Odd Looking Coin. | Psyche And Cupid Jeton

pics would be needed but I thinks its a medal of some sort

Yep, it's a jeton. A jeton isn't a "coin", it's a counter, used either in card games or similar recreations, or for the more serious purpose of helping people add up amounts of money; see this site for more details.

Since this one has German on it. it's probably from the very extensive Nuremberg series of jetons. In German, jetons are often called "rechenpfennig" or "counting tokens".

On the obverse, we have a portrait of Psyche who was the husband of Cupid, the god who made people fall in love by shooting them with his arrows. She was a minor figure in Greek mythology who became popular in Renaissance Europe. "L" I suspect is the mintmark; I would assume it stands for Lauer or Lauffer, one of the Nuremberg jeton families.

On the reverse, I would interpret the legend to read "Fur Lieb und Freide", which I would translate from slightly archaic German as "For love and courtship". The fellow with the bow and arrow is presumably Psyche's husband, Cupid.

Given it's theme, this particular type of jeton may have also doubled up as a "good luck charm" for spouse-hunters, but it would not have been primarily manufactured with this end in mind. The Nuremberg jeton-makers just made jetons, and didn't really care what people did with them after they bought them.

I would guess somewhere in the period 1700-1900. Some jetons have a date on them, or commemorate some event that helps narrow the date down. I suspect for ones like this they'd have to rely on archaeological evidence. There are reference books that cover jetons; I don't have any of them.

As for price, jetons are usually not that expensive. Since they're not listed in the "mainstream" coin catalogues, most dealers generally put them in their "wierd stuff" scratchtrays, even when they know exactly what they are. I bought an Almost Uncirculated rose-and-orb type Nuremberg jeton from a dealer at a coin show last year; I paid AU$19 for it.