Back in the mid 1700s, England made its coffin nails out of pig iron. These nails were used to hammer accessories, such as handles, onto the casket. In the United States, regular construction nails were used. However, it was believed that any nail removed from a coffin had magical powers and was automatically referred to as a coffin nail.
1. Cigarettes
In the early 1900s, cigarettes were called coffin nails.
2. War Protest
In 1940, the Citizens Keep America Out of War Committee sent coffin nails to members of Congress as a plea to keep Americans out of war.
3. Wart Cure
According to superstitious belief, scratching a wart with a coffin nail will get rid of the blemish.
4. Childhood Sickness
Some people believed that if they stood a sick child by an oak tree, touched the child with a coffin nail, and then drove the coffin nail into the trunk of the oak above the child’s head, the child would be cured.
5. Rheumatism
A ring made out of a coffin nail and worn on the finger was believed to cure rheumatism.
6. Footprint
In parts of Germany it was believed that if you hammered a coffin nail into a person’s footprint, you would make that person extremely ill.
7. Booze
In 1887, it was reported that all booze was referred to as nails in Sumatra: “When a man takes a glass of liquor he drives a nail into his own coffin; so general is this idea that they do not cal wine, whiskey, and brandy by specific names, but call them all nails. Horrible coffin nails.”
