Mike's Picks & Pans

Starting today, the bulk of the New Orleans Mardi Gras parades will be spreading joy and merriment through many parts of the city. Leading up to Mardi Gras (which is February 25 this year), local non-profit clubs (called “Krewes”) organize the bands and create and staff the floats that highlight the colorful and energetic festivities. Spectators lining the parade routes call out to the Krewe members riding the floats to “Throw me something!” as they pass.

Until 1960, traditional “throw” items had been things such as colorful plastic beads, candy, flowers or peanuts.

That changed when New Orleans’ second oldest Krewe — Rex, King of Carnival — started throwing doubloons: aluminum disks — often anodized in bright hues — stamped with image of the King of Carnival on one side and the organization’s seal on the other.

In 1978, I wrote an article on the history of aluminum doubloons for Kaiser Aluminum’s magazine, Alumination:

1978-11-Alumination-Article-MardiGrasAluminumDoubloons

I interviewed the 1960 Captain, who required that he remain anonymous at that time. But recent articles now mention his name: Darwin Schriever Fenner, the New Orleans stock broker who in 1942 merged his firm into Merrill Lynch (ultimately: Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc.).

Our interview was in the same dark-panelled office in which he’d asked that doubloons be hurled directly at him to see if they would hurt people when tossed from a float. They were light enough that their impact gave Mr. Fenner no pain or suffering, so he approved their use. And the rest is history, as the cliche goes.

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Darwin S. Fenner died a year after I interviewed him. Here’s a link to a biography: http://www.tulanelink.com/tulanelink/fenner_box.htm

Here’s a link to an article on the Rex doubloon’s 50th Anniversary: https://www.rexorganization.com/News/2009/the-rex-doubloon:-fifty-years

Here’s a link to this year’s Mardi Gras parade schedule: https://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/parades/

Here are some imaged of Rex doubloons over the years:

The first, the 1960 Rex Doubloon:
MardiGraDoubloons-Rex1960