The denomination on this piece, "4
D" is British; the D is shorthand for the predecimal pence - so it could have been used in Britain itself, or in any one of the British colonies or dominions that also used pence.
I just asked one of the token experts in my coin club about it. He said it's a fairly common "amusement machine" token, made overseas (apparently in Germany, if the websites are correct) but used extensively here in Australia, in "trade stimulators" and similar devices during the period such machines were legal here (roughly 1920-1950). The website you linked to shows a "Bajazzo" trade stimulator machine the tokens were originally made for, though whether it was exactly such a machine it would have been used on here in Australia, or something completely different, is impossible to tell now.
This website shows another such machine, which the website author had refurbished and restored.
Bajazzo was a "game of skill", rather than a "game of luck". The aim seems to have been to use the little control dial at the bottom of the box to move the clown back and forth, catching the tokens as they fell and dropping them down the prize chute.
The stamped number "1210" on the token would have been used by the token manufacturer to identify the token's physical properties if replacements were required.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
Posted 10/10/2011 01:34 am
I guess it's from the UK..
