TENINO IS STILL PRINTING WOODEN MONEY

For more than 20 years, Loren Ackerman has been making money the old fashioned way, by printing it himself.

At the Old Tenino Depot Museum, he uses the same 1890 Chandler & Price press that once printed the local paper.

This is the machine that saved Tenino in its darkest days.

"They were closing doors and locking things up and they had to come up with something to keep the town alive," says Ackerman.

To understand the story we have to go back 90 years to the Great Depression when Tenino's only bank ran out of money. City leaders came up with their own currency, printed on the one thing Tenino would never run out of.

Wood.

"It's very, very bendable," says Ackerman, holding a razor-thin dollar. "It can even snap if you bend it too much."

What happened next surprised everybody. Tenino's wooden dollars became collectors' items.

"That was the beauty of it," says Ackerman. "We have letters in our collection from all over the country of people requesting that wooden money."

Financial advisor Chris Hallett is one of the nation's biggest collectors today. Inside a vault he keeps most of his wooden money. His office just happens to be inside the old Tenino bank building.

"The wooden money's back in the bank almost 100 years later," laughs Hallett.

Original Tenino currency has sold for up to $4000 but the wooden dollar isn't ancient history.

"It is still used in currency today," says Hallett.

At Scotty B's 50's Style Diner you can buy a Pepsi and some wooden dollars.

"It's like buying a gift certificate for the whole town," says owner Scott Highline. "They can spend it at the gas station they can spend it at the grocery store."

To read the complete article, see:
Why Tenino is still printing wooden money (https://www.king5.com/article/entertainment/television/programs/evening/tenino-wooden-money/281-424b7e09-292c-4a51-88d5-6bbe5ec414bb)

To read an earlier E-Sylum article, see:
QUIZ ANSWER: THE NUMISMATIC SIGNIFICANCE OF TENINO, WASHINGTON (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n50a24.html)

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