Help with coin/button

[Keving76]

I found this in a mixed lot coins and tokens form a sale.
Not sure what it is looks like a coin or button, it is very thin,
nonmagnetic, and about the size of a quarter. Any ideas what is a made of, are where and when it is from?

 

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[CRUSADER]

It's a Brass Jetton. There are only 3 likely options; English, French or German. German being the most likely, although the cross pattern is common on the English types. (the other side having Crown over Crown). I'll let those with more time track it down to a full ID.

PS. Welcome to Tnet.

 

[Red-Coat]

Welcome to Tnet.

Yes, Crusader is quite right (as always) and I was just putting together a response on similar lines.

It's a mediaeval ‘cross & crown’ jeton and I would think probably English, although those used in England were often imported from France or Germany.

Jetons were not tokens as such, in the sense that they didn’t circulate as currency. They were used as ‘counters’ on a chequered board, moved around singly and in stacks to make financial calculations. Similar in principle to the way an abacus is used for calculation. Varying the numbers of rows and columns on the board could accommodate accounting calculations in any currency, whether divided into sub-units of 10, 12, 20 or whatever. The chequered board gave rise to the term ‘exchequer’, as in ‘Chancellor of the Exchequer’.

With apologies for the quality of this example which has been holed (they’re often found as such), yours appears to be similar. Cross ‘moline’ with ‘pellets’ in the angles on the reverse and two crowns (one above the other) on the obverse.



I couldn’t readily find a better picture of the double crown obverse, but here’s the Cross moline reverse from another example (although it has a different obverse to yours, as a crowned Monarch’s head).



Both examples I’ve shown are the fairly typical 20-21mm in diameter (a little smaller than a quarter), in copper alloy (but all kinds of base metals were used), and the double crown example dates to c1280-1343 (but is of a design that probably continued to be used in later mediaeval times).

 

[CRUSADER]

Seen plenty of single Crown examples, not seen a double type, another reason, I left it to you.

 

[Bramblefind]

Here's classification site that shows these-- I actually just found this site now but I am going to save it b/c it looks very helpful!

Series 4c Obverses

I thought that central divot on the reverse was a sort of hallmark for the English types. Not all have it but is it most commonly seen on the English types..? It is actually interesting b/c it could be a mark from how it was manufactured and we have been trying to track such marks found (rarely) on counterfeit halfpennies and now I wonder if there could be some similar step in the minting process that causes it.

 

[CRUSADER]

Here's classification site that shows these-- I actually just found this site now but I am going to save it b/c it looks very helpful!

Series 4c Obverses

I thought that central divot on the reverse was a sort of hallmark for the English types. Not all have it but is it most commonly seen on the English types..? It is actually interesting b/c it could be a mark from how it was manufactured and we have been trying to track such marks found (rarely) on counterfeit halfpennies and now I wonder if there could be some similar step in the minting process that causes it.

Thanks for sharing that, looked at them all. More examples than I've seen in my books. I saved it was well - CHEERS