I used to mostly ignore tokens and medals but lately I've been paying more attention. There is some interesting and sometimes valuable stuff out there. Here's what I got this time: First off is an 1820 Canada half penny token. This one threw me off because I thought it was Ireland, but nope! Not in great condition but it's my first example of this type in my collection. 1821 St. Helena halfpenny. I did have one of these already but this is in better shape. St. Helena is a small island west of Africa that is most famous as being the place where Napoleon died in exile. 1831 Isle of Man half penny token. I love Isle of Man coins in any case, but this is the first I've seen labeled as a token. It's in good shape too. 1869 Fredrik of Denmark and Louisa of Sweden marriage medal. This is interesting. 1886 Central Santa Lucia half ration token. It is from the Santa Lucia sugar mill in Gibara, Cuba. This came in a holder that labeled it as Italian, showing you can't trust other people to identify your coins. Seems to be relatively rare. This one I believe is play money. I wonder if it was made in the year that is printed on the item, 1887? The holder it came in said it was from the Viscayan Republic in Spain, again showing you can't trust other people. It's very small so I was skeptical but couldn't get a good look at it until I got home. 1889 Wurzburg Germany medal commemorating the 1200th anniversary of the St. Kilian celebration. Kind of a cool city view here. This last one is cool. This is a medal given out to Italian soldiers who fought in Africa in the late 1800s. It was first issued in 1894. It seems pretty valuable and I think it's awesome.
Lauer was a VERY prolific token maker from Nurnberg. There are tons of varieties of spielgeld or play money. He also made tokens for many other establishments.
When I search Lauer on Numista.com it returns with 2961 results. They (generationally) made medals for european nobility, coins for other countries, and alot of Notgeld. 50 + pages of it.
Your St Helena coin was issued by the East India Company - the island was important for sailing ships on the way to or from S. Afria and the East to replenish their water barrels. The head shown on the Nuremburg Laurer token is that of Alfonso XII of Spain (1874 to 1855). To avoid any possible problem with the Spanish authorities, it cleary states ES IMITACION.
Keep your eye out for the rarer variety that has the knee pointing to A (also has a low Y in PENNY). Pridmore does list one with the knee pointing between the A&B but I'm not convinced. Either I've never seen one or I can't tell the difference.
