At the farmers’ market on Detroit Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan, there are three ways to pay. You can hand over cash. For some vendors, you can swipe a credit card at the stall. Or you can stop by the market office trailer, swipe a credit card and in exchange receive what the market informally calls wooden nickels — tokens, printed with the market’s logo, good for five American dollars.
American companies have handed out wooden nickels since the early 20th century, as tokens for store credit. During the Depression, a few communities relied briefly on the nickels as a circulating currency when local banks failed. Since then, they’ve functioned mostly as souvenirs. Anyone who grew up as a Boy Scout in America, for example, will remember collecting nickels at jamborees. The coins at the market in Ann Arbor were manufactured by the Old Time Wooden Nickel Company. As the name suggests, Old Time specialises in novelty coins for museums and events.