Hello, I am new here so please don't crucify me. I have a ? French token / medal I am trying to find info on. I've looked a lot online but have not found this one. Also the 116 stamped into the back is strange. The London token (also pictured) is BHM 1545 I think. Are these worth anything? Also got some Russian silver, adding a picture also. Should I get the large one graded? Looks like fine or better, maybe close to au? It has some tarnish/toning. I have added pictures of these, as well as a few new (to me) I picked up today. You may edit this post if I have made a posting error or if I have broken any rule, written or unwritten. Thank you in advance for your help and advice.
The Ypres piece is some fire dept./brigade medal, I suppose. Sapeurs-pompiers is the French word for the firefighters. The city is in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium (Dutch name "Ieper", French name "Ypres"); guess that when the piece was issued, French was the preferred official language. Don't know whether it was an honor award or used for a different purpose ... Christian
I think the rim damage (between 10-1 o'clock) might keep it from grading...imo, otherwise it has a nice amount of detail. Nice group of Russian & German coins!
Have not found anything about the piece from Ypres/Ieper. If nobody else here comes up with a good idea, you could contact the city's fire dept. http://www.brandweerieper.be (see "Contact"); maybe somebody there knows more. As you will know, the two "1 Mark" coins are from the Deutsches Reich, when it was still a monarchy. And judging from the inscription POSVI DEVM ADIVTOREM MEVM (I made God my helper), the one in the top right corner of IMG_0755.JPG seems to be British ... Christian
Thank you Christian for your help, it is greatly appreciated. Is there a place or forum or website that deals more in tokens you could recommend?
Problem is that I am not really "into" medals and tokens. I just happen to know where Ypres/Ieper is located, and what the French word for firefighters is. What you could try, apart from contacting that fire dept., is a Dutch language forum like this one. http://munthunter.nl/viewforum.php?f=58 It does cover the Dutch speaking parts of Belgium (where Ieper is) as well; "penning(en)" means medal(s) ... Christian