Is This 1868 Spanish Piece A Medal, A Token, Or A Contemporary Counterfeit?

There was an actual 90% gold coin made but your looks like a copy.

http://www.coindatabase.com/coin_de...cdb=2R230007

There a number of threads on these forums that discuss these pieces.

They appear to be some sort of jeton or token and some appear to have been plated and passed (or attempted to pass) as counterfeits. Whether they began as counterfeits or as tokens is not even certain, because thus far no definitive information on their origins or precise history has been found.

I have seen these referred to as counters.

They are extremely common with the hole punched to dead center. Not many are seen without the hole and none appear with typical period cancellations.

I have always suspected these were used as jewelry suspended from a bracelet etc., but the idea of a counter is also quite viable.

I do not classify these as circulating counterfeits made expressly for that purpose. They fall into the same category as the Guinea and Half Guinea counters of George III of England. Some of these had advertising copy as legends.