Exonumia are

numismatic Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also incl ...

items (such as tokens,

medal A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...

s, or

scrip A scrip (or ''chit'' in India) is any substitute for legal tender. It is often a form of credit. Scrips have been created and used for a variety of reasons, including exploitive payment of employees under truck systems; or for use in local co ...

) other than coins and paper money. This includes "Good For" tokens, badges, counterstamped coins, elongated coins, encased coins, souvenir medallions, tags,

wooden nickel In the United States, a wooden nickel is a wooden token coin, usually issued by a merchant or bank as a promotion, sometimes redeemable for a specific item such as a drink. Scrip and tokens have often been issued locally in times of severe econ ...

s and other similar items. It is related to

numismatics Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also inc ...

(concerned with coins which have been

legal tender Legal tender is a form of money that courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment for any monetary debt. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything which when offered ("tendered") in ...

), and many

coin collector Coin collecting is the collecting of coins or other forms of minted legal tender. Coins of interest to collectors often include those that were in circulation for only a brief time, coins with mint errors, and especially beautiful or histori ...

s are also exonumists. Besides the above strict definition, others extend it to include non-coins which may or may not be legal tenders such as

cheques A cheque, or check (American English; see spelling differences) is a document that orders a bank (or credit union) to pay a specific amount of money from a person's account to the person in whose name the cheque has been issued. The pers ...

credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the ...

s and similar paper. These can also be considered

notaphily Notaphily is the study and collection of paper currency, and banknotes. A notaphilist is a collector of banknotes or paper money, particularly as a hobby. History It is believed that people have been collecting paper money for as long as it has ...

scripophily Scripophily is the study and collection of stock and bond certificates. A specialized field of numismatics, scripophily is an area of collecting due to both the inherent beauty of some historical documents as well as the interesting historical cont ...

Etymology

The noun ''exonumia'' is derived from two classical roots: ''exo'', meaning "out-of" in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

, and '' nummus'', meaning "coin" in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

(from Greek νοῦμμος – ''noummos'', "coin"); thus, "out ideof-

he category He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

oins". Usually, the term "exonumia" is applied to these objects in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, while the equivalent

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

term is paranumismatica. The words ''exonumist'' and ''exonumia'' were coined in July 1960 by Russell Rulau, a recognized authority and author on the subject, and accepted by

Webster's dictionary ''Webster's Dictionary'' is any of the English language dictionaries edited in the early 19th century by American lexicographer Noah Webster (1758–1843), as well as numerous related or unrelated dictionaries that have adopted the Webster's ...

in 1965.

Forms of exonumia: tokens and medals

Many exonumia items were used as currency in the United States 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 broad definition for exonumia, and lines between categories can be fuzzy. For example, an advertising token may also be considered a medal. Good For tokens may also advertise. Counter-stamped coins have been called "little billboards." Strictly, exonumia is anything not a governmental issue coin. 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. Rulau's 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 these three general categories: * Has a "value," facilitating commerce, such as ''Good for (something)''. * Commemoration, remembrance, dedication, or the like, for some person, place, idea or event. * Of a ''personal nature''. 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. Afterwards, value based items, such as ''Good for (amount of money)'', ''Good for One Quart of Milk'', ''Good for One Beer'', ''Good for One Ride…'' and others were specifically linked to commerce of the store or place of issue. For clarity, exonumia are actual numismatic items (other than government coins or paper money) which can be studied or collected. Numismatic = coins, paper money, exonumia (numismatist)
Exonumia = tokens, medals, badges, ribbons, etc. (exonumist)
Notaphily = paper money (notaphile/notaphiliac).
Scripophily = stock certificates (scripophilist, scripophilac)
Medals have a clear distinction from tokens in that there is no monetary value on the item, nor any intent to be used as money. (medalist) Exonumists are attentive to not only the history behind the items but their shapes and what types of items they are.

Exonumia that is studied and collected

The following categories are typical. This is not all-inclusive but is a sampling of the wide variety of Exonumia: ;Tokens ''Modified/Augmented'': *Love Token: A coin with hand engraving, generally on one side * Hobo nickels Indian Head/Buffalo nickel: Engraved by hand mostly in the era 1913–38, usually a modification of the Indian head *Carved Potty coins, usually Trade Dollars, to show lady Liberty sitting on a chamber pot *Counterstamped / countermarked coins (done by merchants or governments) *Cut Coins: Coins that are artistically carved creations made from genuine coins, both new and old, often for jewelry. * Elongated coins: Rolled out with advertising, commemorative, or souvenir designs on one side *Encased Coin: Generally in a ring with advertising *Encased Postage: Actual postage stamps mounted into a round frame with advertising on the other side * Colored or painted circulation or bullion issues Geocoin at Spier's

''Play-Game money / Arcade Amusement / Novelty'' *

Arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

tokens *Amusement *Game Counter *Play money *

Novelty money Novelty (derived from Latin word ''novus'' for "new") is the quality of being new, or following from that, of being striking, original or unusual. Novelty may be the shared experience of a new cultural phenomenon or the subjective perception of an ...

Peep show A peep show or peepshow is a presentation of a live sex show or pornographic film which is viewed through a viewing slot. Several historical media provided voyeuristic entertainment through hidden erotic imagery. Before the development of the c ...

* Casino/Slot tokens/Casino chips *

Geocoins A geocoin is a metal or wooden token minted in similar fashion to a medallion, token coin, military challenge coin or wooden nickel, for use in geocaching, specifically as form of a calling card. Many of these are made to be trackable on vario ...

used in geocaching * Mardi Gras Doubloons ''Government Services & Non-National tools to Facilitate Commerce'' *

Car wash A car wash, carwash, or auto wash is a facility used to clean the exterior, and in some cases the interior of motor vehicles. Car washes can be self-service, full-service (with attendants who wash the vehicle), or fully automated (possi ...

tokens * Jetons: Used as counters when verifying totals or weights of coins for commerce and exchange * Evasion tokens: 18th century semi-counterfeit were made to look like ''kind of'' but not exactly like actual currency * Sales tax tokens: Issued by states and merchants * Parking tokens: for

meters The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pr ...

or gates * Dog licence tags * Post office tags *

Food stamps In the United States, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, is a federal program that provides food-purchasing assistance for low- and no-income people. It is a federal aid program, ad ...

* Slave tags – slave hire badges (Tax Receipts) ''Transportation Tokens'' * Ferries and watercraft * Buses *Subway * Trains *Trams * Trolleys ''Closed Community / Membership'' *

Company store A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared g ...

Company scrip Company scrip is scrip (a substitute for government-issued legal tender or currency) issued by a company to pay its employees. It can only be exchanged in company stores owned by the employers. In the United Kingdom, such truck systems have l ...

* Ingle Credit System script *

Lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

Mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the econom ...

* Plantation * ''

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a ...

(CCC)'' * College Currency * Military Challenge * Military Store and Entertainment * Picker tokens for crops * Prison and Correctional/Asylums * Fraternal **

Masonic Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

Elks The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE; also often known as the Elks Lodge or simply The Elks) is an American fraternal order founded in 1868, originally as a social club in New York City. History The Elks began in 1868 as a soci ...

Moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...

** Eagles **

Woodmen of the World WoodmenLife (officially Woodmen of the World Life Insurance Society) is a not-for-profit fraternal benefit society founded in 1890, based in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, that operates a large privately held insurance company for its members. ...

Communion token A communion token is a metal token issued to members of Reformed churches in order to provide them entrance to the Lord's Supper. There were many types issued in Scotland in the 18th and 19th centuries, but they were largely superseded by communio ...

s (given to congregation members in good standing to permit them to participate in

Holy Communion The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instituted ...

) ''Unique material / shapes'' *

Wooden nickel In the United States, a wooden nickel is a wooden token coin, usually issued by a merchant or bank as a promotion, sometimes redeemable for a specific item such as a drink. Scrip and tokens have often been issued locally in times of severe econ ...

s * Cardboard or paper * Hard rubber or

vulcanite Vulcanite is a rare copper telluride mineral. The mineral has a metallic luster, and has a green or bronze-yellow tint. It has a hardness between 1 and 2 on the Mohs scale (between talc and gypsum). Its crystal structure is orthorhombic. Vulcanit ...

* Advertising pocket mirrors ''Movements and ideals'' *

Temperance Temperance may refer to: Moderation *Temperance movement, movement to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed *Temperance (virtue), habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion Culture * Temperance (group), Canadian dan ...

* Anti-slavery * Religious (including temple tokens) *

World's Fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

(Expositions around the world) * Locations * City or state anniversary ''Of a Personal nature – Personals'' * Key tags (e.g. ''In case lost return to …'') * Badges ** Company ** Occupation * Hand-engraved or uniquely counterstamped coins, as pocket pieces *

Watch fob A pocket watch (or pocketwatch) is a watch that is made to be carried in a pocket, as opposed to a wristwatch, which is strapped to the wrist. They were the most common type of watch from their development in the 16th century until wristwatc ...

''By Issuer or for a Specific Person'' * Milk/dairy * Bakery token * Beer * Pub/bar/saloon * Billiards/pool * Cigar/smoke shops * Restroom tokens for

pay toilet A pay toilet is a public toilet that requires the user to pay. It may be street furniture or be inside a building, e.g. a shopping mall, department store, or railway station. The reason for charging money is usually for the maintenance of the eq ...

use * Doctors (including apothecary tokens) * Automobiles *

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

medals * Presidents, governors, other politicians * Inventors and other important persons ''Modern items'' under the exonumia umbrella include: *

Credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the ...

s * Gift cards: Gift cards have been replacing the giving of cash for events *

Telephone card A telephone card, calling card or phonecard for short, is a credit card-size plastic or paper card, used to pay for telephone services (often international or long-distance calling). It is not necessary to have the physical card except with a st ...

s * Music cards Rulau in his 1700–1900 book historically breaks down American tokens into these general time periods: * Early American *

Hard times token Hard-times tokens are American large or half cent-sized copper tokens, struck from about 1833 through 1843, serving as unofficial currency. These privately made pieces, comprising merchant, political and satirical pieces, were used during a t ...

s were made during the "hard times" after President Andrew Jackson shut down the

Second Bank of the United States The Second Bank of the United States was the second federally authorized Hamiltonian national bank in the United States. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the bank was chartered from February 1816 to January 1836.. The Bank's formal name, ...

. These also were issued privately to circulate in the local economy as a one cent coin. They had a wide variety of subject matter, anti-slavery, anti-Jackson * Merchant (including modern gas tokens, ex: Shell tokens) *

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

* Trade tokens * Gay 90s Even though the following are legitimate categories for exonumia, they are not included in the 1700–1900 reference. * Amusement tokens * Military * Prison * Telephone tokens * Political campaign tokens * Transportation tokens * Medals 33 mm and larger * And others (ex: Fisherman tokens, SEX tokens) Typical ways exonumists may collect these items are by region, topic, type, shape or material. These different collecting preferences may change the ways tokens are documented. Frequently there are guides for particular states (by region), but conversely the guide could document national or international amusement tokens (type) The general distinction between tokens and medals is that medals (both privately minted and minted by governments) primarily do not have an actual monetary amount or 'value' but generally are a commemoration of people, ideals, or places. Various organizations:
TAMS (Token And Medal Society)
* CWTS (Civil War Token Society) * MichTAMS (Michigan Token And Medal Society)

Other forms in Latin America

Another important area of token collecting is Latin American coffee or plantation tokens. Many but not all of these tokens were made in the United States while others were made in Europe and England. These tokens are circulated in more than one language although Spanish is the prevalent one. Plantation tokens can have an array of denominations and names. The name can be the owner or their relatives. Sometimes the token can have the name of the farm (or finca). Lastly, tokens had allegorical symbols to identify the owner. Very little documentation exists since the inception of Latin American tokens, therefore, many tokens cannot be verified as to who the real owner is or what the symbol or symbols meant. Tokens in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

were used as currency since there was not enough official currency available. Customarily, workers could convert the tokens to official currency on Saturdays. It is widely understood that many plantation owners in Latin America had their own commissaries, therefore, the workers were able to use the farm owners tokens to pay for provisions. It is important to note that in the 19th century many of the plantation workers and families lived in the farm they worked on. Latin American tokens were made in all types of base metals and alloys plus plastic, celluloid and

bakelite Polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride, better known as Bakelite ( ), is a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin, formed from a condensation reaction of phenol with formaldehyde. The first plastic made from synthetic components, it was developed ...

. Unique to Costa Rica were tokens made in paper fashion, either uniface or printed on both sides. Many people call these paper chits. The word "Boleto" is used solely in Costa Rica for the word token whereas "ficha" is used in the rest of Latin America.

References

Coin-Gallery.com glossary

PlantageGeld
Plantation tokens, mainly Netherlands East Indies (Sumatra and Java), British North Borneo and Ceylon

Canadiancoin.com
dictionary

CostaRicaTokens.com – Costa Rica Tokens

Token Tales
an educational website on trade tokens
Médailles Jeanne d’Arc
French site containing pictures and descriptions of Medallions devoted to Joan of Arc * ''Latin American Tokens: An Illustrated, Priced Catalog of the Unofficial Coinage of Latin America—Used in Plantation, Mine, Mill, and Dock—From 1700 to the 20th Century'' by Russell Rulau

External links