# 3182d FDC - 1998 32c Celebrate the Century - 1900s: Crayola Crayons

Issue Date: February 3, 1998
City: Washington, DC
Quantity: 12,533,333
Printed By: Ashton-Potter (USA) Ltd
Printing Method: Lithographed
Perforations: 11 ½
Color: Multicolored

 

Crayons have become familiar, as well as popular, in American households during the 20th century. Shaped like short pencils, these sticks of colored wax are often a child’s first drawing tools. Children use crayons to create bright, colorful drawings.

 

Crayons are made by adding pigments to heated wax. The mixture is then poured into molds. As the mixture cools, the crayons harden, and they are wrapped individually in paper.

 

Wax crayons were used in Europe during the 1700s. They were first made in the United States in 1903 by Binney and Smith, a company located in Easton, Pennsylvania. Their first box of Crayola crayons cost five cents and included eight colors – green, yellow, orange, red, violet, blue, brown, and black. A similar package is still sold today, although there are many different color and size assortments available as well. A box of 24 crayons is actually one of the bestsellers. Newer packages have included gemtone and neon colors.

 

 With their Crayola crayons, Binney and Smith, Inc. remains the leader in the manufacturing of colored wax crayons today. In fact, the company makes over 5 million crayons in one day – which adds up to nearly 2 billion crayons a year!