old lanterns, Unless someone used leaded gas. Then you need a new generator. Some are not easy to find.

My ol man has a truck load of Coleman lanterns, camp stoves and fuel heaters.. he just likes em I guess....

Jud, I have several too that were Dad’s, including a stove and one all stainless lantern. They work great camping. It’s the sound of them running that takes me back to nights deer hunting in the 70’s when I was a kid...😎

My great aunt sold Avon. When she died, I inherited an Avon Coleman Lantern cologne bottle. Kind of neat looking little doo-dad that sits on a shelf collecting dust.

The label on the bottom says "Wild Country Cologne". Haven't opened it to give an opinion on the scent....not brave enough I guess.

Wow, that is really a reach out for a 3 burner stove. I have one from my FIL but use it regularly. I converted it to run on propane. I guess I should look for a whits gas tank for it. I remember my FIL using it and pumping it up to cook. Wish I would have had the foresight to hold on to the tank but just don't remember what I di with it. Dummy me.

I don't really collect them but do accumulate them. I always thought they were cool and were cheap to find. Then a friend of mine who spends every free minutes frequenting estate and garage sales started finding them for me. Now I have a garage full including some in the cool cases shown above. A couple of the red single mantel 201s and a couple of the large brown version that I can't recall the model # of right now. Lots of the green 220s and 228s in various versions.
Although the propane versions are more convenient, I love the sound, smell and look of the older white gas versions.

Exactly like this one. Does it have any writing on the bottom? The one I have doesn't. Neat old "Sunshine of the Night"

Were his Stainless Steel like mine?

I was told they are in demand from collectors.

The single mantle lanterns throw almost as much light as double mantle ones if setting on the ground, but a double throws a wider circle when hung up above head high.

I’ve got a couple from the late 50’s or early 60’s that belonged to Dad. Nowadays I just use a big LED lantern for camping.

Cool thread. I wish I had Dad's old Coleman lanterns and cook stove.

I have one made from the 50's. Bottom globe.
Shown here in this photo of my son, its hanging off the back of the camper.

Original box too.
Still works!

This thread has brought back a lot of memories of deer seasons past lighted with a single mantel red lantern and all the meals cooked on the green two burner Coleman stove. Those were the days.............

I too believe the Coleman fuel is something akin to naphtha instead of just unleaded gasoline. Last year I finished a can of Coleman fuel I bough just after 09/11/01, and it burned like it was new; I don't believe a sixteen year-old can of gasoline would have done that. The dual-fuel stoves would be OK with unleaded gasoline if you were going to run the gas out of them real soon or dump what was left after a camping trip, but I wouldn't leave anything but Coleman fuel in one for extended periods, which seems to happen with regularity.

I bought a two-burner stove in good shape at a pawn shop for $5 because there was no resistance when I put my thumb over the hole in the pump and pumped it a few times. I knew all it needed was a few drops of oil on the pump leather, but they guy at the counter didn't - he assumed it was broke.

smarquez,

YES it is a "reach out", as "unwanted things" going to our children's charity is far better than being put out for the trashman or generally being sold for a very few dollars at a garage sale.

Many a member of this forum has sent things to help our kids, as most of them had NOTHING until they fell under the protection of our groups of volunteers.

yours, tex

By the time you ship one of the stoves it'd be cheaper to buy used on craigslist and fix it up.

They're out there and can be had for $10. Some will still work and some will need generators.

Easy fix.

My wife hated the white gas stove until she figured out how to run it.

Still working on her with the lanterns. They can be a pita sometimes.

I have two of the old green doubles one that was Dads and one from my grandfather, I did buy a single red one last year at a garage sale, that was sposed to have been from 1958. used it to trail a bow kill last season! Blood seems eaiser to see under an old lanter!

Standard light for the Amish. You can always see the unique color light from milking houses in the morning.

We used to joke about replacing the knurl on the nut on top of the lantern with "STUPID" because so many people burned their fingers when trying to loosen the nut to replace the mantels before it cooled. When you branded that on your fingers you might not do that again. :>)

I have a few I have rebuilt. They work just fine.
There is a myth I want to test about the light quality of these lamps against propane lights of the same size. Which reveals a blood trail best? White gas lamps are claimed to be the perfect light source, and I have two lanterns set up for the next night bloodtrail. Each has a reflector the same size, two mantles, just different fuel. I will try to document it in pictures when it occurs. For now, they wait.

The mantels used to be radio active but were changed to a Yttrium based compound if I remember correctly. That was in the early eightys. Maybe the old formula showed blood better?

echo the sentiments about using parents/grandparents gear. i take lantern and stove hunting for old times sake. other camping I use a propane stove, lot more BTU on the the one I have than a coleman. 20k vs 10k.

have an amber globe for summer use, keeps the bugs way down.

never saw a bottom globe lantern before, not even a picture

http://www.oldcolemanparts.com/home.php?cat=34

I grabbed a bunch of teh old school mantels here a few years ago. Supposed to be the good old schidt.

Is there a difference between a gas stove and Coleman fuel stove? My propane conversion has served us well because we are a family of 5 and generally had lots of family around when we camped.
Keep your list of wanted items coming, it sounds like a good cause.

The white gas/colman fuel stoves work fine with the propane adapter. I have several with both fuel options. It is generally harder to find colman fuel, and we usually use the propane connection, which of course does not require pumping.

I was putting on 2 coats of Henry's rubber roofing on the 5th wheel EDPM roof today.

So I pulled out the Thermos lantern, I'm told it was made in the 50's or early 60's.
Fuel on top! I'm sure after a couple of dummies tried to refuel it while the lantern was burning or hot changed the design at some point.
Anyway, this thing rocks nice and bright light! Good lantern for the table to play cribbage by!
They go for anywhere from $100 to $175 but I'd never sell mine. Dad bought this in the late 50's before I was born!

Papalondog look on the collar between the fount and the frame sometimes the date is stamped on there. If you had a pic it would help identify it and possibly date it. The one P_weed posted appears to be a 228d probably late 40s. Sportsdad60 very nice inverted protect the globe those are what we call “Nonexsistiums” meaning impossible to find. Immature you are correct Naptha. If you decide to use unleaded always empty fount flush with a small amount of Coleman fuel or similar (crown fuel from Walmart is cheaper) drain refill ith some cf and run for a few minutes to flush fuel from generator before putting it away for the season. Gas will clog a generator faster then naptha. Back to dating Lanterns early lantern with a number like 8 3 is March of 1938. If it has a number A 47 it’s first 6 months of 1947 a B is the last 6 months. On newer ones 3 83 is March of 1983.
Stoves they didn’t date stoves till around 1964 the dates can be found under the tabs of the fount, bottom of the stove, or sometime on the front by the model number.