Covering the Business, Events & Fun of the  Carnival Industry

Tuesday, September 15, 2009 ........  Doubloons have been around in American almost since the beginning of our history. One of the most famous is the Basher Doubloons, of which there are a very precious few, which survive. At the last auction held in 1978, for a 1787 Basher, the coin fetched around $ 625,000 dollars. These coins weren't throws, however, but they were among the first coins minted in America

There were some coins, that are known as pre-doubloon coins. These were introduced by Rex in 1884, and honored the Cotton Centennial Expo at Audubon Park held that year. However, in 1960 Rex  introduced  the present series of doubloons as a carnival throw, in the New Orleans Mardi Gras.

Pictured:  The Queen of the 1950 New Orleans Mardi Gras was Mrs. Mary Brooks Soule', an expert painter, and doubloon designer, who worked with Mr. Sharpe, granted us an interview, and discussed the time she had with the Carnival legend. She gave us a glimpse into the professional and personal life of the Inventor of the Mardi Gras doubloon. Below are a set of Rex Doubloons that were among the original order. Note the H. A. Sharpe's signature on the bottom of Rex's image. 

Designed by local artist and inventor Alvin Sharpe, these present day aluminum coins portray the Krewe's emblem, name, and founding date on one side, and the theme (and year) of the parade and ball on the other side. But that's not he way it started

Born Henry Alvin Sharpe, in Corbin, Kentucky, in 1910, Sharpe had a good, but uneventful upbringing. Even though he never made it past the seventh grade, in formal school training, he was self educated to the basic college level. Sharpe was an extremely tall gentleman, just slightly over six (6) feet tall, and according to Mrs. Weiss , a most imposing figure. He was a most friendly man, and most people liked him a lot. In his later life, Sharpe was married, and had children, still here in Louisiana.

 When he reached the age of 20, he tried to join the Navy, but was rejected. So in1931, he decided to move to New Orleans, and worked the docks for a short stint before becoming a deck hand aboard ships based out of New Orleans. 

During one of his shore leaves around 1934, he had a chance meeting with the then, Louisiana Governor Huey P. Long at the Roosevelt Hotel bar. Somehow, he talked him self into producing artwork for some of the state buildings in Baton Rouge. After a successful start, he was asked to paint murals on the ceiling of the New Orleans Board of Trade Building, known as the Cotton Exchange, an offer he couldn't refuse.  The building still exists, and is located on Magazine & Camp St. 

In 1941, World War II broke out, and again Mr. Sharpe at the age of 31, tried again to enlist in the U.S. Navy. Again, they turned him down, according to the paperwork, for medical reasons. However, that same year, the Merchant Marines happily accepted Sharpe into their ranks, and in no time he made first mate aboard the U.S.S. Algiers. During World War II, the young Mr. Sharpe helped smuggle as many Jews out of Nazi Germany, during the final roundup and final solution as he could. Accompanying most of them to the United States to begin a new life here. According to Mrs. Soule, one of the passenger's on the boat ride to the states, was the painter Picasso, and the two had a good amount of time to talk and get to know one another. Before leaving the service, he became a ship's Captain and eventually captained another ship. One note here: A huge slice of time is still missing, and we will continue to research Mr. Sharpe's life and report on our findings in the near future.

At the end of WWII, in 1945 Sharpe's journey's to Europe, resulted in his decision to travel to Paris, France to enter art school. His innate creativity never really took to the courses in this nor the other European art schools, so he decided to follow his own artistic vision. It is then, he decided to cut his travels, and return to the Crescent City. He also had a terrific knack for inscribing words and images in metal. An art form known as Intaglio. In 1956, he decided to open an art studio in the French Quarter. There he produced paintings, sales weren't great, however, they kept him in business. His creativity had been greatly influenced during his travels, seeing archaic civilizations’ histories and cultures depicted on old medallions and coins.   

 His life resumes as he comes to love Carnival, and hears about the problem Rex has coming up with a throw the revelers would be happy with that was safe. He thought on it and remembered how history taught him about the doubloon and the role it played in civilizations. He came up with the idea to adapt the doubloon to use as a throw, as it was safe and since it was made in aluminum, could be thrown without worry! But how to get that across to Rex Captain Darwin Fenner? First, though, he had to contact the organization.

 In December 1959, Sharpe sent an urgent letter to Fenner proposing his most recent endeavor: the Mardi Gras doubloon.  Fenner’s main qualm was the safety issue of throwing metal objects into the masses. Sharp informed the Rex krewe that he had designed some attractive doubloons that could be coined in aluminum and produced inexpensively in quantities and were safe. So what better way for Sharpe to prove that his new, light, aluminum prototypes were safe than by throwing them right in Fenner’s face? And he did just that when he walked into Fenner’s office. Astonished but not injured, Fenner picked up the proof and studied it for several minutes, sat up and said "Is this it?" That started the conversation that ended in an order of 80,000 to be minted, 3,000 of which were gold anodized. Though he was still very uncertain of the doubloon’s success, Fenner ordered them to be printed without the date so the krewe could throw them the following years if any were left, and the krewe could get rid of them. 

It turned out that his fears and doubts were somewhat unfounded. Between the years of 1960 and 1970, ten years,  Rex threw 2.75 million doubloons. If you can get one without the date, it's valuable, hang on to it. That doubloon is part of the original shipment to the Rex Organization, in 1959.

He continued creating designs and producing doubloons for many years. For many krewes he created many privately-minted medals or ducals, as well as doubloons. For the United States Mint, Sharpe worked in reverse intaglio on the dye for the front of the 1967 Mississippi Sesquicentennial medal. Mr. Sharpe was a master at more than one art form and was known to be a painter, engraver, modeler, designer, intaglio cutter, and author of a book entitled, "Collective Meditations by H. Alvin Sharpe", published in hardcover on January 1, 1979.

According to Mrs. Soule', Sharpe amongst other things, was also a student of history, drawing on his love of history to come up with the doubloon. Mrs. Soule got into designing doubloons for truck parades before meeting Alvin Sharpe. He then hired her to design other doubloons for different krewes. Sharpe did Poseidon's, Rex, Comus, Momus, doubloons among others. 

Henry Alvin Sharpe died in 1982, unexpectedly. We will continue to research Mr. Sharpe, and Mrs. Mary Soule' Weiss, Queen of the New Orleans Carnival 1950, artist, painter, and a very interesting person. Keep checking this one, as the information keeps coming in!

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