Please help me identify and Appraise this Very Rare Coin

I have a coin collection which I inherited and I am only in the first box and I am stumped. Can anyone please help me date this coin and tell me what it is and how much it is worth. I know it is rare because I can not find anything on it anywhere. I believe it is from the 1700's - 1800's and not an ancient coin. Please help

 

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I believe it's a jeton and it's probably older than 1700. Siberian man should be able to give you more info on it. As for value, it can have a range from a few dollars to about $100 but it'll depend on what Siberian man says.

 

this is not the same one but i think it will put you on the right track

http://www.cointalk.com/t50915/

Richard

 

This may be it:

http://www.ma-shops.de/pater/item.php5?id=111007017&ref=froogle

Very similar at least.

 

If you didn't know what it was how do you know its very rare?

 

That's a counting token, or jeton, and they're quite common. Not sure on value because of the commonality.

 

from http://www.tokensociety.org.uk/topics/jettons.shtml :

"They never show a mark of value because, unlike tokens, jettons merely represent a value, by means of their position on a reckoning table (or cloth) also known as an abacus. This is not to be confused with the bead frame device still in use; although employing a similar principal. They were in common use before current methods of arithmetic using so-called Arabic numerals were adopted in Europe."


Basically, of the Lauer token makers, this one was made by Johann Lauer. There were two Johann Lauers, so it's either the grandfather or the grandson. Probably struck in Nuremburg. It is a reckoning counter, or "jeton" in French.

Here's a sales listing for similar to yours (only the obverse device is oriented to the left, rather than the right, like yours) http://www.coin-gold.com/eng/ger_0002.html and here's a translation of a polish page discussing a similar coin http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pl&u=http://www.exploracja.cyberdusk.pl/phpbb2/viewtopic.php%3Ft%3D8245&ei=i393T6y3KqSciQKmn-2nDg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDEQ7gEwAg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dlauer%2Breche%2Bpfening%2Bvenus%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1113%26bih%3D503%26prmd%3Dimvnso

Good luck to you with your jeton. Again, from the info I have found, two of the lauers had the same name and both produced reche pfenings.

 

He had me all excited when I heard rare coin. Then I started to read the post and knew id be disappointed :/