This coin is being sold as a "Turkish" Rechenpfennig (a contradiction in itself), and, aside from the word TVRCKI on the obverse there is nothing Turkish about it. Anybody have an idea what it is. I'd guess 18th century, and since it says KEISER, probably Austrian, but I can't find it in the standard catalog (though it's hard to look when you don't even know what country its from).
Right you are, but then why isn't it in Krause? Does it not qualify as a "real coin" for some reason? Or am I just naive about the Standard Catalog's claims to completeness?
As the term "Rechenpfennig" (which is even part of the topic title) suggests, that is not a coin. There were two jeton "mintmasters" in Nürnberg by the name of Hans Krauwin(c)kel; one had the job from 1562 until 1586, the next one (his son, I suppose) until 1635. Unfortunately they both used the HK initials as far as I know ... Christian
Sorry to interject, but could you explain that more? Why is a jeton or rechenpfennig not a coin? What is it?
Originally such "Rechenpfennig" pieces were used for calculations with an abacus board. This page explains how an abacus (or a similar board) works: http://www.tinohempel.de/info/mathe/ries/ries.htm It is in German, but I think that at least to some extent the images speak for themselves. The oldest calculating/reckoning jetons are from the 12/13c as far as I know. The Rechenpfennigs were not money, but in the following centuries they got more and more elaborate. Also because written calculations became more common, so that you would not need jetons and reckoning boards any more. But apparently the producers of such jetons knew how to still make a profit; later Rechenpfennigs would have political messages and/or "mimic" (but not imitate) actual coins. They would be used for games, as inexpensive gifts, etc. An important center of the jeton production in what today is Germany was Nürnberg, where such Rechenpfennig pieces were made by Lauer until the mid-19c. Here is a link to another CoinTalk topic http://www.cointalk.com/t50915/ and here is a Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeton in English about what a jeton or Rechenpfennig was used for ... (Edit) Just noticed that the English Wikipedia article has a link to this page http://www.chicagocoinclub.org/projects/PiN/juh.html which explains the concept in much more detail. Christian
These Krauwinckel jeton is reported in Mitchiner nr4. 1661 and Barnard pl. 32 no. 69. More about "rechenpfennig" http://rechenpfennig.webs.com/
