# coffin weight?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffin-weight/249544
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 9, 2004, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffin-weight/249544 "2004-06-09T23:18:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2004, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffin-weight/249544/21 "2004-06-11T14:08:28Z")
Church supply catalogs still list palls; I suppose some “high-church” folks use them during the church service, but they do seem to be uncommon.
Presidents tend to wind up with heavy coffins. JKF’s weighed upward of half a ton (I can’t remember exactly - anyone have a copy of Manchester’s _Death of a President_ within reach?). His casket team nearly lost it going up the Capitol steps, which may explain why, with Reagan on Wednesday, they stopped and swapped teams halfway up the steps.
[truly obscure hijack] A few years back I played organ for the funeral service of the widow of Lt. Sam Bird, who commanded the Kennedy casket team. Probably makes me another co-conspirator in the JFK assassination. . . . [/toh]
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2004, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffin-weight/249544/22 "2004-06-11T15:10:40Z")
This is a drive-by post, as I haven’t read the rest of the thread. Dan Rather (I believe) mentioned that the coffin weighs about 740 pounds (with Reagan in it).
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### Author:  [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2004, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffin-weight/249544/23 "2004-06-11T16:24:36Z")
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#):
>
> So, the story going around that all caskets weigh exactly 21 grams at the moment of burial, that’s just urban legend?
The 21 gram figure is (if I recall correctly) the weight loss a person undergoes at death. There was the suggestion that this was the weight of the “soul”. This has all been shown to be poor science/UL/whatever.
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### Author:  [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2004, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffin-weight/249544/24 "2004-06-11T16:36:44Z")
> [@vetbridge](#):
>
> The 21 gram figure is (if I recall correctly) the weight loss a person undergoes at death. There was the suggestion that this was the weight of the “soul”. This has all been shown to be poor science/UL/whatever.
I was whooooshed, wasn’t I?
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### Author:  [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2004, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffin-weight/249544/25 "2004-06-11T21:21:35Z")
According to the article that I posted earlier, the total weight of the coffin without the body of Ronald Reagan was 396.83 pounds. I don’t have a clue as to his personal weight.
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### Author:  [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2004, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffin-weight/249544/26 "2004-06-12T04:35:11Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#):
>
> Having been a pallbearer, I can tell you that the weight of a coffin, when “loaded,” is FREAKING HEAVY.
>
> It’s extremely difficult trying to maintain decorum and solemnity when you and 5 other guys, all equally uncoordinated, are each trying to lug their share of 700 pounds (which works out to over 100 pounds each), over unequal grassy terrain, in 100+ degree central Illinois summer weather, while wearing a 3-piece suit.
Let me second this, and say I’m confused by the story **js\_africanus** told about moving a loaded coffin with two people. I was one of six young men carrying a coffin no more than 40 feet from hearse to grave, and I’m amazed to this day that we didn’t drop it.
Is it possible the casket seems a lot heavier because of the angle at which you’re holding it?
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2004, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffin-weight/249544/27 "2004-06-12T06:47:42Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I was one of six young men carrying a coffin no more than 40 feet from hearse to grave, and I’m amazed to this day that we didn’t drop it.
The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) could lift a loaded coffin under one arm! 😃
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### Author:  [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2004, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffin-weight/249544/28 "2004-06-12T15:53:42Z")
The 740 pound that Dan Rather gave minus the 396.83 pound coffin weight leaves 343.17 pounds for the weight of Ronald Reagan. That sounds a little ludicrous doesn’t it? How could the body of Ronald Reagan weigh 343.17 pounds? I assume that the 740 pounds was the total weight of the casket and the body, but it sounds a little overinflated to me.
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### Author:  [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2004, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffin-weight/249544/29 "2004-06-14T16:03:03Z")
Heard back from Batesville. While I wasn’t given a proper average weight, I was given the following:
> [@](#):
>
> The Marsellus by Batesville Masterpiece casket weighs 550 pounds empty (which is more than twice as heavy as our other wood caskets).
So, your wood casket is gonna be about 200-ish pounds. Reasonable for me to lift on my hip bone using my legs to move a short distance. Or for two people to lift even if there is a body in it. (Note that most people die without much meat on their bones.)
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### Author:  [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2004, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffin-weight/249544/30 "2004-06-14T16:13:42Z")
> [@anson2995](#):
>
> Is it possible the casket seems a lot heavier because of the angle at which you’re holding it?
Missed that question, sorry.
I’ve been wondering about that myself. When I was there we got about 220 deceased and I was involved in moving a large proportion of those, at least in some capacity. Two men lifting a casket will do it with their arms down, as you might imagine carrying any heavy thing. It is a familiar position.
The casket bearers are lifting a body, usually someone they know, which I think takes a little getting used to even if it is in a locked casket. They’re doing it in front of a crowd for a sacred ceremony that would be tragic (and, let’s be honest, comic—at their expense) if they messed up. Finally, they’re carrying the weight in a position that is unfamiliar. All while trying to coordinate with five other people with whom they probably don’t do much heavy lifting. To say that it “felt” heavy is more than reasonable; to say that it _was_ heavy as a result of nerves and inefficiency seems more than reasonable as well.
I don’t have photos of us moving caskets. You’ll just have to take my word for it that when the Batesville delivery truck showed up, we had neither the time nor the manpower to unload the semi using four or six people to a casket.
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