Yes in Michigan, they used the a fore mentioned dollar bill shaped wooden money. Here is one book on the subject in Michigan "MICHIGAN OFFICIAL WOODEN MONEY 1934-1965, Hartley/Holstine. Line drawings of each. Soft-Bound 1966, 40p. Price Guide"
Some I understand was issued by the lumber companies, sort of a script or so I was told. I have seen only a blurry photo that could have been anything. They were used as trade for tokens.
Here is the story
ORIGIN OF WOODEN MONEY
"Scrip dates back to Colonial times as a money substitute for Americans in cash-poor times. Tokens circulated widely in place of coins during the Panic of 1837 and the Civil War. Banks also pooled their resources to issue clearinghouse certificates during financial crises in 1893 and 1907.
But nothing shook this country's financial system as hard as the depression that began with the stock market crash of 1929. Rather than bounce back after an ordinary down cycle, as many business and government leaders at first thought would happen, the economy spiraled out of control. Credit shut down as banks called in all their loans. Factories closed. People stopped spending. And money vanished from circulation.
The first wave of bank failures began in 1931, which also witnessed the first attention-getting effort to circulate scrip.
When the only bank in Tenino, Washington, failed, the small town found itself without any hard money. The Chamber of Commerce hit upon the idea of printing temporary certificates for depositors, redeemable when the bank's assets were unfrozen. In the meantime, the scrip would circulate in town.
Tenino's remoteness -- 30 miles from the nearest town over rugged roads --guaranteed that the scrip would circulate locally. But the material on which the scrip was printed guaranteed it would become famous nationally. The Tenino "dollars" were stamped on wood.
Soon, the thin slices of Sitka spruce in denominations of 25 cents, 50 cents, $1, $5 and $10 were actually drawing tourists. Outsiders bought up the "money" and carried the notes home as conversation pieces making the venture profitable indeed for the villagers.
Tenino's success was emulated, to varying degrees, by towns throughout the Pacific Northwest and California. Blaine, Washington, issued round wooden 5-cent pieces, playing off the old phrase, "Don't take any wooden nickels."
Ignoring the adage, other businesses followed Blaine's lead by handing out wooden "money" as redeemable tokens. Even after the monetary crisis passed, wooden nickels continued to be made for advertising purposes. The Chicago World's Fair of 1933 was the first of many events where the tokens were handed out as souvenirs, and wooden nickels still are made today as promotional novelties by some businesses. "
COINage Magazine:"Brother, Can You Spare Some Scrip", by John Blackwell, June 2009.
Here is a link to a US group of collectors be warned that their site produces a warning about not having a current certificate.
https://powmc.org/Home_Page.htmlHere is a Canadian group
http://www.nunet.ca/cawmc.htmMore info and a museum along with a current laser wooden money maker
a Canadian company
http://www.canadawidewoods.net/
Posted 10/14/2013 7:20 pm
