Not sure about this one....

[Marsha]

One sided coin only

T2
1704
RC

Any ideas?

Marsha

[Sap]

It's not ancient - our "Western" numerals - 1, 2, 3, etc. - weren't invented until the late middle ages.

I'd guess it's a token or check piece of some sort. It might even be a communion token.

[Jochen]

Actually our "Western" numerals are "Eastern" numerals. They are called Arabian numerals but the Arabians have got them from India. They came to Europe around  AD 1200. Most important was the book "Liber abaci" of Leonardo da Pisa called Fibonacci AD 1202.

Best regards

[canadian_boy]

And our common numerals are based on angles:
http://arabicnumerals.tripod.com/

[Hermes III]

Hmm,
 
 
 If the Indian is Indo-European....then the numbers would still be western.

 

Bill

[Manzikert]

Hi

I'm afraid his idea of the 'arabic' western numerals having the same numbers of angles as they represent doesn't hold up except for the typeface he is using, and only then for a continental european version which includes the barred '7'.

The numerals were originally written with a reed pen on parchment or papyrus and are totally cursive, several being without any angles at all!

The standard 'arabic' numerals are ١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩٠ but there are (for example) Indian variations ۱۲۳۴۵۶۷۸۹۰, so the seven and eight numerals only have one angle, and one and zero don't have any at all.

The Arabs were extremely significant in the history of mathematics, algebra etc., but coding the number of angles into a typeface to be used more than a thousand years into the future was (I think) a little bit even beyond them

Okay, rant over, and (for anyone who has got this far) I think Marsha's object is possibly a coin weight: could you tell us what it weighs please Marsha?

Best wishes

Alan

[Marsha]

The size is 18mm and 4.3 grams....

Marsha