Carnival Doubloons

Mardi Gras doubloons are a niche market for silver rounds. Participating krewes in Mardi Gras parades often created throws shaped like coins in order to commemorate their involvement in a particular parade. Additionally, doubloons were a way to put the krewe's "brand" in everyone's pockets and to give more meaning to its yearly themes. The throws were typically made of aluminum and were intended to be thrown from floats in carnival parades. The first doubloons used as throws from parades of Mardi Gras Krewes date to 1960.

Doubloons were at their zenith in the 1970's and 1980's. However, by the mid-80's Mardi Gras had grown to huge proportions and with so many krewes on the streets, overproduction of krewe throws became a problem. They were routinely just left on the ground and krewes began to rethink their throws to address this reality and to keep their parades relevant. This was the beginning of the decline of the doubloon's popularity but certainly not its demise. Today most krewes still throw doubloons but production is not nearly that of the level during its heyday.

Silver doubloons are classified by doubloon collectors as "heavies". Heavies are doubloons made out of bronze, copper, silver oxide, nickel, sterling silver or other metals. They are generally of thicker gauge and often have a high-relief design and a patina applied (antiquing) and are much heavier than aluminum. These are high-end doubloons, produced in lower quantity (some as low as just a few per year) and much more expensive than aluminum doubloons. Virtually all silver doubloons were only made available to the members of the krewe and were not given at parades. As a high-end product, they tend to retain their value but don't show up in a lot of collections because of cost and limited availability. The silver doubloons listed in this category are all made with .999 Fine Silver. Since silver doubloons were commissioned by each krewe separately, little is known about the mint which produced them. Barco Mint (now New Orleans Mint) has long been the primary producer of doubloons and it's possible that many of these doubloons were produced by that mint.