Don’t Take Any Wooden Nickels

Don’t take any wooden nickels is a widely used and recognized jocular expression, initially used as a warning against being fooled, and in contemporary contexts as a humorous greeting or as a farewell.

If you wish to learn about the origins of the phrase, then Here’s a Little Lesson in Trickery.

The colloquialism, “Don’t take any wooden nickels” originates from the 19^th century, when a nickel had a significant value and was worth the time and effort of replicating with wood and paint.

It is likely that the phrase is linked to the phenomenon of “wooden nutmeg” which was also a popular method of fraud in the 1820’s.

During this era, “Don’t take any wooden nickels” was a common warning against fraudsters, used by merchants, and other professions, handling change.

The first documented case of the expression dates back to 1915 and it gained a wider popularity as a colloquialism in the 1920’s and especially during the Great Depression, also known as The Big Sad.

“Don’t take any wooden nickels” has gotten engrained in English in the rest of the 20^th century.

Although it is somewhat archaic nowadays, it is still widely recognized and understood and it was first defined on Urban Dictionary on June 15^th, 2012.

• Wiktionary.org – don’t take any wooden nickels
• Idioms.thefreedictionary.com – Don’t take any wooden nickels – Idioms by The Free Dictionary
• Quora.com – What does the phrase “don’t take any wooden nickels” mean?