Sambo’s Wooden Nickels

Purchased on eBay for $3.99

Obverse: Good For A 10¢ Cup Of Coffee At Iowa City, IA / Sambo’s Restaurants Anywhere

Reverse: [Herky The Hawk] (University of Iowa Mascot)

The Iowa City Sambo’s closed in November 1981

Purchased on eBay for $27.87

Obverse: Good For A 10¢ Cup Of Coffee / [Tiger] / Sambo’s Restaurants

Reverse: Fifteen Years Of Service / [Sambo's Logo] / 1957 1972

Purchased on eBay for $6.99

Obverse: Good For A 10¢ Cup Of Coffee At De Kalb, IL / Sambo’s Restaurants Anywhere

Reverse: What This Country Needs Is A Good 10¢ Cup Of Coffee / Coffee Mug / Sambo’s Has It

Purchased on eBay for $9.99 (as part of a lot of 12).

Obverse: Good For A 10¢ Cup Of Coffee At Racine, WI / Sambo’s Restaurants Anywhere

Reverse: What This Country Needs Is A Good 10¢ Cup Of Coffee / Coffee Mug / Sambo’s Has It

The other 11 wooden nickels in the lot are available for trade-

I purchased this lot of 12 Sambo’s Wooden Nickels from Racine, Wisconsin on eBay earlier this month for $9.99.

They were all created with the same dies, but wear and tear over the years (I have no idea when they were actually created) has made them all look exceedingly different. It’s fascinating to me just how different they look at this point and highlights just how difficult it is going to be to determine just how many different dies were used in the creation of the Sambo’s wooden nickels.

Although the nickels are all in the same position in both the obverse and reverse scans I did rotate them to be roughly right side up in both scans. No two of these nickels have the same orientation between the two sides. In fact, none are even close.