Help identifying coin

Is this fake, a token or other. It has a rim on one side, very thin and dark copper or bronze .. I lightened in photo editor to see details. Any help appreciated.

 

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I think it maybe be an evasion token which is a contemporary counterfeit of the English half pennies of the 18th century , many different types do exist

 

Those look like Greek letters unless they are gobbdy-gook as the population was mostly illiterate.

 

English evasions did use obscure lettering and crazy portraits just for the fact that people were illiterate and the Crown couldn't prosecute them for counterfeiting because the coins were not actual copies of the current coinage

 

These devices appear to be adapted from images of Native Americans popular in Europe in the 18th century - the legend doesn't seem to be intended to be read - or it's some sort of imitation of a Greek coin legend - it might be meant to look as if is it to be read something like "bASIΛEV (Greek for "King") in the lower right quadrant. The fork-like object in the lower right reverse field looks awfully like the tamgha symbols one finds on medieval coins of the Indian sub-continent.
In short, it's a mish-mash - it has obviously circulated extensively or been carried in a pocket as a good-luck piece for many years. I think the Evasion Token theory is a very good guess, although it might have been a "Lodge Penny" - a token of some obscure European club which adopted
native American themes for its symbology.
I'm afraid I don't know why all this has a strike-out line through it, I was merely placing a Greek lamda in the "legend" as an edit and now everything after that word is struck out (?!?)

 

I love it (or hate it?) when the computer takes over like that.

I think the coin in question is real neat looking and I would have sprung for it, if the price were not too high, and hope to find out later what it is. I suspect it might be a real coin, appears well struck and centered on a planchet similar to a VOC Duit. Maybe from Atlantis?

 

not a coin, a token

 

Treashunt... How can u tell?

I would love to be educated how to differentiate

 

Treashunt... How can u tell?

I would love to be educated how to differentiate

 

What do you see to differentiate?

 

That's a legitimate question, Michele. If it were not for the fact that nothing that looks like the devices on the CIQ was ever on any coins with which those commenting are familiar, we might not be so certain that it's a token. Even though some coins are, technically speaking, tokens, lets put a pin in that thought and just say that if it isn't a coin per-se, then (unless it's a button or a mount of some sort) a circular, struck item like this is technically a token. A token may be made to serve as money, some coins may technically be "tokens", but a token can never be a "coin" - the definition of which is it bears the issuing authority's marks attesting to the value of the piece as backed up by the authority of the issuing entity.

 

Try googling "exonumia" - I'm not sure you'll see a set of definitions (although you might) you will at least see a lot of non-coin, coin-like objects, ie: tokens.

 

Michele, what is the diameter of this item?

 

Where'd ya get this piece Michele?

 

It may also be a magician's token, the portrait on the obverse maybe holding what looks like a wand

 

Green,

eBay when I first started coin collecting.
Was sold as an ancient coin from the Middle East. Think I paid $45

 

I know counterfeits are pretty convincing but I do know antiques...this does have some age to it and the fading and toning would be somewhat noticeable. It does have a part rim on one side and looks like it was possibly machine made. It's also unusually thin - almost half of a dime.

It's that he is holding something...on the obverse that made me suspicious. I no nothing about these type of coins but ancients fascinate me.

 

sorry...it is slightly large then a lincoln cent...not by much.

 

As far as I can see this is a 100% machined coin, token or coin-like token. In my opinion, it is highly unlikely to be more than ~200+ years old - it certainly is not "ancient" by any reasonable definition. The patination of the surfaces does hint at age since it would be difficult at best to deliberately reproduce that effect in a workshop, but only a couple centuries - even a few decades given the right conditions - could produce a similar "tooled leather" appearance in the surfaces and the the wear on a copper coin. If it's 19-20mm (Michele said it was a bit larger than a Lincoln cent) then it might be a farthing token. I have encountered Conder-era farthing tokens before and think it might be one, despite this combination of designs not being anything I've ever seen - and I'm still pretty sure the devices were inspired by popular inexpensive "artistic" prints of American Indians which were common at the time.

 

Wow...right on. My guesstimate in age was the same ish. Tnku all so much. This is such a great forum

If curious... I posted in "its grease" an interesting 1946 wheat ... Would love y'alls opinion. Makes me brain go yay