Trivia - Wooden Nickels

You know, like tokens, a lot of wooden nickels are given out at taverns, bars, and other alcoholic drink establishments. According to the Numismatist wooden nickels have been around since 1888. The depression years of the thirties saw the most numerous use of wooden nickels.

Click here for photos: http://www.wooden-nickel.net/beer/

Most wooden nickels measure 1 1/2 inches or two inches in diameter and most are two-sided. Wooden nickels up to 3 inches in diameter were used as souvenirs: (from the Wooden Nickel History Museum) "The Century of Progress" in Chicago in 1933 was the first place to use wooden money pieces as souvenirs. Several issues were made - all round. Some are the size of a silver dollar and others are about three inches in diameter. In 1934 a new use for wooden nickels was found - a combination of advertising for civic celebrations and providing souvenirs of the celebration. Binghamton NY was one of first places to embrace this concept. Wood continued to be used to enhance civic celebrations such as centennials through the mid 1930’s and really started to be cranked out in 1938 when the J. R. Rogers Company of Fostoria, Ohio obtained a copyright on their design for wooden money. While the Rogers Company had competition and the competition also issued wooden money, woods produced for Rogers continue to be the most readily found.

Just when the adage "Don’t take any Wooden Nickels!" was added to the American language is unclear, but the reasons are easy to understand. First of all, each wood had an expiration date and generally even a specific final redemption time. If you were in a possession of a handful of wooden nickels that expired at noon today and your best customer came through the door at five minutes to noon, it would be difficult to get to centennial headquarters to cash them in. Many Wooden Nickels also said they had to be unbroken, and the rectangular "Flats" were pretty fragile.
Probably the Rogers Company’s use of wooden money should be studied as one of the great marketing schemes of the 20th Century. They had the wooden pieces printed up sometime prior to the actual celebration. They then sold the woods to area merchants for face value and the merchant in turn gave the Wooden Nickels, Wooden Dimes, and Wooden Quarters to their customers in change. The woods usually carried the time, date and place of the celebration. So in effect you had paid to take home an advertisement for the event."

Many coin and exunomia clubs issue free wooden nickels on special occasions such as shows. Some issue wooden nickels yearly on their anniversaries.

Many non profit organizations use them for fund raising. www.wooden-nickel.net/scouts/ www.wooden-nickel.net/faire/ www.wooden-nickel.net/fire/ www.wooden-nickel.net/mardigras/ www.wooden-nickel.net/mason/ www.wooden-nickel.net/vfw/

"Ripley's Believe it or Not!" featured the World's Largest Wooden Nickel
in their newspaper cartoon on November 27, 2002.

The Ripley's daily cartoon is published in newspapers all across the world.

Guess what? This giant wooden nickel is on permanent display at the Wooden Nickel Museum in San Antonio, Texas. It measures 13 feet 4 inches in diameter, is 4 inches thick and weighs 2,500 pounds. This giant nickel was made by Herb Hornung This huge nickel's reverse side is changed yearly to commemorate a different non profit organization.

Here's a link that lets you view the nickels through the years 2002 - 2006: http://www.wooden-nickel.net/wlwn/
Some wooden coins are dimes, quarters, fifty cents and other denominations. There's even a Congo 5 Franc piece.

(The following info and link is provided courtesy of Joels Coins)

"A native gorilla is featured on the Congo 5 Franc coin and it is made of maple wood. The wooden coin commemorates two topics:
First is wild life protection in the Rain Forest. Increased hunting has put Congo's Gorilla population in danger.
Second, the unauthorized cutting of trees in the Rain Forest is destroying the natural living area for all forest animals. Thus this unusual coin should remind us to take better care of the resources of planet earth. The reverse of the coin features a standing lion. The coin is 40mm in diameter, has a mintage of only 2000 pieces and is the first national coin ever made out of maple wood".

To see the 5 Franc Congo Maple Wood coin click here and scroll down to photo: www.joelscoins.com/oops.htm

Clinker

 

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Clinker:
As usual, thanks for the info.
Great job.

 

Clinker,I can guess that you will be buying a Congolese wooden coin to go with your collection of Wooden Nickels.

It sounds very strange to me,how can a nickel be made out of wood,& still be called a nickel? It sounds like a misnomer to me.In this case,the U.S. 5c. coin would have to be renamed the 'Wood',because that is what it is made from.

By the way,nice article. I can guess that you will eventually have to sign up here; www.citizendium.org & put up some of your very interesting articles.

Aidan.

 

Treashunt...Thanks.

Aiden...The wooden nickel is another way to make a token (wooden token) because of it's low production cost. I don't have a "wooden Nickel" collection.

Usually a bar's/tavern's/nightclub's wooden nickel is good for one drink. Because the costs of making wooden nickels is about six cents each, if someone keeps the wooden nickel as a souvenir the establishment has just made a profit on the nickel. Also, if one gets knocked off the table, the
cleanup crew later finds the nickel and returns it to the owner. More profit!

Clinker

 

The word nickel referring to a U.S. five-cent coin is so called because it is made largely of nickel. But the five-cent nickel is not the only coin that has been made of nickel, or called a "nickel." The original "nickel" was a one-cent piece issued from 1857 to 1864; a three-cent nickel was minted from 1866 to 1883; and the now-familiar five-cent nickel (having various designs) since 1883.

 

Thanks for the trivia, an interesting example of the ways we use any old thing as 'money'.

...and the part about the wooden nickels of the 1930's having an expiration date, and that they become invalid if broken/chipped (!). Even more opportunity to make a buck.

 

I have seen a few wooden dollars as well. Inflation I guess.

 

HEY, EVERYBODY...

thanks for the comments...keep them coming....Your comments and addendums keep me going!

Clinker

 

My grandfather gave me so wooden nickels from the Bicentenial celebration of our home town that he had saved. I think these where the first 'coins' in my coin collection. 35 plus years latter I still have them and and cherrish them. I never cared if they were worth anything because they are priceless to me.

Enjoyed you post. Made me remember Gramp. Thanks

 

Nickelman

Nickelman...

A great big T H A N K Y O U! for sharing your memories which, like coins and exunomia, are a part of our history....

Clinker

 

As usual I saved to my hard drive, later delete all the answers after clinkers article, print it out in preparation of a book with no credits to Clinker. :secret: Don't tell him.
Just kidding of course. Waiting for his book.

 

Just Carl...

...I collect coins and enjoy finding not-so-well-known trivia about them and sharing that info here. Besides collecting coins I manage to write and sell a few poems, attend poetry readings in Lee, Charlotte, and Collier Counties, Florida. I have authored one book of poems Sorry Clink, no self promotion allowed There will nnot be a Coin Trivia book by me.

Clinker

 

I meant to post these several days ago but I always have trouble with the 100kb limit and just had a hard time finding time. I haven't had these out it 15+ years, thanks again for reminding me.

 

Clinker,

Picked up my first wooden nickel at my first coin show today.

Thanks always for the trivia.

Best Regards,

Darryl

 

Nickelman....
Thanks for sharing the pics on your wooden nickel accumulation..

Clinker

 

Darryl...

Two firsts! Soon you'll be able to tell us about your 100th of both: Coin Show and wooden nickel. Not necessatrily in that order....

Clinker

 

Looking forward to the day!

Thanks

Darryl

 

To USS656

Darryl...

Thank you for checking out my trivia...and commenting...

Clinker

 

Are the wooden Nickels valuable?

 

new2oldmoney:

Like coins, some are, some are not, depending on what size, who authorized, mintage numbers, and material (maple, oak ?).

Clinker = http://clinker.bravehost.com/funpage.html