1.
Coin
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A coin is a small, flat, round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by a government, Coins are usually metal or alloy, or sometimes made of synthetic materials. Coins made of metal are stored in large quantities as bullion coins. Other coins are used as money in transactions, circulating alongside banknotes. Usually the highest value coin in circulation is less than the lowest-value note. In the last hundred years, the value of circulation coins has occasionally been lower than the value of the metal they contain. Exceptions to the rule of face value being higher than content value also occur for some bullion coins made of copper, silver, or gold, while the Eagle, Maple Leaf, and Sovereign coins have nominal face values, the Krugerrand does not. The first coins were developed independently in Iron Age Anatolia and Archaic Greece, India, Coins spread rapidly in the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, throughout Greece and Persia, and further to the Balkans. Standardized Roman currency was used throughout the Roman Empire, important Roman gold and silver coins were continued into the Middle Ages. Fiat money first arose in medieval China, with the paper money. Early paper money was introduced in Europe in the later Middle Ages, the penny was minted as a silver coin until the 17th century. The first circulating United States coins were cents, produced in 1793, Coins were an evolution of currency systems of the Late Bronze Age, where standard-sized ingots, and tokens such as knife money, were used to store and transfer value. In the late Chinese Bronze Age, standardized cast tokens were made and these were replicas in bronze of earlier Chinese currency, cowrie shells, so they were named Bronze Shell. According to Aristotle and Pollux, the first issuer of coins was Hermodike of Kyme The earliest coins are associated with Iron Age Anatolia. Early electrum coins were not standardized in weight, and in their earliest stage may have been ritual objects, such as badges or medals, issued by priests. The first Lydian coins were made of electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of silver, most of the early Lydian coins include no writing, only an image of a symbolic animal. Anatolian Artemis was the Πὀτνια Θηρῶν, whose symbol was the stag, a small percentage of early Lydian/Greek coins have a legend
2.
Banknote
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A banknote is a type of negotiable instrument known as a promissory note, made by a bank, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by banks, who were legally required to redeem the notes for legal tender when presented to the chief cashier of the originating bank. These commercial banknotes only traded at face value in the served by the issuing bank. Commercial banknotes have primarily been replaced by national banknotes issued by central banks, national banknotes are generally legal tender, meaning that medium of payment is allowed by law or recognized by a legal system to be valid for meeting a financial obligation. Historically, banks sought to ensure that they could always pay customers in coins when they presented banknotes for payment and this practice of backing notes with something of substance is the basis for the history of central banks backing their currencies in gold or silver. Today, most national currencies have no backing in precious metals or commodities and have value only by fiat, with the exception of non-circulating high-value or precious metal issues, coins are used for lower valued monetary units, while banknotes are used for higher values. The idea of using a durable light-weight substance as evidence of a promise to pay a bearer on demand originated in China during the Han Dynasty in 118 BC, the first known banknote was first developed in China during the Tang and Song dynasties, starting in the 7th century. Its roots were in merchant receipts of deposit during the Tang Dynasty, as merchants, during the Yuan Dynasty, banknotes were adopted by the Mongol Empire. In Europe, the concept of banknotes was first introduced during the 13th century by such as Marco Polo. Counterfeiting, the forgery of banknotes, is an inherent challenge in issuing currency and it is countered by anticounterfeiting measures in the printing of banknotes. Fighting the counterfeiting of banknotes and cheques has been a driver of security printing methods development in recent centuries. Paper currency first developed in the Tang Dynasty China during the 7th century, although true paper money did not appear until the 11th century, the usage of paper currency later spread throughout the Mongol Empire. European explorers like Marco Polo introduced the concept in Europe during the 13th century, napoleon issued paper banknotes in the early 1800s. Paper money originated in two forms, drafts, which are receipts for value held on account, and bills, the perception of banknotes as money has evolved over time. Originally, money was based on precious metals, Banknotes were seen as essentially an I. O. U. or promissory note, a promise to pay someone in precious metal on presentation. With the gradual removal of precious metals from the system, banknotes evolved to represent credit money. Notes or bills were referred to in 18th century novels and were often a key part of the plot such as a note drawn by Lord X for £100 which becomes due in 3 months time. Its roots were in merchant receipts of deposit during the Tang Dynasty, as merchants, before the use of paper, the Chinese used coins that were circular, with a rectangular hole in the middle
3.
Counterfeit money
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Counterfeit money is imitation currency produced without the legal sanction of the state or government. Producing or using counterfeit money is a form of fraud or forgery, counterfeiting is almost as old as money itself. Plated copies have found of Lydian coins which are thought to be among the first western coins. Before the introduction of money, the most prevalent method of counterfeiting involved mixing base metals with pure gold or silver. A form of counterfeiting is the production of documents by legitimate printers in response to fraudulent instructions, during World War II, the Nazis forged British pounds and American dollars. Today some of the finest counterfeit banknotes are called Superdollars because of their high quality, there has been significant counterfeiting of Euro banknotes and coins since the launch of the currency in 2002, but considerably less than for the US dollar. Traditionally, anti-counterfeiting measures involved including fine detail with raised intaglio printing on bills which allows non-experts to easily spot forgeries, on coins, milled or reeded edges are used to show that none of the valuable metal has been scraped off. Counterfeiting is as old as money itself, and is prevalent throughout history that it has been called the worlds second oldest profession. Coinage of money began in the Greek city of Lydia around 600 B. C, before the introduction of paper money, the most prevalent method of counterfeiting involved mixing base metals with pure gold or silver. A common practice was to shave the edges of a coin, precious metals collected in this way could be used to produce counterfeit coinage. A fourrée is an ancient type of coin, in which a base metal core has been plated with a precious metal to resemble its solid metal counterpart. When paper money was introduced in China in the 13th century, to control access to the paper, guards were stationed around mulberry forests, while counterfeiters were punished by death. In the 13th century Mastro Adamo was mentioned by Dante Alighieri as a counterfeiter of the Florentine fiorino, the English couple Thomas and Anne Rogers were convicted on 15 October 1690 for Clipping 40 pieces of Silver. Thomas Rogers was hanged, drawn and quartered while Anne Rogers was burnt alive, evidence supplied by an informant led to the arrest of the last of the English Coiners King David Hartley, who was executed by hanging in 1770. The extreme forms of punishment were meted out for acts of treason against state or Crown and these include producing the false money and selling it wholesale. Similarly, in America, Colonial paper currency printed by Benjamin Franklin, the theory behind such harsh punishments was that one who had the skills to counterfeit currency was considered a threat to the safety of the State, and had to be eliminated. Far more fortunate was a practitioner of the same art. Rather than executing Alexander the Barber, the Emperor chose to employ his talents in the governments own service, nations have used counterfeiting as a means of warfare
4.
Ancient Greek coinage
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The history of Ancient Greek coinage can be divided into four periods, the Archaic, the Classical, the Hellenistic and the Roman. The Archaic period extends from the introduction of coinage to the Greek world during the 7th century BC until the Persian Wars in about 480 BC, the Greek cities continued to produce their own coins for several more centuries under Roman rule. The coins produced during this period are called Roman provincial coins or Greek Imperial Coins, the word drachm means a handful, literally a grasp. Drachmae were divided into six obols, and six spits made a handful and this suggests that before coinage came to be used in Greece, spits in prehistoric times were used as measures in daily transactions. Because of this aspect, Spartan legislation famously forbade issuance of Spartan coin, and enforced the continued use of iron spits so as to discourage avarice. In addition to its meaning, the word obol was retained as a Greek word for coins of small value. The obol was further subdivided into tetartemorioi which represented 1/4 of an obol and this coin is mentioned by Aristotle as the smallest silver coin. Various multiples of this denomination were also struck, including the trihemitetartemorion valued at 3/8 of an obol and these coins were made of electrum, an alloy of gold and silver that was highly prized and abundant in that area. By the middle of the 6th century BC, technology had advanced, making the production of pure gold, accordingly, King Croesus introduced a bi-metallic standard that allowed for coins of pure gold and pure silver to be struck and traded in the marketplace. The Greek world was divided more than two thousand self-governing city-states, and more than half of them issued their own coins. As such coins circulated widely, other cities began to mint coins to this Aeginetan weight standard of. Athenian coins, however, were struck on the Attic standard, over time, Athens plentiful supply of silver from the mines at Laurion and its increasing dominance in trade made this the pre-eminent standard. These coins, known as owls because of their central design feature, were minted to an extremely tight standard of purity. This contributed to their success as the premier trade coin of their era, tetradrachms on this weight standard continued to be a widely used coin through the classical period. By the time of Alexander the Great and his Hellenistic successors, the Classical period saw Greek coinage reach a high level of technical and aesthetic quality. Larger cities now produced a range of silver and gold coins, most bearing a portrait of their patron god or goddess or a legendary hero on one side. Some coins employed a visual pun, some coins from Rhodes featured a rose, the use of inscriptions on coins also began, usually the name of the issuing city. The wealthy cities of Sicily produced some especially fine coins, the large silver decadrachm coin from Syracuse is regarded by many collectors as the finest coin produced in the ancient world, perhaps ever
5.
Roman currency
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Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze, orichalcum and copper coinage. From its introduction to the Republic, during the third century BC, well into Imperial times, Roman currency saw many changes in form, denomination, a persistent feature was the inflationary debasement and replacement of coins over the centuries. Notable examples of this followed the reforms of Diocletian and this trend continued into Byzantine times. The manufacture of coins in the Roman culture, dating from about the 4th century BC, the origin of the word mint is ascribed to the manufacture of silver coin at Rome in 269 BC at the temple of Juno Moneta. This goddess became the personification of money, and her name was applied both to money and to its place of manufacture, Roman mints were spread widely across the Empire, and were sometimes used for propaganda purposes. The populace often learned of a new Roman Emperor when coins appeared with the new Emperors portrait. The Romans cast their larger copper coins in clay moulds carrying distinctive markings, not because they knew nothing of striking, Roman adoption of metallic commodity money was a late development in monetary history. Bullion bars and ingots were used as money in Mesopotamia since the 7th millennium BC, coinage proper was only introduced by the Roman Republican government c.300 BC. For these reasons, the Romans would have known about coinage systems long before their government actually introduced them. The reason behind Romes adoption of coinage was likely cultural, the Romans had no pressing economic need, but they wanted to emulate Greek culture, and they considered the institution of minted money a significant feature of that culture. However, Roman coinage initially saw limited use. The type of money introduced by Rome was unlike that found elsewhere in the ancient Mediterranean and it combined a number of uncommon elements. One example is the large bronze bullion, the aes signatum and it measured about 160 by 90 millimetres and weighed around 1,500 to 1,600 grams, being made out of a highly leaded tin bronze. Although similar metal bars had been produced in Italy and northern Etruscan areas, these had been made of Aes grave. Along with the aes signatum, the Roman state also issued a series of bronze, produced using the manner of manufacture then utilised in Greek Naples, the designs of these early coins were also heavily influenced by Hellenic designs. The designs on the coinage of the Republican period displayed a solid conservatism, usually illustrating mythical scenes or personifications of various gods, in 27 BC, the Roman Republic came to an end as Augustus ascended to the throne as the first emperor. Taking autocratic power, it became recognized that there was a link between the emperors sovereignty and the production of coinage. The imagery on coins took an important step when Julius Caesar issued coins bearing his own portrait, while moneyers had earlier issued coins with portraits of ancestors, Caesars was the first Roman coinage to feature the portrait of a living individual
6.
Coinage of India
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Coins provide not only evidence of art and economy, but also a wisdom for understanding the history and politics of a nation. As a means of communication, they speak to the political, Coinage of India, issued by Imperial dynasties and Middle kingdoms began anywhere between 6th century BCE to 1st millennium BCE, and consisted mainly of copper and silver coins in its initial stage. Scholars remain divided over the origins of Indian coinage, cowry shells was first used in India as commodity money. In recent discoveries punched mark Mudras of stone have been found in lost city of Dwaraka, which is said to be existed at least 5,000 years ago. The Indus Valley Civilisation dates back between 2500 BC and 1750 BC, what is known, however, is that metal currency was minted in India well before the Mauryan Empire, and as radio carbon dating indicates, before the 5th century BCE. The practice of minted coins spread to the Indo-Gangetic Plain from West Asia, the coins of this period were called Puranas, Karshapanas or Pana. Mahajanapadas that minted their own coins included Gandhara, Kuntala, Kuru, Panchala, Shakya, Surasena, the tradition of Indian coinage was further influenced by the coming of Turkic and Mughal invaders in India. The East India Company introduced uniform coinage in the 19th century CE, and these coins were imitated by the modern nation states of Republic of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. Numismatics plays a role in determining certain period of Indian history. Punch-marked coins are a type of early Coinage of India, dating to between about the 6th and 2nd centuries BC. The first coins in India were minted around the 6th century BC by the Mahajanapadas of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, the coins of this period were punch-marked coins called Puranas, Karshapanas or Pana. Several of these coins had a symbol, for example, Saurashtra had a humped bull. These coins were made of silver of a weight but with an irregular shape. This was gained by cutting up silver bars and then making the weight by cutting the edges of the coin. They are mentioned in the Manu, Panini, and Buddhist Jataka stories, shurasena Surashtra Early coins of India were made of silver and copper, and bore animal and plant symbols on them. The Mauryan coins were marked with the royal standard to ascertain their authenticity. The Arthashastra, written by Kautilya, mentions minting of coins, Kautilya also seemed to advocate a theory of bimetallism for coinage, which involved the use of two metals, copper and silver, under one government. Punch marked coins were replaced at the fall of the Maurya Empire by cast, each individual coins was first cast by pouring a molten metal, usually copper or silver, into a cavity formed by two molds
7.
Historical money of Tibet
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The use of historical money in Tibet started in ancient times, when Tibet had no coined currency of its own. Bartering was common, gold was a medium of exchange, and shell money, a few coins from other countries were also occasionally in use. Coins were first used in an extensive way in the 17th century. There were however various difficulties with this system, in 1763/64 and 1785 the first silver coins were struck in Tibet. In 1792 the first mass-produced silver coins were created under joint Chinese, coins bearing Tibetan inscriptions only were subsequently replaced by issues which had Chinese and Tibetan legends. In 1840 purely Tibetan coinage was struck under Tibetan authority, in 1910 the Tibetan government started producing a large range of copper and silver coins of different denominations, and in 1918 to 1921, gold coins were struck. Tibetan banknotes were first issued in 1913, from 1955 to 1959 no more Tibetan coins were created, although banknotes were still being printed, and by 1959 all of the money was gradually being replaced with renminbi yuan. In ancient Tibet, the use of coins was insignificant, tibet’s main neighbours, India, Nepal and China had had their own coinage since time immemorial. Tibet had the biggest trade volume with China, the main items being horses from north-eastern Tibet. Tibet also exported medicinal herbs, stag antlers, musk and gold to China, and apart from tea, the trade volume with Tibets southern neighbours, India, Nepal and Bhutan, was much smaller. The Tibetan traders mainly exchanged salt and wool for grain with these countries, traditionally one measure of salt was traded for one measure of grain at the border with Nepal and India. Other, less important export goods were yak tails, musk, for the 17th century, the export of falcons to India is also recorded. For large transactions within Tibet, gold dust and Chinese silver ingots were used and these ingots came in different shapes, the most common kind resembled horseshoes or donkey shoes, and were named rta rmig ma in Tibetan. For small transactions, various consumer goods could be used, among others, these were areca nuts, tobacco, ceremonial scarves and tea Tea was usually traded in the form of tea bricks. This developed into the most important medium of exchange in the 19th century, so far there exists no consent whether these pieces could be regarded as coins. The officials had to convert these into the current monetary standard, lastly a form of gold currency named Sertam is mentioned which had a gold weight of 2 sewas. Fifteen Sertam corresponded to one standard Changsho, the currency unit Gursho was already mentioned by Sarat Chandra Das in his Tibetan-English Dictionary. According to this author 1 Gursho =24 sewas, Chinese silver ingots were used until the 20th century for larger transactions
8.
Mint (facility)
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A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins that can be used in currency. The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins, in the beginning, hammered coinage or cast coinage were the chief means of coin minting, with resulting production runs numbering as little as the hundreds or thousands. In modern mints, coin dies are manufactured in large numbers, with the mass production of currency, the production cost is weighed when minting coins. For example, it costs the United States Mint much less than 25 cents to make a quarter, metals were well suited to represent wealth, owing to their great intrinsic value and their durability, divisibility and rarity. The first mint was established in Lydia in the 7th century BC, for coining gold, silver. The Lydian innovation of manufacturing coins under the authority of the spread to neighboring Greece. Some of the earliest Greek mints were within city-states on Greek islands such as Crete, at about the same time, coins and mints appeared independently in China and spread to Korea and Japan. The manufacture of coins in the Roman Empire, dating from about the 4th century BC, the origin of the word mint is ascribed to the manufacture of silver coin at Rome in 269 BC at the temple of Juno Moneta. This goddess became the personification of money, and her name was applied both to money and to its place of manufacture, Roman mints were spread widely across the Empire, and were sometimes used for propaganda purposes. The populace often learned of a new Roman Emperor when coins appeared with the new Emperors portrait, Ancient coins were made by casting in moulds or by striking between engraved dies. The Romans cast their larger copper coins in clay moulds carrying distinctive markings, not because they knew nothing of striking, casting is now used only by counterfeiters. The most ancient coins were cast in bulletshaped or conical moulds, the blank or unmarked piece of metal was placed on a small anvil, and the die was held in position with tongs. The reverse or lower side of the received a rectangular mark made by the sharp edges of the little anvil. Subsequently the anvil was marked in ways, and decorated with letters and figures of beasts. The spherical blanks soon gave place to lenticular-shaped ones, the blank was made red-hot and struck between cold dies. One blow was usually insufficient, and the method was similar to that used in striking medals in high relief. With the substitution of iron for bronze as the material for dies, about 300 AD, in the Middle Ages bars of metal were cast and hammered out on an anvil. Portions of the sheets were then cut out with shears
9.
Hammered coinage
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Hammered coins were produced by placing a blank piece of metal of the correct weight between two dies, and then striking the upper die with a hammer to produce the required image on both sides. The planchet was usually cast from a mold, the bottom die was usually counter sunk in a log or other sturdy surface and was called a pile. One of the held the die for the other side. Experimental archeology suggests that a lower die could be expected to last for up to 10,000 strikes depending on the level of wear deemed acceptable. Upper dies seem to have a far greater range of lives with usable lives ranging from just over 100 strikes to nearly 8000 being reported, combining archaeological evidence with historic records suggests ancient coin producers could get as many as 47,000 strikes out of an individual die. In later history, in order to increase the production of coins, hammered coins were produced from strips of metal of the correct thickness. Both methods of producing hammered coins meant that it was difficult to produce coins of a regular diameter, coins were liable to suffer from clipping where unscrupulous people would remove slivers of precious metal since it was difficult to determine the correct diameter of the coin. Coins were also vulnerable to sweating, which is silver coins would be placed in a bag that would be vigorously shaken. This would produce silver dust, which could later be removed from the bag, the ability to fashion coins from machines caused hammered coins to become gradually obsolete during the 17th century. They were still made in Venice until the 1770s, france became the first country to adopt a full machine-made coin in 1643. An alternative method of producing early coins, particularly found in Asia and this method of coin production continued in China into the nineteenth century. Up to a couple of coins could be produced at one time from a single mold, when a tree of coins would be produced
10.
Exonumia
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Exonumia are numismatic items other than coins and paper money. This includes Good For tokens, badges, counterstamped coins, elongated coins, encased coins, souvenir medallions, tags, wooden nickels and it is related to numismatics, and many coin collectors are also exonumists. Besides the above definition, others extend it to include non-coins which may or may not be legal tenders such as cheques, credit cards. These can also be considered notaphily or scripophily, the noun exonumia is derived from two classical roots, exo, meaning out-of in Greek, and nummus, meaning coin in Latin, thus, out-of-coins. Usually, the term exonumia is applied to objects in the United States. The words exonumist and exonumia were coined in July 1960 by Russell Rulau, an authority and author on the subject. Chronologically, in the United States many Exonumia items were used as currency when actual money was not easily available in the economy, a notable exception to this definition are Medals, which were generally not used as currency or exchange. See the for clarification section below for distinctions between various branches of exonumia, Tokens were used both to advertise and to facilitate commerce. Token authority Russell Rulau offers a definition for exonumia. For example, an advertising token may also be considered a medal, Good For tokens may also advertise. Counterstamped coins have been called “little billboards. ”Strictly, exonumia is anything not a governmental issue coin and this could almost mean anything coin-like. The English term Para-numismatica, or alongside currency, appears more limiting, hinting that tokens must have some sort of “value” or monetary usage, one definition of Para-numismatica is anything coin-like but not a coin. In America this is not the accepted usage, rulaus 1040 page tome, UNITED STATES TOKENS, 1700-1900 includes many tokens without any monetary value depicted on the token. While he included many items, some types of exonumia were not included just so the book would not get any bigger, the following groupings of categories are continually expanding. One way of parsing tokens is into three general categories, Has a ‘value, ’ facilitating commerce, such as Good For Something. Commemoration, remembrance, dedication, or the like, for person, place. Typically catalogs of tokens are organized by location, time period and/or type of item, historically the need for tokens grew out of the need for currency. In America some tokens legally circulated alongside or instead of currency up until recently, hard Times Tokens and Civil War Tokens each were the size of the contemporary cent
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Medal
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A medal may be awarded to a person or organization as a form of recognition for sporting, military, scientific, academic, or various other achievements. Military awards and decorations are more precise terms for types of state decoration. Medals may also be created for sale to commemorate particular individuals or events, an artist who creates medals or medallions is called a medallist or medalist. There are also devotional medals which may be worn for religious reasons, Medals have long been popular collectible items either as a variety of exonumia or of militaria. Medallions may also be called table medals because they are too large to be worn and can only be displayed on a wall, table top, desk, the word medallion has the same ultimate derivation, but this time through the Italian medaglione, meaning large medal. The main or front surface of a medal is termed the obverse, the reverse, or back surface of the medal, is not always used and may be left blank or may contain a secondary design. It is not uncommon to only an artistic rendering on the obverse, while all details. The rim is only occasionally employed to display an inscription such as a motto, privy mark, engraver symbol, assayer’s marking. Medals that are intended to be hung from a ribbon also include a suspension piece at the crest with which to loop a suspension ring through. It is through the ring that a ribbon is run or folded so the medal may hang pendent, Medals pinned to the breast use only a small cut of ribbon that is attached to a top bar where the brooch pin is affixed. Top bars may be hidden under the ribbon so they are not visible, be a device from which the ribbon attaches. Some top bars are elaborate and contain a whole design unto themselves, Medals that are made with inexpensive material might be gilded, silver-plated, chased, or finished in a variety of other ways to improve their appearance. Medals have also made of rock, gemstone, ivory, glass, porcelain, terra cotta, coal, wood, paper, enamel, lacquerware. Honorary awards, as a button, which it is custom to give the kings kinsmen. Roman emperors used both military awards of medals, and political gifts of medallions that were very large coins, usually in gold or silver. Both these and actual golden coins were often set as pieces of jewellery, the bracteate is a type of thin gold medal, usually plain on the reverse, found in Northern Europe from the so-called Dark Ages or Migration Period. They often have suspension loops and were intended to be worn on a chain as jewellery. They imitate, at a distance, Roman imperial coins and medallions, the surviving example is mounted for wearing as jewellery
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Token coin
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In the study of numismatics, token coins or trade tokens are coin-like objects used instead of coins. The field of tokens is part of exonumia and token coins are token money, Tokens either have a denomination shown or implied by size, color or shape. Tokens are often made of metals, copper, pewter, aluminium, brass and tin were commonly used, while bakelite, leather, porcelain. In the case of currency issued by a company but also recognized by the state there is a convergence between tokens and currency. In their purest form, currency tokens issued by a crossed the boundary of merely being trade tokens when they were sanctioned by the local government authority. This was sometimes a measure resulting from a shortage of money or the governments inability to issue its own coinage. In effect, the organization behind the tokens became the regional bank, a classic example of this is the Strachan and Co trade tokens of East Griqualand in South Africa which were used as currency by the indigenous people in the region from 1874. Their initial success resulted from the scarcity of small change in this region from that time. Similarly, in times of inflation, tokens have sometimes taken on a currency role. An example of this is Italian or Israeli telephone tokens, which were good for the same service even as prices increased. New York City Subway tokens were also accepted sometimes in trade, or even in parking meters, coin-like objects from the Roman Empire called spintria have been interpreted as a form of early tokens. Their functions are not known from history, but they appear to have been brothel tokens or possibly gaming tokens. Medieval English monasteries issued tokens to pay for services from outsiders and these tokens circulated in nearby villages where they were called Abbots money. Also, counters called jetons were used as small change without official blessing, the token was in effect a pledge redeemable in goods but not necessarily for currency. These tokens never received official sanction from government but were accepted and circulated quite widely and this shortage was felt more keenly because of the rapid growth of trade in the towns and cities, and this in turn prompted both local authorities and merchants to issue tokens. These tokens were most commonly made of copper or brass, but pewter, lead, most were not given a specific denomination and were intended to pass as farthings, but there are also a large number of halfpenny and sometimes penny tokens. Halfpenny and penny tokens usually, but not always, bear the denomination on their face, most such tokens indicate the name of their issuer, which might either be his or her full name or initials. Where initials were provided, it was practice to provide three—one for the surname
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