Well it is a little ways away, but I thought you would enjoy. Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) is the final party before Lent. We celebrate it by rolling kegs of beer down the street to the couch we have placed on the corner to catch relatively worthless trinkets, beads, candy, decorated coconuts an my favorite doubloons. Mardi Gras doubloons were first introduced in 1964 by the Krewe of Rex founder, H. Alvin Sharp. These early doubloons were dateless because the Mr. Sharpe didn't know if the public would accept these tokens. Little did he know that doubloons would become one of Mardi Gras most treasured keepsakes. There are many collectors of doubloons, but they are not expensive by any means. Most can be had for a dollar or less. But the ones made for the Krewe members can be quite expensive due to the precious metals. Most doubloons are made out of aluminum and are dollar sized, but Krewe doubloons are made of bronze, silver and gold and are one ounce. Here are examples of bronze doubloons. These particular ones were made by the Krewe of Isis, an all female Krewe, in 1977 and 1983 and have a colorized obverse. These doubloons are never thrown, but passed to friends of a Krewe member Other aluminum doubloons are thrown to the general public by the thousands and can be quite nice in design. Here are a few examples.
I went to New Orleans for Mardi Gras around 1980 or so and returned home with a bag full of aluminum doubloons. They got lost over the course of numerous moves in the last 30 odd years. They are nifty little items. I see them for sale on eBay all the time.
I went 2 years in a row, 1976 and 1977. Got the tokens, beads, bean bags, Moon Pies and hangovers. You went where the crowd took you, the most "party fun" I ever had. One million drunks from all over the world. Nice pieces by the way.....:thumb:
I live 20 mile West of New Orleans. I never really collected doublooms but here's one of the captains doublooms from Krew of Ceaser.
My grandparents used to live near New Orleans so I'd get to go to the parades around Mardi Gras when I was a kid sometimes. Was fun to collect the doubloons! Sometimes in buying up coin collections I come across some of the older examples and sometimes come across examples that are made of silver, but I would guess those were never thrown from the parade floats!!!!
I love those bronze dubloons from the Krewe of Isis. Really nice! I remember back in '04 Krewe of Tucks did some wooden dubloons. But apart from that all I have are the cheap aluminum ones. Of course I keep any I come across because I can never bring myself to part with an interesting coin. Is there a big market (or any market at all) for these?
Wow! what great color and profiles. Any chance you know where they get these minted? I'd be interested in knowing the cost of production of dies and purchase about 500 coins.
Most Mardi Gras doubloons are designed by Blane Kern Studios, their initials are BKA (for Blane Kern Artists). They also produce most of the larger krewes floats and cups. Most of the engraving is done locally and the doubloons are minted all over the world. The Isis ones in particular were minted in West Germany. There is no huge market for these, but I have always found them interesting and have assembled a nearly complete New Orleans and Metairie collection consisting of thousands of pieces. Getting these coins minted in small numbers would be pretty expensive. Engraving will cost anywhere from $2000 to $3000 depending on amount of detail and depth of relief. Minting the pieces is relatively cheap starting at about five cents each. This cost can go way up depending on materials used.
I like these myself and have a nice collection of all the metals including the aluminum's. Lots of different designs and most are cheap.
I had no idea that there were a few of you so close. We all have to get together someday and nerd out on some coins.
I collect these and like them all. My favorite are advertising. I keep them in 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 vinyl pages and disp[lay them by krewe. Advertising pieces are in 2 x 2's with advertising tokens and medals.
