- Nuremberg, c. 1553, moneychanger, Ø 28 mm.
- Counting board (woodcut, probably from Strasbourg). The lines and the spaces between the lines function like the wires or rods on an abacus. The place value is marked at the end.
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Jetons or jettons are tokens or coin-like medals produced across Europe from the 13th through the 18th centuries. They were produced as counters for use in calculation on a counting board, a lined board similar to an abacus. Jetons for calculation were commonly used in Europe from about 1200 to 1700, [1] and remained in occasional use into the early nineteenth century. They also found use as a money substitute in games, similar to modern casino chips or poker chips.
Thousands of different jetons exist, mostly of religious and educational designs, as well as portraits, the last of which most resemble coinage, somewhat similar to modern, non-circulation commemorative coins. The spelling "jeton" is from the French; it is sometimes spelled "jetton" in English.
The Romans similarly used pebbles (in Latin : calculi "little stones", whence English calculate). [2] Addition is straightforward, and relatively efficient algorithms for multiplication and division were known.
The custom of stamping counters like coins began in France, with the oldest known coming from the fiscal offices of the royal government of France and dating from around the middle of the 13th century. [3] From the late 13th century to the end of the 14th century, jetons were produced in England, similar in design to contemporary Edwardian pennies. Although they were made of brass they were often pierced or indented at the centre to avoid them being plated with silver and passed off as real silver coins. By the middle of the 14th century, English jetons were being produced in a larger size, similar to the groat.
Throughout the 15th century competition from France and the Low Countries ended jeton manufacture in England, but not for long. Nuremberg jeton masters initially started by copying counters of their European neighbours, but by the mid 16th century they gained a monopoly by mass-producing cheaper jetons for commercial use. Later – "counter casting" being obsolete – production shifted to jetons for use in games and toys, sometimes copying more or less famous jetons with a political background.
Mints in the Low Countries in the late Middle Ages in general produced the counters for official bookkeeping. Most of them show the effigy of the ruler within a flattering text and on the reverse the ruler's escutcheon and the name or city of the accounting office.
During the Dutch Revolt (1568–1609) this pattern changed and by both parties, the North in front, about 2,000 different, mostly political, jetons (Dutch : Rekenpenning) were minted depicting the victories, ideals and aims. Specifically in the last quarter of the 16th century, where geuzen or "beggars" made important military contributions to the Dutch side and bookkeeping was already done without counters, the production in the North was just for propaganda.
The mints and treasuries of the big estates in Central Europe used their own jetons and then had a number of them struck in gold and silver as New Year gifts for their employees, who in turn commissioned jetons with their own mottoes and coats-of-arms. In the sixteenth century the Czech Royal Treasury bought between two and three thousand pieces at the beginning of each year.
As Arabic numerals and the zero came into use, "pen reckoning" gradually displaced "counter casting" as the common accounting method.
In the 21st century jetons continue to be used in some countries as substitutes for coins in coin-operated public telephones or vending machines, because automatic valuation of coins by machines is unreliable or impossible for several reasons. They are usually made of metal or hard plastic and are generally called tokens in English-speaking countries. In German the word Jeton refers specifically to casino tokens. In Polish the word żeton, pronounced similarly to French jeton, refers both to tokens used in vending machines, phones etc. and to those used in casinos. The word жетон has the same use in Russian, as does the word jeton in Romanian and žetoon in Estonian. However in Hungary the word zseton is (somewhat dated) slang for money, particularly coins. Plastic jetons used to be used for paying the fare for the Star Ferry in Hong Kong.[ citation needed ]
Apart from their monetary use in casinos, jetons are used in card games, particularly in France but also in Denmark. They are traditionally made of wood of different shapes and sizes to represent different values such as 1, 5, 10, 50 or 100 points. For example, in traditional French games, jetons are round and usually worth 1 unit; fiches are long and rectangular in shape and may be worth 10 to 20 jetons; contrats are the short rectangular counters and may be worth, say, 100 units.
The jetons are also stained or coloured so that each player can have his or her own colour. This facilitates scoring because players do not need to start with exactly the same number of counters. Nowadays plastic jetons are a cheap alternative. Games that typically use jetons include Nain Jaune, Belote, Piquet, Ombre, Mistigri, Danish Tarok and Vira. A dedicated box called virapulla is used to contain Vira jetons.[ citation needed ]
In France and other countries a jeton is also a token amount of money paid to members of a society or a legislative chamber each time they are present in a meeting.[ citation needed ]
An abacus, also called a counting frame, is a hand-operated calculating tool which was used from ancient times in the ancient Near East, Europe, China, and Russia, until the adoption of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system. An abacus consists of a two-dimensional array of slidable beads. In their earliest designs, the beads could be loose on a flat surface or sliding in grooves. Later the beads were made to slide on rods and built into a frame, allowing faster manipulation.
A coin is a small object, usually round and flat, used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by a government. Coins often have images, numerals, or text on them. The faces of coins or medals are sometimes called the obverse and the reverse, referring to the front and back sides, respectively. The obverse of a coin is commonly called heads, because it often depicts the head of a prominent person, and the reverse is known as tails.
Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects.
Token may refer to:
The dollar coin is a United States coin with a face value of one United States dollar. Dollar coins have been minted in the United States in gold, silver, and base metal versions. Dollar coins were first minted in the United States in 1794.
Casino chips are small discs used as currency in casinos. Larger, rectangular gaming plaques may be used for high-stakes games. Poker chips are also widely used as play money in casual or tournament games, are of numismatic value to casino chip collectors, or may be kept as souvenirs.
Exonumia are numismatic items other than coins and paper money. This includes "Good For" tokens, badges, counterstamped coins, elongated coins, encased coins, souvenir medallions, tags, wooden nickels and other similar items. It is an aspect of numismatics and many coin collectors are also exonumists.
A ticket machine, also known as a ticket vending machine (TVM), is a vending machine that produces paper or electronic tickets, or recharges a stored-value card or smart card or the user's mobile wallet, typically on a smartphone. For instance, ticket machines dispense train tickets at railway stations, transit tickets at metro stations and tram tickets at some tram stops and in some trams. Token machines may dispense the ticket in the form of a token which has the same function as a paper or electronic ticket. The typical transaction consists of a user using the display interface to select the type and quantity of tickets and then choosing a payment method of either cash, credit/debit card or smartcard. The ticket(s) are then printed on paper and dispensed to the user, or loaded onto the user's smartcard or smartphone.
The Eisenhower dollar is a one-dollar coin issued by the United States Mint from 1971 to 1978; it was the first coin of that denomination issued by the Mint since the Peace dollar series ended in 1935. The coin depicts President Dwight D. Eisenhower on the obverse, and a stylized image honoring the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon mission on the reverse. Both sides were designed by Frank Gasparro, with the reverse based on the mission patch designed by astronaut Michael Collins. It is the only large-size U.S. dollar coin whose circulation strikes contained no silver.
The Ancient Romans developed the Roman hand abacus, a portable, but less capable, base-10 version of earlier abacuses like those that were used by the Greeks and Babylonians.
Gettone means "token" in Italian. More specifically, the word gettone can be used to refer to the gettone telefonico, which was used during much of the 20th century in Italian telephone booths.
Token money, or token, is a form of money that has a lesser intrinsic value compared to its face value. Token money is anything that is accepted as money, not due to its intrinsic value but instead because of custom or legal enactment. Token money costs less to produce than its face value. A banknote, e.g. a five-pound note, is token money because despite its value being 5 pounds it only costs significantly less to produce. A gold coin is not considered token money. The Token money system has been adopted in many businesses around the world as an effective way to exchange value between companies and customers. Token money as a system is predominantly used in mobile games, but is also used in the realm of e-commerce. Token money is similar to fiat money which also has little intrinsic value, however they differ in that token money is a limited legal tender. The adoption of token money has improved transaction efficiency, as the practicalty of transacting with sums of gold poses a larger security risk. In a commodity economy, money is a measure of the value of goods and services (prices) within a sovereign country or the same economy, as well as a particular commodity to pay off debts. The token is also used as a medium of exchange, as a store of value, and as a unit of account. Digital currencies using decentralized blockchain technology are also a form of token money.
The Kennedy half dollar, first minted in 1964, is a fifty-cent coin issued by the United States Mint. Intended as a memorial to the assassinated 35th president of the United States John F. Kennedy, it was authorized by Congress just over a month after his death. Use of existing works by Mint sculptors Gilroy Roberts and Frank Gasparro allowed dies to be prepared quickly, and striking of the new coins began in January 1964.
In numismatics, token coins or trade tokens are coin-like objects used instead of coins. The field of token coins is part of exonumia and token coins are token money. Their denomination is shown or implied by size, color or shape. They are often made of cheaper metals like copper, pewter, aluminium, brass and tin, or non-metals like bakelite, leather and porcelain.
The livre was the currency of Kingdom of France and its predecessor states of Francia and West Francia from 781 to 1794. Several different livres existed, some concurrently. The livre was the name of coins and of units of account.
A devotional medal is a medal issued for religious devotion.
Starting in 1997, the Royal Canadian Mint started to sell hockey medallions to the public. To commemorate the induction of Mario Lemieux in the Hockey Hall of Fame, a set was issued honouring all three inductees. One set was issued in Sterling Silver while another was issued in Nickel. The success of the release led to future issues.
A piedfort is an unusually thick coin, often exactly twice the normal weight and thickness of other coins of the same diameter and pattern. Piedforts are not normally circulated, and are only struck for presentation purposes by mint officials, or for collectors, dignitaries and other VIPs. Piedfort is less commonly spelled "piefort".
Bouquet sou were a series of tokens that were created for use primarily within Lower Canada in the mid- to late-1830s. Roughly equivalent in value to a half penny, the "bouquet sou" were so called because they displayed a group of heraldic flowers tied together with a ribbon on their obverse. The group of flowers were encircled by one of several legends, which might say "Trade & Agriculture / Lower Canada", "Agriculture & Commerce / Bas Canada" or some variant of these that might also substitute the name of the issuing bank. The other side most typically gave the denomination of "un sou", surrounded by a wreath and the words "Bank Token" and "Montreal". There are a large variety of these tokens, distinguished primarily by the number and variety of flowers that appear in the "bouquet", along with the differences in the legends that appeared on either side of the token. They were initially issued by the banks of Lower Canada, and were later imitated by speculators who produced tokens that looked similar, but were underweight for their denomination. These coins also circulated to Upper Canada, as at least one archeology dig attests. Large numbers of these tokens were produced and many examples can easily be obtained for only a few Canadian dollars, though a few rare varieties can command significantly higher prices.
A virapulla is a traditional Swedish gaming container with dishes and jettons designed for playing the national game of Vira, but also used for other games.