Hello, my little boy has been given this coin by his grandfather after finding it in a drain and we are interested to see what it is! If anyone can give me a little bit of help that would be appreciated as at the moment he is adamant that it is a pirates coin. Thank you.
Staff edit: Identified, moved to the Token Section
Jetons were not coins. Nor were they medals nor even, strictly speaking, "tokens", though "tokens" is probably the closest of the three major numismatic classes to which they belong. Jetons were used on "counting boards", which were abacus-like devices which accountants used to use back when everybody had to do mathematics using Roman numerals (imagine trying to multiply CXXVII by LXXIV!) and back when all monetary systems were non-decimal-based. As time passed, people found other uses for jetons, such as using them as gambling chips for (illegal) card games.
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
This jeton is French, from the late 15th century. One side has the IHS monogram for Jesus Christ, the other a heraldic cross fleury. Both sides have the same legend: AVE MARI STELLA DEI MATER.
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