bottle caps n Also bottle tops, caps, tops Philadelphia PA, NYC
The game of skelly n.
1923 Philadelphia Inquirer (PA) 24 Aug 2/5, Each was armed with a favorite supply of “pop” bottle tops, milk tops and brightly colored wooden discs, the regulation weapons of the game, which was adopted from a popular street game known as bottle-tops, jinx, Scotch and dead-box. 1961 Daily News (NY NY) 27 Aug 5/1, Two girls were playing the game [=skelly] on 48th St., just west of Ninth Ave. They shot with soda bottle caps. What did they call the game? “Bottle caps,” answered one of the girls. 1968 Newsday (Nassau ed.) (Hempstead NY) 9 Jan sec A 20/3, [Letter:] I must confess I never heard it called ‘Skelly’ before. In my neighborhood—Bayside, Queens—it was always ‘Bottlecaps.’ 1972 Daily News (NY NY) 21 Jan 5/2, The game, called “tops” by the English-speaking kids and “loady” by the Spanish-speaking ones, is played with chrome casters [appar =glides] taken from kitchen chairs. 1980 Dargan–Zeitlin City Play 81 NYC, Based on a game played with checkers . . , a new game called “skelly” (or “skelsies,” “skully,” “kilsies,” “loadsies,” “caps,” “bottle caps” or “dead man,” depending on the neighborhood) relied on bottle caps . . as playing pieces. 2007 NY Times (NY) 1 July 26/6 NYC, Skelly . . is also know as skully, skilsies, skelsies, bottle caps and dead box. 2019 Philadelphia Inquirer (PA) 29 Sept sec H 5/3, Same thing when I would play bottle tops. You would make a court on the street with chalk, then get down on the street and shoot these bottle tops around these different boxes.