Many years of economic hardships made the mardi gras tone down the use of the expensive doubloons and switch to a recyclable plastic beaded necklace. Then hurricane Katrina, devastated New Orleans. Much of the collectable doubloons were lost in the disaster, along with many heirloom possessions. The city has not recovered to this day.

While girls are known to do anything for mardi gras beaded necklaces, thrown from the floats in the parade, what would they have done for the much more costly doubloons? The people doing the throwing are made up of krews, or groups of people that take a whole year to prepare for the parade. The personal cost of every krew member to be part of their krews Mardi Gras float is very costly, and each member must pay for everything they throw, as well as pay for their own intricate costumes, that change every year.

What is a doubloon?

A doubloon in pirate times, is the name given to valuable coins usually made of gold. In Mardi Gras, they were made of several types of metal, some to be thrown, and some just for private collections. Both types of doubloons, are very rare and very collectable.

The author once lived in New Orleans, and took a small collection of doubloons with him, when he left. He was stunned to learn that people outside of New Orleans had never heard of doubloons, besides that of the pirate movies with Johnny Depp. With the loss of most doubloons during the hurricane Katrina disaster, their value has soared. The author, Rob Tencer wants to use his doubloon collection for fund raising, and to help recover displaced children. The authors own children were displaced when their mother left the country with them.