A Pepsi in a Coca-Cola bottle… Guyanese collector to put historical curiosity on auction

May 13, 2012 News

Not too many people will keep a bottle of Pepsi without opening it for 25 years.

This rare bottle of Pepsi in a Coca Cola bottle has been in the possession of Guyanese collector Rajnauth Persaud since 1987.

Rajnauth Persaud has done so. Don’t be surprised, the bottle of beverage is no ordinary one. It happens to be Pepsi bottled in a Coca Cola bottle and Persaud is convinced that it is the only one of its kind in the world.
Complete with a Pepsi crown, the beverage which was bought from a Pepsi distribution truck, is contained in a clearly marked Coca Cola bottle.
But how did this anomaly occur, especially when it concerns two extreme competitors in the beverage business? Persaud believes that it has to be one of the strangest business mistakes in the world.
He has kept the bottle, guarding it with his life ever since he purchased it in neighbouring Venezuela in 1987.
Although the cork is showing signs of aging, the beverage itself has not evaporated over the years and Persaud is challenging anyone to disprove the authenticity of his cherished possession.
“This is a family-size beverage and I don’t think that another one exists. If there is anyone with one, I would like to see it,” Persaud told this newspaper.
And given the corporate rivalry between the two giant beverage companies, Persaud is certain that should he put his prized collection on auction today, he would receive a hefty sum for the rarity.
In fact he had turned down an offer of US$5000 for his prize.
“After 25 years I am thinking of contacting the Guinness Book of World Records to verify its authenticity. I once asked Coca Cola in Venezuela to buy it but the deal fell through,” Persaud said.
“It is what you call an infringement of one of the world’s most popular soft drinks,” Persaud said.
He informed that he had been invited to have the bottle of beverage on auction at the famous Christies of London.
Persaud said that he had bought a case of Pepsi while residing in San Felix, Venezuela, and to his surprise, he found that one of the bottles was actually a Coca Cola with a Pepsi crown.
Sensing that he was on to something rather unusual, which could bring him a fortune, Persaud kept the bottle and up to today it remains in his ‘Fort Knox’.
“Being a collector, I have been keeping this bottle for the past 25 years. A lesser person might have opened it and drank it.”
So guarded is the bottle of Pepsi that Persaud has had some strange occurrences while keeping it in his possession; none more strange than an encounter he had with his wife.
“About 15 years ago, I was at a party and I called my wife and told her that I was coming home a bit late. She told me to come ‘now’.’ if you don’t come now, I will open your bottle’. You don’t have to ask, I reached home even before time,” he joked.
According to Persaud, the rare bottle of Pepsi was featured in a Venezuelan newspaper under the caption “Una Coca Cola fabricado por Pepsi”, which when translated means a Coca Cola made by Pepsi.
He also related that an archive in Atlanta, Georgia, USA had described it as a ‘historical curiosity’.
But while Persaud had previously hinted that only death will part him and his bottle of drink, he is now contemplating putting it up for sale to the highest bidder.