Old German Token? Or A Medal? Or A Coin? | Diorama Token

I assume it's a token of some kind; the legend on the left side says "good for 5 silbergroschen". The silbergroschen was a coin denomination in several pre-Imperial German states. So whatever it is, it seems to date from before 1870.

OK, with a bit more Googling and Google-translating (and with bobbyhelmet's information) I turned up the following:

The Gropius Brothers Diorama opened in Berlin in 1828 (which was at the time in the German state of Prussia) and closed in 1850. The admission price was 10 silbergroschen, so possession of this token presumably let you in to the Christmas show for half price. The Christmas shows were apparently especially popular - maybe at least in part because of advertising gimmicks like these tokens.

A "diorama" was a very early form of picture theatre, in which large silkscreen paintings of beautiful or spectacular scenes were slowly scrolled past an audience, with skilful use of lighting and shadow creating the illusion of movement and other "special effects". The light source was the Sun, so it only ran during the daytime and presumably visitors on cloudy days got a much more subdued experience. It all sounds pretty lame now in our age of 3D-interactive virtual worlds, but 200 years ago the diorama was the most thrilling show in town.

A quick note on the currency system in Prussia at the time: there were 30 silbergroschen to a thaler, which was a large silver coin worth about 2/3 of a US silver dollar. So this token originally had a face value equivalent to about 11 cents.

No idea; tokens aren't usually collected very much outside of their country of issue. Even if a catalogue listing it has been published, "foreign tokens" are usually sold at a steep discount to their in-country catalogue price, because of the lack of demand.

You paid $20 for it. I guess that means it's worth $20.

What metal is it made of? I can't tell from the pic.