Numismatic and History Discussion Forums > Medieval, Islamic and Crusader Coins Discussion Forum

What exactly is a Jetton?

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Ghengis_Jon:
I've pulled a couple of tokens (?) that have been identified by others as 'jettons'.  What are these 'coins' and what were they used for?

LordBest:
Tokens and jetons were issued in most European nations between the 17th and 19th centuries, some earlier. In England they were intended as a sort of token coinage (hence the term token. ::)) due to chronic coin shortages. I cant say whether jetons struck in other European nations had a monetary value as well, though there are 5 sol token-medals minted during the French Revolution. They can also be called medalets, which is stupid because they arent small medals being of different fabric.
                                        LordBest. 8)

Ghengis_Jon:
So they're sort of a stop-gap coinage.  Or private coinage?  I thought that sort of thing got you hanged.  Interesting.  Anyway, they're too 'new' for me.   :)

whitetd49:
The earliest jetons were used as counters.  Merchants used boards for accounting and the jetons were placed on the board to keep track of finances.  Later, they were used for political statement, advertising, and gaming chips.  There was another discussion of these under Mayadiggers thread about his uncleaned coins.

LordBest:
In England they were coinage, counters, advertising, propaganda, the works all rolled in to one practically.  :)
                                       LordBest. 8)

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