ON COLLECTING WOODEN MONEY

As regular E-Sylum readers you have been subjected to frequent Nummis Nova goings-on each month in Wayne’s Numismatic Diary. No such dinners are happening for the duration. Now we have to poke and prod each other through remote telecommunications, not nearly as fun as tossing things across the dinner table. As we wait for normalcy to return, don’t go stale on coin collecting fun, even if your usual channels of socializing, sharing, and acquiring coins from fellow collectors and dealers are festering, socially isolated, virtual, and feel pretty remote.

Friend, would you consider joining the legions of Lignadenarists, for some wholesome fun and fellowship? I mean, maybe you need to add some new wood to the woodpile to float your boat and rack your stack, if you know what I mean. Like chips off the old block, fledgling lignadenarists can “get their woody on” by assembling an awesome stack of lumbar at near face value. They say don’t take any wooden nickels but don’t listen to “them.” Sure enough, wooden money is collectible and practically grows on trees…no it really does!

The International Organization of Wooden Money Collectors (IOWMC) and official ANA club, celebrates its 56th anniversary this year. They encourage the study and enjoyment of wooden nickels, as well as dimes, quarters, dollars, $5.00 and $10.00 pieces, flats, rounds, official and semi-official emissions, commons and mavericks. Of course, this obsession with wooden money first sprouted in California (the land of big trees) in 1964. From trees to forest, these early wood enthusiasts grew to host the World’s First All Wooden Money Convention in Ohio, in 1974 with over one million pieces of wooden money heaped about the convention hall in blazing displays of lignadenarist splendor. The IOWMC holds annual meetings in association with the Central States Numismatic Society Convention in April. Life membership is for the rest of your natural life as long as you abide by the by-laws and Constitution of the IOWMC. See http://www.woodenmoney.org/ to find out what behavior is straight, plumb, and level with officially-sanctioned “woodys.” I wonder what form of currency is acceptable for payment of dues?

Don’t miss out on “Bunyan’s Chips,” the official plank of the IOWMC. Volume LV, Issue 2, from February 2020 speaks to the needs of collectors and issuers of wooden money. Wooden money issues tend to only a few hundred each, making for a lifetime of new discoveries of money quite lofty on the Universal Rarity Scale. In what other field of numismatics do collectors quickly envision not just collecting, but actually designing and stamping their own scarce and collectible tokens? Be your own mint master! “A History and Checklist of Wooden Money” by Emil Di Bella is offered for sale in this edition Bunyan’s Chips to orient those who never harvested before. Buy the book before the wood, is always a wise plan.

Here for example is a flat to pass current at one shilling or a “triple-nickel” in U.S. coin, issued in commemoration of the Tercentenary Celebration of the first silver coinage of the American Colonies (1652 – 1952) by the Cheshire County Numismatic Society of Keene New Hampshire.

Let me ask you how numismatic terms for metallic coinage change, when applied to wooden money? I’ll bet you never had to contend with the heartbreak of shrinkage, termites, or knotholes in your cents before. One wooden dime issued by Paxton Beautiful Woods proclaims: “Paxton delivers the whole dollar…NOT JUST 90 Cents!” “No shrinkage & degrade!” Of course, they refer to equalizing kiln shrinkage, that if misapplied can warp or split wooden coins over time, but you knew that. Old wood does dry out as seen on this fragile Atlanta Coin Club 25th Anniversary Five-wooden-nickel piece from 1954.

For our northern neighbors consider “Timber Talk” the official publication of the Canadian Association of Wooden Money Collectors (CAWMC). CAWMC sprouted in 1975 and features “wood of the month” for the maple leaf crowd. Woods were issued by every nook and hamlet of America in the latter 20th century, from annual county fairs to neighborhood bars. Some are denominated in cash, others in trade, and some have no redeeming qualities at all. Dealing in woods is like rediscovering the wild west with every occasion, diversion, vice/virtue, hometown establishment, roadside attraction, gotta’ have product, club event, milestone, and sometimes messages of no discernable rhyme or reason at all, conveyed in ink-stamped simplicity. Recurring themes include buffalos and native Americans, Thomas Jefferson’s bust, and the moniker “TUIT” which needs no explanation on “a round,” if you do ever get “it” going.

So, I bought a lot of 600 woods and find not too common examples such as the “Psychedelic Serpents” from the 1968 Mardi Gras, sponsored by the “Trumpers Karnival Krewe,” a Souvenir Wooden Dollar from the 1984 Los Angeles XXIII Olympiad with image of the Olympic commemorative silver dollar, an undated Powell Valley High School “Carmines” Home and Away Game Calendar, a Wintertown, Pennsylvania 1871 – 1971 Centennial piece with panoramic view of their Volunteer Fire Company station house and school house, no doubt highlights of civic pride and likely all there was to see in Wintertown, PA, and a 2nd Annual Beckstrom Reunion “so-called wooden dollar” from July 4 – 6, 1986, planned for York, PA, but counterstamped, “CANCELLED.” What heinous events must have happened at the 1st Beckstrom reunion in Pickerington Ohio in 1985 that they would issue tokens that specifically cancel the next family get-together? Inquiring minds want to know. These are just five out of hundreds of different examples, many needing further research to appreciate exactly what gems and woodchucks are hidden in this woodpile.

You may soon develop a theme to focus your collecting of woods if I may go out on a limb, such as coin club conventions, “Free Drink Tokens” that might work on your friends depending on what sort of friends you’ve got and how many drinks they’ve already had, or interesting personalities. As an example, consider the calling card of “Frankly, B. Franklin,” the “Witty, Wise and Wonderful!” “Featuring Burdette Parks as Benjamin Franklin [in a] Sparkling One-Man Performance.” I want to know more. These random chips are a perfect diversion that could appeal to the numismatic researcher in you too, to keep you engrossed for hours. Got time on your hands these days? Got a little (possibly very little) collector cash burning a hole in your pocket and no open brick and mortar coin shop to visit? Consider adding tinder to that acquisitive fire by buying a cord of wooden money from your friendly on-line retailer. Wooden nickels stack, roll, and flip to help you in decision-making, just like those awful ‘zincoln cents, but does your money promise you Smoke & Honey Beef Jerky with your next jar, a free draft in the Spinnaker Room of the Main Sail Restaurant, Free Skating at Round-A-Bout Skating, a free Coke while we fill your prescription at Von Pippins Drug Store, credit on TV & Appliance Repair, a free wallet size photo, or a free appetizer with purchase of any entree at Smokey’s Pub House? I think not. Let the chips lie where they fall.

For more information on the International Organization of Wooden Money Collectors, see:
http://www.woodenmoney.org/

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