Can someone help me identify these?

pendrak

Hi Guys-
I am brand new to this forum. I just discovered it and think it is great! I collect high grade ancients and high grade US. I also like certain special antiquities. What turned me on to this hobby were some coins I purchased as a young kid at my first coin show in Colorado Springs about 1964. I definitely did not pay much for any of them. I have two that I still have not been able to identify. Can one of you experts help me? Also- is it OK to post a message like this here?
Thanks-

MadMuffin

Pendrak, welcome aboard!

Yes, you are most welcome to ask for identification help. The best thing to do is to post a picture, that will make things easier. And if you are lucky you will have an ID on the coins within minutes. Some of the people here are pretty fast

Marcel

pendrak

Thanks-
I will try to post pictures. They will be 1st coin obv. then rev. , And then 2nd coin obv. then rev. I know that i have to limit the upload to 50K so lets see if this works-

lordmarcovan

Very cool jetons. Not technically coins, but old (probably circa late 1700's or early 1800's). I've seen and owned an example very similar to the second one (which mimics an 18th century coin design), but the first one is new to me. I think it's really neat, with the ship design- some others around here will really like that!

Value? I don't really know. Probably around five or six bucks, would be my wild guess.

pendrak

OK-
What is a jeton and where were they minted?

lordmarcovan

Jeton is a French word, and I suspect many of them were made in France, though a lot came out of Germany in the 1500's and 1600's. A jeton is a counter, sometimes used as a gaming token when playing cards, sometimes called a "mathematical counter". Sometimes the spelling is used with two T's, as in jetton.

I'm a little foggy on their exact uses, though gaming must have been high on the list. (They were the casino chips of days gone by). Some German Nuremberg jetons were actually found by archaeologists at Jamestown, so in places where actual cash was short (like the American colonies), they may have been put into use as money of some sort. Many of the earlier types saw circulation, though the thin ones like yours are usually found in high grade. The one I had which resembled your second piece was Brilliant Uncirculated. I got it for a dollar in a dealer's junk bin!

Other jetons or gaming counters that are commonly seen are brass copies of English gold guineas. The 18th and early 19th century jetons frequently copied gold coins- maybe it was more fun to play cards with them that way.

SYRACUSIAN

Congrats on the new sigline Rob.

lordmarcovan

Thanks. A little premature, as the agreed-upon swap has not actually been finalized yet, but one way or another, ol' Georgie is comin' to Georgia.

lordmarcovan

Welcome to the forums, pendrak. I'm off to beddie-bye, now.

You or Dimitri can turn out the lights before you leave.

C'mon back now, y'hear?

pendrak

Thanks-
I see your posts everywhere- do you ever sleep? I am still looking for perfect Carausius coins- preferably Clausentum mint. I am looking for a PERFECT Sear 3564. I have a really corroded one that I would like to upgrade!
Adios for now-

WhiteTornado

pendrak,

Welcome to the forum. This was yet another post where I was able to learn something, too.

CIVITAS

<< <i>I am still looking for perfect Carausius coins- preferably Clausentum mint. >>



Good luck in your search. Most of the Carausius coins I come across are pretty heinous. Although it is usurper coinage, I know it can and does come in nice condition. I think I've got an interesting brockage floating around somewhere, but even that's not terribly attractive.

Welcome to the forums.

elverno

Welcome to the forums Pendrak. You'll find it's a pretty nice bunch of folks to hang out with.

Your two jetons are also known as rechenpfennig. They were used as counting pieces on a board to do math in Roman numerals instead of decimals. These boards were used by merchants well into the 1840s in parts of Germany and Russia. I just recently got a book that detailed the history of the Nuremberg jeton and I'll try to look your two up with additional info. I know that's Leopold of Austria on one of them which would date it in the late 1780s, early 1790s.

lordmarcovan

Thanks, Vern. I felt sure somebody would be able to add better info than I had.