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Identifying tokens and jettons

Not quite coins.

Jettons are reckoning counters; trade tokens are unofficial small change. Both imitate coin designs but carry different legends, and neither is a “fake coin” — each served a real purpose.

Nuremberg jettons flooded Europe from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries — the “rose and orb” type and ship pennies are everywhere, and the makers’ names (Krauwinckel, Schultes) date them closely.

Seventeenth-century trade tokens name a real tradesman and town, often with a trade sign — a farthing’s worth of local history. Eighteenth-century Conder tokens turn political and pictorial and are collected in their own right.

Read the legend and device rather than assuming a coin. Record issuer, town, and date where given; an identified token is often more informative than a worn coin of the same size.

From the guide library inside Collectors Catalogues, a free app for cataloguing antiques and finds with honest, museum-grade records.

More on coins

Identifying coins — Portrait, legend, and strike.

Identifying Roman silver coins — Denarii, antoniniani, and siliquae — and how to tell them apart.

Identifying Roman bronze coins — From heavy sestertii to tiny late-Roman nummi.

Identifying Greek coins — City badges, gods, and fabric — reading coins struck before Rome ruled.

Identifying Celtic coins — Abstract horses, wreaths, and heads — coinage reimagined by Iron Age artists.

Identifying Byzantine coins — Crosses, Christ portraits, and big value marks — the empire after Rome.

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