No. 12 Crayola Gold Medal Crayons

I was soooo lucky to get these boxes of No. 12 Crayola Gold Medal School Crayons. I received both of these boxes from John Corb. I am super grateful. Crayola came out with 12 colors in their first lineup in 1903, but in 1910 Crayola converted the 6 and 12 Rubens boxes to Crayola Gold Medal boxes. Until this time only the 8 count crayon box was Gold Medal. I would love to get my hands on one of those. Crayola continued to make 12 count boxes and still does. They are not standard in the school section of the Crayola aisle, but can be found in specialty and educational websites and stores.

Click here to search these on ebay. Warning they are very rare crayons.

The boxes are quite different. The 1910 box is more ornate. The 1940 box is more gold and reminiscent in color to the colors used currently for Crayola boxes. The 1910 box informs the user these colors can be used "for educational color work". At that time Crayola also had the Rubens that were marketed to Artists.

The 1940 box discontinued Eng. Vermilion, Cobalt Blue, and Lt. Green and replaced them with Yellow-Green, Red-Orange and Blue Violet.

Thank you Ed Welter for providing info on these boxes so I can date these boxes.

Color Information 
Boxes: No. 12 Crayola Gold Medal School Crayons, 1910 and 1940
What's inside the box: 
1910 Box: Burnt Sienna, Black, Violet, Brown, Cobalt Blue, Blue, Green, Lt. Green, Yellow, Orange, Red, Eng. Vermilion

1940 Box:  RED, RED-ORANGE, ORANGE, YELLOW, YELLOW-GREEN, GREEN, BLUE, BLUE VIOLET, VIOLET, BLACK, BURNT SIENNA, BROWN
Where to buy: eBay

The wrappers on the 1910 crayons and the 1940 crayons are quite different. The 1910 crayons look hand stamped with different fonts, different spacing and sizes. The crayon name is capitalized, Trade  Mark is in all caps, Crayola is written with quotations markers, Binney & Smith Co. is in all caps and New York, where they were made is written in all caps.

The 1940 crayon has the signature Crayola border. It contains the same information, but the information is contained in an oval. See this post to see the whole wrapper of the 1940 crayons.

Collecting Information

These are very rare boxes and highly collectible. There are only a few known original Crayola No. 12 Gold Medal boxes out there.

Boxes: No. 12 Crayola Gold Medal School Crayons, 1910 and 1940
Other Boxes: Other years, 1919, 1928, 1932, 1935, 1938, 1946, 1950, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1966, 1970, 1979, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2012

Year: 1910, 1940

Style Numbers: none

Code Numbers: none

UPC Numbers: none

Manufacturing Location: USA
Where to buy: eBay

The back of the box explains what a crayon is because it was new at the time. It was "an artist's crayon at scholars' price." It was "permanent" and "waterproof". It "will not rub off." It "will not soil the hands or clothes." The crayons come are "made in black, white and twenty-four different colors". The sides say they are "good in any climate". Though that might be a misnomer, because I have had crayons melt in the car. The crayons are "clean, compact and convenient".  The other side of the box says there are "twelve assorted colors including brown and black".

By 1940 the crayon box did not need as much explanations. The dropped the color descriptions, permanent and waterproof and the clean, compact and convenient. 

I am so excited to have these boxes. They are such a treasure.