Can anyone identify this darksider?

OnWithTheHunt

Also posted on world forum. About the size of a US 3-cent silver. Any value to it? Thanks

TurtleCat

It’s play money from what I saw. I found some links to similar. They won’t get approved so google for ludwig ii 5 mark spiel-munze. I saw one similar that was currently priced at $20.

Zoins

They are from Ludwig Christian Lauer in Nuremberg. He did minatures of many coins for play money a mentioned by @TurtleCat. He also did store cards for US merchants, typically German ones such as importers, and sold imitation coins of the US, UK, Germany and others.

The TAMS journal of 1972 includes "American Game Counters" by Russell Rulau and George J. Fuld which covers his pieces estimating the US coin copies were struck from 1865 to 1873.

Yours looks like a miniature of a German 5 Mark coin.

Here's a nice one:

Here are the pages from the article:

https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/525692?page=53

OnWithTheHunt

Thanks Zoins and Turtlecat

coinsarefun

@Zoins said:

Here's a nice one:

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I would not be sad if I found one like this for auction!

Zoins

@coinsarefun said:

@Zoins said:

Here's a nice one:

I would not be sad if I found one like this for auction!

It's quite striking. I couldn't help but buy it

coinsarefun

@Zoins said:

@coinsarefun said:

@Zoins said:

Here's a nice one:

I would not be sad if I found one like this for auction!

It's quite striking. I couldn't help but buy it

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Ahhh should have known!

JBK

I like it.

Pretty cool having your own play money minted.

CaptHenway

"Spiel-Munze" can be translated as "game money" or "play money." Today, "play money" is often thought of as cheap plastic or paper imitation money that children circa 1960 might have used to learn how to count money. I am not sure if the toy companies even sell it anymore.

I believe that the 19th century context of these was more like a fancy poker chip, which is why they are often called "game counters." In the 1850's if you were playing a game such as whist where somebody had to keep score, you could easily do so with metallic counters that could be re-used indefinitely. In the 1950's if you had your friends over for a night of bridge or pinochle you would keep score on a pad of paper, but paper was a luxury item back in the 1850's.

Zoins

Late 1800s Imitation Flying Eagle Cent - Ludwig Christian Lauer - Rulau-Fuld Min-1

I also have this one now. I especially like the ones with his name on them.

Before there were COPY coins, there were IMITATION coins!

sellitstore

Counters were often used for gambling while play money wasn't. They are different. These seem to fall more into the souvenir or novelty category.