BELGIUM GHENT Cooperative Association token 1921
$30.00
BELGIUM, GHENT, cooperative token, 1921, Obverse: laborers pulling giant allegorical woman, DOOR SAMERNWERKING TOT VERHEFFING DER WERKENDE KLASSSE, at bottom is a countermark I don’t understand, Reverse: VOORUIT, 5, WAARDE VIJF FRANK GENT 1921, copper-nickel, 37mm, XF
1 in stock
Description
Vooruit is a large building in Ghent. Opened in 1914 as a workers cooperative, it offered food and entertainment until the second World War.
A token is used like a coin but is not a coin. Rather it stands for a coin without the value of the coin. Maybe its copper but says its value is the same as a silver coin. Usually tokens were made privately but sometimes governments got involved.
The word “exonumia” is used to describe all kinds of things that are “like” coins but are not coins. I wrote a blog post on that subject. Basic categories: 1. used like a coin but not issued by a national government 2. looks like a coin but not made for spending 3. other things that we are interested in.
