Let's see your exonumia!

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Bus ride token

 

Prison store token, they call them residents on this one.

 

The "Resident," euphemism reminds me of the Blues Brothers--"My service to the state."

 

It is always nice to toss something ancient in the exonumia thread!


Syria, 3rd - 1st centuries BC
PB tessera, possibly a weight or seal.
19mm, 4.6g, maximum thickness 6mm.
Obv.: Helmeted head left.
Rev.: Helmeted head left.
Ex-FORVM

From the Dictionary of Roman Coins:

"Tessera, a square, marked with a certain number of points, to serve as a ticket or a voucher.

Tesserae were also small pieces of wood, of bone or of ivory, or of bronze, which received various names, according to the different purposes to which they were applied. Accordingly there were theatrical, gladiatorial, liberal (frumentariae), convivial, military, and hospitable tesserae. Many of these are a species of coin, or counter, and are found in most large numismatic cabinets. From the times of the emperors they were chiefly employed for distribution amongst the people, to enable each individual to go with one or more of them, and receive the gifts which had been assigned to him, in corn, in oil, in money, and in every other article of greater or less value. For this reason they were call tesserae liberalitatis.

Medals, struck when public distributions were made, present numerous examples of this kind, and the tessera, or tablet, appears in the right hand of the figure, which respectively personify Annona, and Liberalitas. See the words."

This was purchased from CoinTalk's very own @John Anthony . I'm going to shamelessly steal his description:

"Ah, the infinitely complicated and mysterious world of ancient lead. Here's a...thing, from ancient Syria. Is it a token or a weight, or something else? I acquired this intriguing piece from Joe Sermarini at FORVM, who could only tell me that the fabric and size of the piece placed it in ancient Syria – according to a conversation he had with the scholar and collector of tesserae, Gert Boersma.

As you can see, it's considerably larger than most ancient tesserae, with helmeted busts on both sides in high relief. Perhaps it's a weight? Or a seal? Is it a military token? If you collect ancient coins (or exonumia or artifacts for that matter), there comes a time when you just have to embrace the mystery."

The bold part I added because this is exactly what attracted to this tessera, a possible military token! In my ancient collection, I have the below coin (think I posted it here before) that was minted when Hannibal was in control of parts of Spain that was used by his troops...possible military trade token?! Who knows but I like the idea anyway.


Carthaginians in Hispania
AE 1/4 Calco, 1.5g, 13mm; mobile military mint, 218-208 BC.
Obv.: Wreathed head of Tanit left.
Rev.: Crested helmet left, with cheek guards.

 

I missed the set at the ANA

but:

 

I won a guessing game and this was the prize I chose.

It is called a Numistamp. These were designed and made for a Mr. Mort Reed. Some of you may recognize the name as he has written books about numismatics and was a former illustrator and columnist for Coin World Magazine in the late 60's into the 70's.

In the early 70's Mr.Reed came out with the Numistamp series of US Coins. These are pretty hefty at 51 grams but I believe they are made out of pewter and the front has a nickel plating. If I am wrong on this please correct me.

At only 2 1/4" x 1 3/4" in diameter they make a fun addition to any collectors US type set collection. Not sure how many different varieties he made. The one above is the 1798 Flowing Hair Heraldic Eagle 10 cent variety I believe. One of over 50 different ones.

 

Found this in a Coin Star reject tray yesterday. Hadn't seen one in years.

 

Circus's Norwegian Cruise Line token is one of several similar tokens issued by the various cruise lines that at one time were used in slot machines onboard (which no longer use coins) but now mostly feature in the "Penny Falls" machines. My experience is that the tokens are gradually being replaced even there with quarters.

 

Old slot machine winning token

 

English arcade token

 

@dwhiz

 

Sorry about the glare in some photos. Here is three more tokens and one coal scrip. I acquired the coal scrip from my step-father, and has always been interesting to me since I have been born and raised in Kentucky. I actually live in the north eastern part near the Ohio River made up of mainly tobacco and dairy farmers. To the best of my knowledge there has never been any coal mining around my immediate area, and the token came from Jenkins, Ky (to the south). The idea and history behind being paid with coal scrip intrigues me. This is my only coal scrip and I can only imagine its journey to me; I will have to ask my step-dad sometime if any of his family were coal miners. For anyone interested in a little history behind this coal mining town I will have some links posted. It is interesting to see some of the ordinances the town first established.

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer...s/Kentucky/Letcher/Jenkins/_Texts/HJK/C*.html

http://www.appalachianhistory.net/2018/02/they-used-outlaws-and-anything-they.html