Crayon Colors

One aspect of collecting Crayola is not to collect them by package but to collect them by color. Crayola have made a lot of colors over the 100+ years they have been around. Given that just identifying and collecting their standard size round crayons is a large challenge, many collectors choose to specialize. Some collect only those that say “Crayola” on them, some only collect standard round size crayons and some collect only crayons with special effects.

John Astolfi was probably the pioneer at documenting crayon wrappers and trying to understand crayon colors. As he states in his web site: “…recently, a woman selling an early 50's 48-count was puzzled when nearly half of the crayon names in her box were nowhere to be found on Crayola's color chronology...several years ago I stood in her shoes, hence the creation of the LosT ColorS ProjecT.” John goes on to talk about wrappers, colors and other interesting oddities about our favorite crayons. Be sure to check it out, it’s a good source of information (but note that the wrapper type number has changed slightly – see bottom of this page).

John Astolfi's original "lost_color_lists" web site

Kurt Baty took John’s work one step further and compiled a comprehensive list of all the colors that have “Crayola” on the wrapper. This list, while impressively long, was exclusively for standard round crayons from the USA. There are other lists to add to his in order to understand just how big this type of collecting could get. Donna M. and Alan N. and I then expanded on Kurt’s standard Crayola color list to include all unique wrappers within all of Crayola’s brands. This is a monumental undertaking that will get updated constantly. Currently there are several thousand variations of names and wrapper designs used. Here is the link:

Crayola Wrapper Color Names List

That brings us to crayon sizes themselves. They’ve been made in a number of sizes and lengths. Here is a fairly comprehensive sampling of the various sizes (yes, many of these sizes are also available without wrapper; I simply chose to show with wrapper where a size was available by wrapper.

Standard round crayons:

Large and So Big Sizes (thicker crayons):

Hexagonal and flat side crayons:

Rating the size might be broken down into the following:

S1 – 2 inch crayons (thin) – example: Tiny Tots

S2 – 2.5 inch crayons (thin) - example: Crayola No 51

S3 – 3.5 inch crayons (regular) – example: Crayola No 8

S4 – 3.75 inch crayons (thin) – example: Crayola No 54

S5 – 4.75 inch crayons (encased) – example: Crayola Twistable Erasables

S6 – 6 inch crayons (regular) – example: Crayola No 99

S7 – 6.75 inch crayons (encased) – example: Crayola Twistables

SL1 – 2.5 inch crayons (thick) – example: Crayola No 333

SL2 – 4.25 inch crayons (thick) – example: Crayola No 80

SL3 – 5.25 inch crayons (extra thick) – example: Crayola So Big

SF1 – 4.25 inch crayons (thick) – example: Crayola Anti-Roll

SH1 – 3.5 inch crayons (regular) – example: Crayola No 8 (hex)

SH2 – 4.25 inch crayons (thick) – example: Crayola No 38 (hex)

Wrappers

Crayola’s wrappers have several types and help to identify the age of the crayon. Since crayon colors and wrappers have a different timeline than the boxes, it is more difficult to date by wrapper and color. Here is an extension to the wrapper documentation started by John, augmented by Kurt and then more by me:

Type 0 – No serpentine; rectangle around printing

Variation one (line border, with Paris)

Variation two (ornate border, without Paris)

Production Dates	1903 to 1912
Oval	None
Crayola name	All uppercase
Location	Middle of wrapper
Color name	Upper lower case, middle of wrapper
Crayon Points	Right
Other	Multiple variations of design

Type 1 – No serpentine; no rectangle

Production Dates	1912-1918
Oval	None
Crayola name	All uppercase; quotes
Location	Bottom of wrapper
Color name	None
Crayon Points	Right
Other	Trade Mark above Crayola name

Type 2 – No serpentine; no rectangle

Production Dates	1918-1928
Oval	None
Crayola name	All uppercase; large C and A, quotes
Location	Bottom of wrapper
Color name	Upper lower case, centered above brand name
Crayon Points	Right
Other	Trade Mark below color

Type 3 – Serpentine; no oval

Variation one (early serpentine - white on white serpentine)

Variation two (early serpentine - white on black with white dots)

Variation three (modern Serpentine)

Production Dates	1926 to 1933
Oval	None
Crayola name	All uppercase; larger C and A, quotes
Location	Bottom of wrapper
Color name	Upper lower case, centered above brand name
Crayon Points	Right
Other	Trade Mark below color

Type 4 – Modern Serpentine; scalloped oval

Variation one (color above oval) *note – I don’t have a pic of round ones

Variation two (color in oval)

Production Dates	1934 to 1946
Oval	Scalloped
Crayola name	All uppercase; larger C and A
Location	Bottom of wrapper
Color name	Var 1 – Upper/lower above oval, Var 2 Upper in oval
Crayon Points	Left
Other	Variation one is not available in full set of colors

Type 5 – Modern Serpentine; smooth oval, Co., Color within

Production Dates	1946 to 1955
Oval	Smooth
Crayola name	All uppercase
Location	Bottom of wrapper
Color name	Uppercase in oval
Crayon Points	Left
Other	Has “CO.” and “REG U.S. PAT. OFF.” In oval

Type 6 – Modern Serpentine; Inc, color above

Production Dates	1955 to 1976
Oval	Smooth and wider
Crayola name	All uppercase, thinner font, registered trademark symbol
Location	Bottom of wrapper
Color name	Uppercase above oval
Crayon Points	Left
Other	“MADE IN U.S.A” below oval and changed to Inc.

Type 7 – Modern Serpentine; Thin Crayola Name

Variation one (New York, NY)

Variation two (Easton, PA)

Production Dates	1976 to 1988
Oval	Smooth and more squared off
Crayola name	Upper/lower case, Thin font
Location	Bottom of wrapper
Color name	Lowercase above right of oval
Crayon Points	Left
Other	Added “CRAYON” in oval; company/location below oval, “MADE IN U.S.A.” below that

Type 8 – Modern Serpentine; Thick Crayola Name

Variation one (with Inc.)

Variation two (without Inc.)

Production Dates	1988 to 2002
Oval	Smooth and more squared off
Crayola name	Upper/lower case, Thick font
Location	Bottom of wrapper
Color name	Lowercase above right of oval
Crayon Points	Left
Other	Dropped “CRAYON” in oval; added 10 digit zip codes, added registered trademark symbol to serpentine

Type 9 – Modern Serpentine; Thick Crayola Name with swash underline

Production Dates	2002 to 2005
Oval	Smooth and more squared off
Crayola name	Upper/lower case, Thick font, swash underline with TM
Location	None – uses web address
Color name	Lowercase above right of oval
Crayon Points	Left
Other	Readded “CRAYON” in oval; dropped location for web address

Type 10 – Modern Serpentine; outline text trilingual

Production Dates	2006 to current
Oval	Tighter; only enough to fit name and trademark
Crayola name	Upper/lower case, black lettering with white same color outline as wrapper
Location	None – uses web address
Color name	Lowercase above right of oval, 3 languages (English, Spanish, French)
Crayon Points	Left
Other	Dropped the “Made in USA” and the underline below the name.