A Mardi Gras Story

When I was a kid growing up in New Orleans ('63 - '74), I always looked forward to Mardi Gras season and the prospect of catching the myriad doubloons thrown from the floats in the various parades around town. Each year Mardi Gras Krewes would celebrate the season with a different theme. The throws the Krewe members would toss to the throngs of onlookers typically included doubloons made specifically to illustrate that year's theme.

It was imperative that we get as many doubloons as possible from each parade so that we could then go to doubloon swaps and trade the extras for those doubloons we were not able to catch, or from parades we were not able to attend. I guess this helped foster my life long interest in coins!

The typical throw doubloon was produced from 15 gauge aluminum with a diameter of 39mm (dollar sized), and nominally weighing 4.5gm. Also, typically, each Krewe would produce doubloons of various colors. This included plain aluminum and various anodized aluminum colors (gold, red, purple, copper, green, blue, etc.). These were the doubloons that made up a majority of our childhood collections.

In addition to the typical throw doubloons described above, each Krewe also was known to make special doubloons which were rarely thrown from the floats, but were more typically given out as favors to friends of the Krewe members, to attendees at the various Balls held by the Krewe before or after the parade, etc. These included doubloons made from heavier gauge aluminum, dual- or tri-colored anodized aluminum, solid brass, solid bronze, antiqued bronze, solid copper, and even 1 oz of 0.999 silver.

Despite the popularity of all the big name Krewes such as Bacchus, Rex, Endymion, Hermes, Elks, Pegasus, Zulu, etc., my favorite "parade" to attend was the one put on by none other than Pete Fountain. It was not a typical parade with floats and bands and flambeaux, but instead was a walking unit known as Pete Fountain's Half/Fast Walking Club.

Being a huge fan of Jazz even as a kid, I enjoyed watching Pete Fountain and his fellow musicians strolling down St. Charles Avenue on their way from the Garden District, thru Lee Circle, across Canal Street and into the French Quarter. My dad worked in the office building at the intersection of St. Charles and Poydras St. (the Shell building), so we would get up early on Mardi Gras Tuesday, head downtown and claim a premier spot on the office building steps overlooking the street that was soon to be alive with jazz clarinet and the colorfully costumed Half/Fast Walking Club of Pete Fountain. If luck was mine, I would manage to get one of the Copper anodized aluminum doubloon throws that the drunk band members would toss into the crowd on occasion. Copper was not a common color for doubloons at that time, so this was just another reason this was my favorite parade.

Recently I've been cataloguing all the doubloons that my two brothers and I managed to collect and save from when we were kids. While doing so, I became somewhat nostalgic and obsessed with my Pete Fountain collection of doubloons. It was a mere 4 or 5 doubloons dating from '69 thru '74, so I began researching what a complete collection of Pete Fountain doubloons would consist of. I happened upon a catalogue/checklist of doubloons compiled by Michael G. Pfefferkorn and published in the July, 2007 Missouri Journal of Numismatics. Needless to say, I am now on a quest to put together a complete collection of doubloons produced by Pete Fountain's Half/Fast Walking Club.

As I have discovered, there are numerous doubloons other than the common throw doubloon that we caught on parade day. Here is a sample of some of what I have been able to pull together (mostly from eBay).



The Half/Fast Walking Club started producing and throwing doubloons in 1966. I have a complete collection of that year's doubloons. Taking a cue from Mr. Pfefferkorn, I have decided to also start my own catalogue of the doubloons issued. Mainly because I didn't like some of the cataloguing methods employed by Pfefferkorn, but also because he has many errors (mostly typos) as well as several omissions and mistaken inclusions.

Here is a sample of my catalogue (a work in progress), showing the entry for the 1966 doubloons.







Thanks for letting me share. Laissez les bons temps rouler.

Let's see your collection of Mardi Gras doubloons!!!

 

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One challenge to putting together a catalogue of doubloons, one of several, is that no krewes publically publish which doubloons they produce. It is up to collectors to piece together a checklist/catalogue. There are several people who put out checklists and indeed Mr. Pfefferkorn relied heavily on those lists to put together his catalogue.

I guess that's just one way of saying "I have an excuse" if my catalogue has omissions/inclusions by mistake!

1969 Doubloons (0.999 Silver not shown, nor owned)...

 

Thanks for sharing. I just finished my ride with the Krew of Thoth. There are many people in the crowd holding signs “throw me doubloons”

 

We have quite a few Krewe of Thoth doubloons from '70-'75. I cannot recall specifically going to Thoth, but maybe my brothers did. Was it a West Bank parade?

 

Yes

 

I’ve picked up a few over the years that were interesting and old so mostly late ‘60s and early ‘70s

 

By sheer chance I happened across my collection just yesterday. So at least I know where it is. I'll take some shots in a few.

Always thought that Thoth was mega-cool. Had no idea it was a west bank parade. (We pronounced it "toeth" BTW) We only attended parades in town even though we lived on the west bank. Proteus was the coolest to me as a kid. Flambeaux!

 

I googled Thoth, and indeed it is an East Bank parade. Starts on Esplanade.

I always insisted on waiting for the flambeaux before leaving. Loved the smell of the flares and the dancing!

My favorite west bank parades were Choctaw and then Alla. We could walk to those parades.

 

Never photographed these before. Incredible how many krewes there were.

 

They are beautiful. I wish now I would have saved all of mine from the past. We would go every year. I live in Louisiana. I do have one that my dad had kept. I will post in a bit. Thanks for the memories. Snd today they don’t make them like they use to. Do those you have are very nice!

 

You have some old Rex doubloons. The first krewe to ever throw doubloons!

 

New Orleans was my favorite place I ever lived, and as a Navy brat I lived all over! Hawaii was probably second.

Funny doubloon story: after college I moved to NYC and within a few weeks thieves cleaned my entire apartment out of everything except for the furniture –and the doubloons. They left them on the bed. Couldn't figure out what they were, I reckon. Or they were interrupted before their "work" was done.

 

Who was second? Iris or Thoth I think? When I was a kid and collecting these avidly, my Holy Grails were 60 and 61 Rex, along with 67 Momus. From what I see here, I never scored any of them.

 

"King Cotton" float, #15 in the Rex parade that year.


A Comus float.
I never got to see Comus.





Zulu parade passes Gallier Hall.

Zulu was especially fun in the early days because their route was kept secret and you only got to see them by chance.

 

I actually have no idea. I'm guessing 1960 was Rex, and 1961 was several (at least) more. I have a '66 Poseidon. A '64 Rex.

 

One year we did happen upon Zulu...didn't manage to catch a coconut shrunken head though!

 

Did you know (and this almost defies belief) that the Louisiana state legislature passed a special dispensation excluding thrown Zulu coconuts from the injury liability law?

 

Yeah Poseidon was an early one, along with Thoth, Iris, and Zeus I think. But 65 is the oldest I believe, with the exception of Rex. I'd love to know the facts—can't find them. By '67 nearly everyone was throwing doubloons.