OTWN brochure

The Old Time Wooden Nickel Company & Historical MuseumHOME OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST WOODEN NICKEL EST. 1998 ! 345 Austin Road San Antonio, TX 78209 210-822-0552 ~ 800-750-9915 www.wooden-nickel.com

The Old Time Wooden Nickel Company & Historical MuseumABOUT US The Old Time Wooden Nickel Company is one of the oldest manufacturers ofcustom printed wooden nickels in the US, and the only wooden nickel manufac-turer whose primary product is wooden nickels. We are the only wooden nickelproducer to offer two sizes of wooden nickels, 1.5 inch and 2 inch diameter. Weare also the only producer to offer multi-color wooden nickels. With many of our competitors cutting costs by outsourcing jobs and importingmaterials, we are proud to support the American worker by using only domesti-cally grown wood which is milled in the USA. The wood is then shipped to our fac-tory in San Antonio, Texas were all printing is done. We also take great pride inpreserving our nation’s natural resources by using only wood grown on tree farms;none of the raw materials used to produce our wooden nickels come from naturalforests. HISTORY In 1948, Louis Berke established the Elbee Co. in San Antonio, Texas. The El-bee Co. was a small shop that sold magic tricks and novelty items out of its storefront on Broadway in downtown San Antonio. In addition to this unique inven-tory of slight-of-hand tricks and fake dog poo, the Elbee Company also producedcustom printed wooden nickels on an 1885 Chandler and Price letter press. In theearly days, all the type for the custom printing was set by hand, one letter at atime. 1

In the early 1990’s, Herb Hornung went to work for Mr. Berke as a freelancetypesetter and began setting up the text and graphics on a computer. In 1995,Herb purchased the wooden nickel line from Mr. Berke and established the OldTime Wooden Nickel Company, relocating it to its current location just aroundthe corner from the San Antonio Botanical Gardens, behind Fort Sam Houston.Since its establishment in 1995, the Old Time Wooden Nickel Company has con-tinued to produce custom printed wooden nickels on the same 1885 Chandler andPrice letter press; however, the antique printing press, now called Galopata, hasbeen modified with an automatic feeder and timed flipper, designed by Herb. Ga-lopata can now print both sides of up to 6 different jobs at one time and is capableof producing 10,000 wooden nickels every hour! Our smaller nickel printingpress, Mangler, also a Chandler and Price letter press, prints one side of 4 differ-ent jobs at once, and produces over 5000 wooden nickels per hour. Our Jumboprinting press prints the 2 inch jumbo wooden nickels. Like Mangler, it can printone side of 4 different jobs at the same time, also at a rate of 5000 jumbos perhour. Over the next 13 years, Herb worked to develop new wooden nickel lines. In2005, he developed an efficient method for printing full color images and photo-graphs on wooden nickels. Production has expanded to over 5 million customprinted nickels each year! In 1998, Herb and the Old Time Wooden Nickel Company, in conjunctionwith its 50th Anniversary, held the grand opening for the Wooden Nickel Histori-cal Museum. In 2002, the Wooden Nickel Historical Museum unveiled theWorld’s Largest Wooden Nickel. On October 20, 2008, Herb passed away leaving the Old Time Wooden NickelCompany to his daughter and son-in-law, Felicia and Alex Lovo. In 2009, Feliciaand Alex left their home in Georgia and moved to San Antonio. Since that time,they have worked to improve and expand the Wooden Nickel business, introducingnew and improved custom printed products including coasters, YOYO’s and laserengraved wood items.Wooden Nickel Historical Museum 2

On October 17, 1998, in conjunction with the Old Time Wooden Nickel Com-pany’s 50th anniversary, the Wooden Nickel Historical Museum held its grandopening to further public awareness about the long history of, and San Antonio’scontribution to, Wooden Nickels. Wooden Nickels have been in San Antoniosince 1948. The Wooden Nickel Museum has on display over 1 million wooden nickels dat-ing back 60 years. You’ll see Sambos wooden nickels, Mardi Gras, Geocaching,Scouts, Politicians, International, Farmers Markets, Musicians, Flat Wooden Nick-els and many, many more. We also have the one and only Wooden Nickel Vault,which holds several hundred thousand wooden nickels. In June 2002, the Wooden Nickel Historical Museum unveiled the World’sLargest Wooden Nickel during the 1st Annual Wooden Nickel Festival. Everyyear, the Museum redesigns the World’s Largest Wooden Nickel and dedicates it toa different non-profit organization, which promotes “American Values” & leader-ship. It is unveiled during the annual Wooden Nickel Festival. In October 2008, shortly after its 10th anniversary, Museum founder, HerbHornung passed away. Following his death, the museum, desperately in need ofrepairs, closed its doors indefinitely. For the next year and a half, Herb’s daughterand son-in-law, Felicia & Alex Lovo, along with the Wooden Nickel Family, workedto repair and redesign the museum. On May 15, 2010, the Wooden Nickel Historical Museum held its grand Re-Opening, proudly opening its doors to a bigger, better experience. Now visitorscan see wooden nickels being printed through the big window, design their veryown custom printed wooden nickel at the wooden nickel design station, enjoy mu-sic from the Nickelodeon and Calliope organ and step back in time while watchingan old black and white movie on 3

World’s Largest Wooden NickelOutside of the Old Time Wooden Nickel Company and Wooden Nickel Histori-cal Museum, stands the jaw dropping World’s Largest Wooden Nickel. ThisWooden Nickel is 13 feet 4 inches in diameter, 5.5 inches thick. That is about 108times the diameter of a standard Wooden Nickel. It is solid wood, made from 6x6lumber, and weighs about 2,500 pound. That is enough wood to make about400,000 standard Wooden Nickels. (Enough wood for about 3 weeks of ourWooden Nickel production) The WLWN has been recognized as such by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! It wasfeatured in their internationally syndicated newspaper column for November 27,2002. In 2002, Herb Hornung and two friends, constructed a very large piece of artthat was to be dedicated to a non-profit organization that promotes “American Val-ues” and leadership. On June 22, 2002, in honor of the World’s Largest WoodenNickel, the mayor proclaimed the day “Wooden Nickel Day” in San Antonio, andamongst friends, family and media, Herb unveiled the World’s Largest WoodenNickel, displaying its first honoree, the Boy Scouts of America. Every year sincethen, the World’s Largest Wooden Nickel has been redesigned to honor a differentnational organization that reflects our rich American spirit.Honorees2002 Boy Scouts of America 2003 Veterans of Foreign Wars 2004 Lions International 4

2005 Rotary International2006 American Legion 2007 United States Armed Forces In 2008, the creator and designer of the World’s Largest Wooden Nickel, HerbHornung passed away, halting its redesign and yearly dedication. Shortly follow-ing his death, Herb’s daughter and son-in-law, Felicia and Alex Lovo, took over theWooden Nickel “Empire”. In April 2010, Felicia and Alex, with the help of theWooden Nickel Family, began the process of redesigning the World’s LargestWooden Nickel, preparing it for its first dedication in almost 3 years. On May 15, 2010, the World’s Largest Wooden Nickel was dedicated to FisherHouse, in honor and recognize of its contributions to soldiers and their families. ! 5

History of Wooden Nickels ! !On December 5, 1931, the Citizen's Bank of Tenino (pronounced 10-9-0), Wash-ington failed and created a shortage of money. This left the merchants of the areaunable to get change without traveling about 30 miles over mountainous roads inautomobiles ill suited to that purpose, on roads that were built for horses andmules to traverse. The average round trip was about four hours, much too long formerchants to be gone from their stores. A meeting of the Chamber of Commerceresulted in the local newspaper printing up the first issue of wooden money in theUnited States. This money was used until the shortage was over. Some of thisscrip was printed on pieces of \"slicewood.\" In 1933, Blaine, Washington issuedround wooden coins when their bank failed. These were the first issues of woodenmoney in the U.S. 6!

Several other places, mostly in the Pacific North-West, issued wooden moneyafter that. Some followed the flat format of Tenino and others used round pieces.The Century of Progress in Chicago in 1933 was the first place to use woodenmoney pieces as souvenirs. Several issues were made - all round. Some are the sizeof a silver dollar and others are about three inches in diameter. In 1934 a new usefor wooden nickels was found, a combination of advertising for civic celebrationsand providing souvenirs of the celebration. Binghamton, NY was one of firstplaces to embrace this concept. Wood continued to be used to enhance civic cele-brations such as centennials and state fairs through the mid 1930’s, and reallystarted to be cranked out in 1938 when the John B. Rogers Company of Fostoria,Ohio obtained a copyright on their design for wooden money. While the RogersCompany had competition and the competition also issued wooden money, woodsproduced for Rogers continue to be the most readily found. Just when the adage \"Don’t take any Wooden Nickels!\" was added to the Ameri-can language is unclear, but the reasons are easy to understand. First of all, eachwood had an expiration date and generally even a specific final redemption time.If you were in possession of a handful of wooden nickels that expired at noon to-day and your best customer came through the door at five minutes to noon, itwould be difficult to get to centennial headquarters to cash them in. ManyWooden Nickels also said they had to be unbroken, and the rectangular \"Flats\"were pretty fragile. Probably the Rogers Company’s use of wooden money should be studied as oneof the great marketing schemes of the 20th Century. They had the wooden piecesprinted up sometime prior to the actual celebration. They then sold the woods toarea merchants for face value and the merchant in turn gave the Wooden Nickels,Wooden Dimes, and Wooden Quarters to their customers in change. The woodsusually carried the time, date and place of the celebration. So in effect you hadpaid to take home an advertisement for the event. These wooden coins were oftenused all over town during the fair since everyone knew they could spend them atthe fair. During the last few days of the fair people would stop accepting woodenmoney in town because they might not get a chance to cash them in before the fairended. 7

The Print ShopNEW!! Never before have we been able to allow our visitors to see how thewooden nickels are printed. Now you can! The Old Time Wooden Nickel Fac-tory invites you to watch wooden nickels being made. You can now view our 1885Chandler & Price printing presses in action. Each one has been modified to effi-ciently print a combined, 6 million+ wooden nickels every year. Meet the Presses Mangler, our small nickel press, can print one side of 5 different jobs at a timeand prints over 5000, 1.5 inch wooden nickels every hour. Our Jumbo press, prints the 2 inch, Jumbo wooden nickels. Like Mangler, theJumbo press, can print one side of 5 different jobs at once, at a rate of 5000 perhour. Galopata, our big machine, has been modified to print both sides of 6 differentjobs, at the same time. Galopata is capable of printing over 10,000, 1.5 inchwooden nickels per hour! Galopata 2 is now online!! Just like the original Galopata it has been modified sothat it can print over 10,000 1.5 inch wooden nickels per hour. 8

CHAPTER 5 Wooden Nickel Fun Facts~The original Elbee Company got its name from founder Louis Berkey’s initials,LB better known as eLBee. ~Our wooden nickels are printed on an 1886 Chandler and Price printingpress that has been modified to print 10,000 wooden nickels an hour. It’s name isGalopata . ~Galopata is so heavy, when it came time to move it from its original locationon West Commerce, Mr. Berke didn’t have a truck able to do the job. Galopatawas rolled on a furniture dolly about 1 mile to its next location on Broadway. Ga-lopata weighs 1 ton. ~The Wooden Nickel Historical Museum held its original grand opening onOctober 17, 1998. The same day as the infamous “100 Year Flood” in San Anto-nio. ~The World’s Largest Wooden Nickel stands 13 feet 4 inches in diameter, 5.5inches thick and weighs 2500 pounds. It was constructed by 3 people, Herb & 2friends. ~The World’s Largest Wooden Nickel was featured by Ripley’s Believe It orNot!, in their internationally syndicated newspaper column on November 27,2002. ~The Wooden Nickel family is AWESOME! ~The Wooden Nickel museum houses over 1 million wooden nickels. ~The Wooden Nickel Factory produces over 6 million custom printed woodennickels each year. 9

Buffalo Trivia What Do You Know About... QUESTIONS 1. Buffalo meat is 70% lower in fat than: a) Chicken b) Pork c) Beef d) All 3 2. What animal weighs 35lbs at birth, drinks 2 gallons of milk daily, and putson 2lbs of weight a day? a) Buffalo b) Ostrich c) Whale 3. In 1890, only 1,000 Buffalo roamed the country. Today, through privateranching how many Buffalo do you think exist? a) 7,000 b) 25,000 c) 100,000 d) 200,000+ 10

4. Buffalo Meat is 50% lower than beef, poultry, pork and most fish in whichareas? a) Sodium b) Calories c) Cholesterol d) All 3 5. How high can a 2,000 lb Buffalo jump from a dead stance? a) 3 feet b) 7 feet c) 10 feet 6. What is the proper name for Buffalo? a) Water Buffalo b) American Buffalo c) Bison 7. Which animal is naturally raised for consumption without the use ofgrowth hormones, antibiotics or stimulants? a) Cattle b) Chicken c) Buffalo 8. How fast can a Buffalo run? a) 25 mph b) 35 mph c) 45 mph 9. How many places in the United States have Buffalo in their name? a) 25 b) 75 c) 150 d) 200+ 10. Buffalo is the only animal not susceptible to which disease? a) Cancer b) the Flu c) Heart Disease 11

11. How many Buffalo were estimated to be roaming the Western Plains inthe early 1800”s? a) 500,000 b) 3 million c) 15 million d) 70 million12. What did the pioneers use for fuel as they traveled West in the 1800’s?a) Potato chips b) Poker Chips c) Buffalo chips d) Tortilla chips13. If the accurate name for Buffalo is Bison, who first called the Buffalo aBison?a) the Spanish b) the Italians c) the French14. What is the Buffalo’s most accurate sense?a) Sight b) Smell c) Hearing d) Taste15. How do Buffalo communicate?a) Sign language b) Eye contact c) Snorts, grunts & teeth grinding16. What two states have Buffalo in their state seals?a) Indiana & Kansas b) Wyoming & Colorado c)Montana & Oklahoma17. Which baseball stadium was the first to serve Buffalo meat? a) Dodger’s Stadium b) Yankee Stadium c) the Ballpark at Arlington d)Coors Field 12

Answers 1.     d)  All  3 2.     a)  Buffalo 3.     d)  200,000+ 4.     d)  All  3 5.     b)  7  feet 6.     c)  Bison 7.     c)  Buffalo 8.     c)  45  mph,  faster  than  a  thoroughbred! 9.     d)  200  (actually  211) 10.   a)  Cancer 11.   d)  70  million 12.   a)  Buffalo  chips 13.   c)  the  French 14.   b)  Smell,  and  c)  Hearing 15.   c)  Snorts,  grunts  and  teeth  grinding 16.   a)  Indiana  &  Kansas        17.   d)  Coors  Field. ! 13