Shin Plaster
Preserved but no longer current.
An old American and also Australian phrase still occasionally used for paper tokens issued by rural stores as small change. It is said that some storekeepers baked • them to make them brittle so that they would powder to nothing in the recipient's pocket.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Shin Plaster” mean?
An old American and also Australian phrase still occasionally used for paper tokens issued by rural stores as small change. It is said that some storekeepers baked • them to make them brittle so that they would powder to nothing in the recipient's pocket.
Is “Shin Plaster” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.