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History of Doubloons in Carnival

This set of Bacchus Doubloons gives you a good look at why they're so popular. The art is simply stunningly intricate at this small scale.

The History of the Mardi Gras Doubloon

    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. At the last auction held in 1978, for a 1787 Basher, the coin fetched around $ 625,000 dollars. These coins weren't throws, but they were 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.

  Designed by local artist and inventor Alvin Sharpe, now deceased,  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

H. Alvin Sharp, a New Orleans ship captain, fashioned designs, from an art form called intaglio, an engraving or incised figure in stone or other hard material in which the design is depressed below the material so that the impression yields an image in relief.

In 1959, 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. Sharp sold Rex on the idea and 83,000 were ordered.

( Photo credits: Collective Meditations by H. Alvin Sharpe) The Rex krewe captain, at the time,  wasn't sure if the rest of the members would like the new throw, so he purposely left off the date on all but a few, so any that were left could by used another year, if the throws didn't go over so well. It turned out that his fears and doubts were somewhat unfounded. Between 1960 and 1970, Rex threw 2.75 million doubloons. If you can get one without the date, it's valuable, hang on to it.

  Now it's funny, but usually where Rex or Zulu leads, it has that definite spin off effect. So, it wasn't long before the other Krewes were tossing the coins also. All conforming to the same layout. 

But that has changed well and sometimes other coins are minted, as the king's special coin, the captain's coin, lieutenant's coin, anniversaries, and other special images. Anodized coins are also thrown. These are coins that have been dipped in color. For example the krewe of Mid City in 1998 had doubloons of purple, green, gold, with the king's doubloon in blue. All told, there are somewhere between four and five thousand designs has been minted, over the years since and who knows how many million doubloons are out there now.

  The krewes have also decided to call their doubloons other names as well, to better fit the krewe's base motif.  The Pharaohs call their doubloons "Cairo Coins", and still another krewe calls their coins, "Drachma's".

This "coin" was produced in Silver by the Franklin Mint. Note the detail, the very thing which gives value.

     Doubloons will come in a different thickness as well; doubloons are 1 1/2 inches in diameter, regular size, 10 gauge, 10 gauge high relief, and 15 gauge. The New Orleans Krewe of Thoth throws a limited number of 15 gauge, 2 inch wide doubloons.

Doubloons aren't just thrown in New Orleans. They are also minted and thrown in Mobile as well. The parading mystic societies there, have been throwing the coins since the mid 1960's . The infant Mystics were the first krewe in Mobile to throw doubloons.  Many non-parading mystics have coins each year as well . 

Doubloons of real gold or silver are made as well for sale to the general public. Most often however the krewe members buy them all and begin or add to their collections. They are minted in very small quantities, and have become a favorite to be collected by krewe members and their friends.

One noted collector to a small degree is Mardi Gras official ado is Arthur Hardy. Although reports are he's not really a doubloon man. 

The collector's have had a gold mine as of late. Some special coins were minted and they were surfacing very rapidly in the last two years. 

If you should wish to start a collection, this would be a great year to start. Simply because it's the beginning of the new millennium and you can collect year by year til you come across other coins that are just as expensive.

One place where you can enquire about rare coins and the like is the Old Mint in New Orleans. There is a shop there that sells doubloons of various types. Also you can inquire about the The Cresent City Doubloon Traders, which is an organization that sets the trading trends and sometimes the local prices on some rare items that are found.

Before we end this article we must mention the role wooden nickels has played next to the doubloon. Most made each year in Texas, they are ordered for throws along with the doubloons, but from different companies. Wooden nickels are also along the score of pre-doubloon throws that came off the floats, now over thirty years ago. 

Images copyright Andrew Nash, 1998 Visit this site for a better look at these and other rare doubloons. Jules Vern Medallions site click here

  Doubloons aren't just minted by the parading mystic societies. Many non-parading mystics have coins each year. The Mobile Carnival Association and King Felix III, The Abba Temple Keystone Cops, UMS-Wright Prep School, Mobile County, and many others have coins too.

Doubloons of real gold or silver are often made in very limited quantities, collected by krewe members and their friends.

Mobile Mystic Societies' first issued doubloons

The dates for New Orleans krewes will be forthcoming soon!

    The first doubloon tossed by the Conde Cavaliers in 1978 was actually dated 1977. In addition, the back side of the coin featured the Coat of Arms of the Conde family of France. Descendents of French General Prince de Conde (whom Ft. Conde was named after), the family was asked permission to use the name by the Mystic Society, was honored and gave their blessing.

Just about the time that teachers at Henry W. Allen Elementary began bringing king cakes to school, some of us kids started showing up with an extra three-ring binder in our bookbags. This binder had absolutely nothing to do with school. It was full of plastic pages with little pockets, and the little pockets were full of doubloons. And they were the main attraction of late-winter recesses.

If you had a ten-gauge, you were somebody. Or if you had a multicolor. Or a black Zulu. Or a red Bacchus. Little shops tucked next to neighborhood drycleaners and corner groceries would even sell you a really cool doubloon, if you couldn't catch it yourself. And as surely as Ash Wednesday follows Mardi Gras, the swap meets followed the gutter scrabbling.

Something's missing from New Orleans these days. No, not Schwegmann's. Not K&B. Something far more important. Whatever happened to doubloon collecting?

To hear some local collectors tell it (over and over), the krewes' own greed did it in. Of course, it's kind of hard to characterize an excess of largesse as greed. After all, it's the krewes who are paying to have the things minted. And there's only one mint in the state, which has cornered the market by producing three-fourth of all Carnival doubloons. Adding to the expense is the fact that the colors, which are anodized, are done in Chicago because of environmental concerns, then shipped back here.

Still, some keep the faith. Rita LaGrange, president of Crescent City Doubloon Traders, says the club has more than 185 members, and at least that many non-members who come to the swaps. "We have our first swap meet of each year the day after Mardi Gras," she says. "There were a lot of people who collected in the early 70s, who either died, lost interest, or put their collections on the market." Some of those collections are spoken about in the hushed reverence of an insider stock deal. Even so, "The newer 90s doubloons are much more valuable," Legrand says, "because they minted fewer of those."

Such is the respect for local Carnival expert Arthur Hardy's collection, says one antiques source, that other dealers have instructed sellers to give him first refusal. But some may be surprised to learn that Hardy is not a doubloon man. "I decided long ago not to start a collection that I couldn't finish," he said. He does own something similar: "I have an 1892 Rex, which is a precursor of the doubloon. It's a very rare and valuable coin that I got from a dealer in Indiana."

Then there's the wooden nickel, which always maintains a slight presence along Carnival's fringes. In recent years, krewes have also moved into throws similar to doubloons: the casino-influenced poker chip, for example, or the Pog-like milk cap toy. "These fit nicely into our pages," notes the CCDT Newsletter. But it just ain't the same.

Poker chips doesn't ping against each other when you throw them. They don't catch the early morning Mardi Gras sun and reflect its golden glory on the way down. They don't ring like bells when they hit the asphalt and roll between your feet. You won't miss one if it keeps rolling down the storm sewer. And I'm sure not going to break my fingers (or someone else's) over a poker chip.

"Some clubs said no one picked them up off the streets. I don't know about you, but I pick them up," Legrand laughs. "If nobody picks them up, where do they all go after the parade?"

Well, if they aren't in my pocket, they probably went to the little kid who's crying because she didn't catch anything. A kid without a doubloon is underprivileged; a kid without a sense of Carnival tradition is a tragedy. Mardi Gras without doubloons is unthinkable. Every kid in this town deserves to have a binder, or a coffee can, or a little felt bag, full of doubloons. Doubloons are the largesse that our false kings distribute, the bribe that keeps us coming back each year. Share the wealth! Anything less is un-Orleanian.

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