GERMANY jeton by Lazarus Lauffer circa 1700

Description

Lazarus Gottlieb Lauffer was active in Nuremberg at the end of the 17th and start of the 18th centuries.

The Germans have been fans of round, flat, shiny objects since the 2nd century BC, when they made imitations of Greek coins. Coin manufacture was deeply decentralized until the 19th century, extending to jetons and medals starting in the 16th century. Local tokens began to supplement the normally chaotic coinage situation in the markets from the late 17th century. Production of tokens and medals boomed in the 19th century, and was going strong into the 1990s.

There were two kinds of jetons used in Europe from the 14th through the early 19th centuries. The first kind was used on counting tables in counting houses to reconcile accounts in different currencies, and most countries had odd exchange rates between their gold, silver, and copper, like, for example, an odd number of copper units equalled the basic gold coin in 17th century France. You’d make stacks of jetons to figure the ration for fractions of the gold coin. The other type of jeton was used as metallic calling cards by rich and middle class people in the 18th and 19th centuries. Yet another use of the term is the “glass paste jetons” of ancient and medieval Egypt, which probably substituted for copper coins, and functioned like tokens, standing for a value without having an actual value. Some jetons were substantial enough to be considered small medals, if we wanted to do that.

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.