San Antonio, Texas: Big Wooden Buffalo Nickel (Gone)
Over 13 feet high, weighed 2,500 pounds. Next-door Wooden Nickel Museum closed, and the nickel was reported falling apart in 2025.
Old Time Wooden Nickel Co.
- Directions:
- Old Time Wooden Nickel Co. US 281 to the Hildebrand Ave. exit. Drive east to the T intersection, then turn right onto New Braunfels Ave. Drive south eight blocks to Funston Place, then turn left. Drive to Austin Rd, then turn right, then a block south.
- Status:
- Gone
-
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This building is under construction and only half of the giant wooden nickel is there.
[Bonita, 04/19/2025]Visited here today. This museum is now closed to the public. We were told they closed it down due to too much theft.
[Pam Carpenter, 02/11/2020]For years wooden nickels were mocked as valueless, so there's some irony here. Note: The big nickel remains visible outside.
The giant wooden nickel outside the Old Time Wooden Nickel Co. is now marking the 300th anniversary of San Antonio on one side and the 70th anniversary of the company on the other. Along with the wooden nickel is a sculpture of two buffalo.
[Etta Miller, 06/10/2019]The anniversaries were last year, but maybe that's just the "old time" charms of the wooden nickel.
The Wooden Nickel Historical Museum is holding its Grand Re-Opening and is dedicating the World's Largest Wooden Nickel to Fisher House, for its contributions to soldiers and their families. Every year since 2002, the WLWN is redesigned and dedicated to a different non-profit organization.
In 2008, the founder of the Wooden Nickel Historical Museum and creator of the World's Largest Wooden Nickel, Herb Hornung, passed away. Since that time, the museum has been closed and the yearly re-dedication of the Nickel halted. Over the last two years, Herb's daughter and son-in-law, Felicia and Alex Lovo, along with the Wooden Nickel Family, have expanded and redesigned the Wooden Nickel Museum. In April, we will begin the process of redesigning the World's Largest Wooden Nickel for its unveiling. Both ceremonies are to be held on May 15, 2010 at the Museum. It will be an all day event with Food, Fun and Military History.
[Amanda Sundin, 03/19/2010]
On Saturday June 22, 2002, the Wooden Nickel Museum unveiled the World's Largest Wooden Nickel. This Wooden Nickel is 13ft 4in diameter and 5.5 inches thick and weight 2,500 pounds.
The Museum is located at the site of the Old Time Wooden Nickel Co., the oldest continuously operating Wooden Nickel producer in America, which creates over 5 million Wooden Nickels every year, representing about 4,000 unique designs.
[Herb Hornung, 06/25/2002]This nickel surpasses the big wooden nickel at the Woodmen's Museum, Boiestown, NB, Canada, which rolled in at 12 ft. diameter. Wooden nickel collector Herb Hornung has been featuring some of his 1.5 million historical wooden nickels at the museum since he opened it in 1998.
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The nickel was built outside a wooden nickel company in 2018, but the company is gone now and it sounds like the nickel soon will be, too.