Collecting Mardi Gras Medals

Ever dream of seeing coins raining from Heaven or someone throwing money at you as they go past?

Well keep on dreaming. However, if you would like to get all the free tokens you can handle, come to the annual Mardi Gras celebration held each year in New Orleans.

The Mardi Gras is supposed to be limited to "Fat Tuesday," which is the translation of the words. In fact, the celebration includes the entire Epiphany season from 12th night to the day before the solemn Lenten season begins.

This is a carnival (Probably more like the three-ring circus from Hell that got totally out of control.) in the grand tradition as it was imported from France to New France about the time of Louis XIV, appropriately remembered by his friends to history as "The Sun King."

It was 1827 when the modern festivities began in New Orleans. If you ask some people who live in the area, it hasn’t stopped to get its breath since. The fun apparently started when a group of young Creole aristocrats borrowed their sisters’ clothes and launched a European-style parade through the city streets. People have been borrowing their sister’s clothes and then some ever since, as an excuse to party in New Orleans.

A custom arose to throw flour at those participating in the parade. As the festivities grew (or degenerated, depending on your point of view) so did the partying, the balls and things being thrown. We’re lucky this celebration didn’t start in recent years or the custom might include shooting at each other, instead of throwing tokens from the parade floats as is a current custom which all collectors can delight.

By the 1880s, local jewelers were producing tokens for the parade "krewes." Nobody can probably catalog all the many tokens that have been produced since that time to mark the event, but many of them are colorful and outlandish.

Since many of the modern tokens are produced of aluminum alloys, they are often coated in golden, purple, blue, red or other eye catching colors. Many of the modern pieces are about 1.5 inches in diameter, about the size of a half dollar. They are often dated and depict outrageous designs that all allude to the Mardi Gras culture.

Some have been made in the past of silver, paper, wood (similar to wooden nickels) and just about anything open to the imagination. Early issues tended to be heavier bronze or copper pieces, some of them given away as favors at the Mardi Gras ball to those fortunate enough to get an invitation.

Many of the modern pieces are issued specifically by a "krewe," an organized group that participates annually in the parade.

This is a very unusual area of collecting. Nobody may really know just how many Mardi Gras medals were ever produced. Who knows how many people really care. An effort to catalog what was known to be issued between 1884 and 1965 was attempted in "Carnival Panorama" by Jay Guren.

One of the more interesting aspects of collecting Mardi Gras tokens is their lack of availability on the secondary market. These tokens in general shouldn’t be worth a lot of money. After all, they are literally thrown at you during a parade. The challenge isn’t in being able to afford to buy them when encountered, but in just trying to find them for sale.

As a collector if you want to be in Fat City perhaps you should get in costume and spend Fat Tuesday in New Orleans.