The Wooden Nickel

The first time I remember receiving a wooden nickel was at the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas. Visitors to the brewery exchange these tokens for the beer samples in their hospitality room at the end of the tour. As I held the wooden nickels in my hand, I wondered who makes these wooden nickels. With a little research via cell phone/internet, Suzanne discovered that there was a wooden nickel factory and museum in San Antonio.

You guessed it! We finished our beer in Shiner, hopped in the car and headed west. San Antonio here we come. The Wooden Nickel Historical Museum was in our sights! Along the way, we talked about wooden nickels. The phrase “Don’t take any wooden nickels” can refer to being careful and safe or to ensuring that one is cautious in your financial dealings. Either way, unless your wooden nickel says Shiner Beer on it, you should be cautious in accepting it.

Lucky for us, our GPS navigator led us right to the Old Time Wooden Nickel Historical Museum. Outside the building is the largest wooden nickel made. Built in 2002, the wooden nickel is over 13 feet in diameter! I was not surprised, since everything in Texas is bigger.  Once inside, we were greeted by a gracious lady who offered to answer any questions. We decided to look around on our own to learn all we could about wooden nickels.

I’d never seen so many wooden tokens in one place. Plus, there were other antiques scattered about amongst the displays of the wooden tokens. The tokens or wooden nickels were organized into a wide variety of attractive displays that spoke to their many uses and historic value.  We saw political tokens, business tokens, family event tokens, geocaching tokens, scouting tokens, Marti Gras tokens, advertising tokens and even a display of rectangular wooden “dollars”.  The museum sells collectable wooden nickels, but for those of us on a budget who just couldn’t bear to leave the factory without some type of memento, they had a barrel of free tokens that you could look through to find a small treasure to take home.

After spending about an hour viewing all these wooden tokens and talking about our favorites, it was time to head out to our next destination. As we walked back to the car, I reached into my pocket and found I still had one Shiner Beer token left. “I wonder if I could ever convince a local restaurant to take my last wooden nickel as payment for a cold beer”, I joked as we merged back onto the highway.   On second thought, this wooden nickel led us to an interesting adventure, so maybe this is a lucky wooden nickel.  I decided to hold on to it as we continue in our quest to see Texas Thru My Back Door!