Jetons were
tokenToken may refer to:* In logic, computational linguistics, and information retrieval, a token is an instance of a type; see Type-token distinction....
or
coinA coin is a piece of hard material, usually metal or a metallic material and sometimes made of synthetic materials, usually in the shape of a disc, and most often issued by a government. Coins are used as a form of money in transactions of various kinds, from the everyday circulation coins to the...
-like medals produced across Europe from the 13th through the 17th centuries. They were produced as counters for use in calculation on a lined board similar to an
abacusThe abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool used primarily in parts of Asia for performing arithmetic processes. Today, abacuses are often constructed as a bamboo frame with beads sliding on wires, but originally they were beans or stones moved in grooves in sand or on tablets...
. They also found use as a money substitute in games, similar to modern casino chips or poker chips. Thousands of different jetons exist, mostly of religious and educational designs, as well as portraits, these most resembling coinage.
The Romans had similarly used pebbles, in Latin "calculi" - little stones.
Jetons were
tokenToken may refer to:* In logic, computational linguistics, and information retrieval, a token is an instance of a type; see Type-token distinction....
or
coinA coin is a piece of hard material, usually metal or a metallic material and sometimes made of synthetic materials, usually in the shape of a disc, and most often issued by a government. Coins are used as a form of money in transactions of various kinds, from the everyday circulation coins to the...
-like medals produced across Europe from the 13th through the 17th centuries. They were produced as counters for use in calculation on a lined board similar to an
abacusThe abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool used primarily in parts of Asia for performing arithmetic processes. Today, abacuses are often constructed as a bamboo frame with beads sliding on wires, but originally they were beans or stones moved in grooves in sand or on tablets...
. They also found use as a money substitute in games, similar to modern casino chips or poker chips. Thousands of different jetons exist, mostly of religious and educational designs, as well as portraits, these most resembling coinage.
The Romans had similarly used pebbles, in Latin "calculi" - little stones. Addition is straight forward, and relatively efficient algorithms for multiplication and division were known.
As Arabic numerals and the zero came into use, "pen reckoning" gradually displaced "counter casting" as the common accounting method. Jetons for calculation were commonly used in Europe from about 1200 to 1400, and remained in occasional into the early nineteenth century. In Italy pen reckoning became common earlier, and was mandatory for bookkeeping use by 1300.
Neurenberg,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, was in the late Middle Ages an important center of production of jetons for commercial use. Later - "counter casting" being obsolete - the production shifted to jetons
for use in games and toys, sometimes copying more or less famous jetons with a political background as the following.
In "the Nederlanden", the Low Countries, the respective mints in the late Middle Ages in general produced the counters for the official bookkeeping. These mostly show the effigy of the ruler within a flattering text and on the reverse the rulers escutcheon and the name or city of the accounting office. During the
Dutch RevoltThe Dutch Revolt or the Revolt of the Netherlands , was the partially successful revolt of the Seventeen Provinces in the Low Countries against the Spanish Empire. It led to the formation of the independent Dutch state of the Netherlands and marked the beginning of the Eighty Years' War...
this pattern changed and by both parties, the North in front, about 2.000 different, mostly political, jetons (Dutch:
Rekenpenning) were minted depicting the victories, ideals and aims. Specifically in the last quarter of the 16th century, where "Geuzen" or "beggars" made important military contributions to the Dutch side and bookkeeping was already done without counters the production in the North was just for propaganda.
In the 21st century, Jetons continue to be used in some countries to denominate the substitutes for coins in coin-operated
public telephonePublic telephone can refer to:* A Payphone* Public Telephone , a 1980 French documentary film...
s or
vending machineA vending machine provides snacks, beverages, lottery tickets, and other products to consumers without a cashier. Items sold via these machines vary by country and region....
s, because automatic valuation of coins by machines is unreliable or impossible due to several factors. They are usually made of metal or hard plastic, and are generally called tokens in English-speaking countries.
In France and other countries,
jeton is also a small (as a token, so to speak) amount of
moneyMoney is anything that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange, a unit of account, a store of value, and occasionally, a standard of deferred payment...
paid to members of a
societySociety or human society is the manner or condition in which the members of a community live together for their mutual benefit. By extension, society denotes the people of a region or country, sometimes even the world, taken as a whole....
or a legislative chamber each time they are present in a
meetingIn a meeting, two or more people come together for the purpose of discussing a predetermined topic such as business or community event planning, often in a formal setting....
.
Jeton is also an Albanian name given to males. In the Albanian language it means "to live".
See also
- Casino token
Casino tokens are small discs used in lieu of currency in casinos. Colored metal or compression molded clay tokens of various denominations are used primarily in table games, as opposed to metal token coins, used primarily in slot machines...
- Devotional medal
In the Roman Catholic Faith, a devotional medal is a medal issued for religious devotion. They are also sometimes used by adherents of the Orthodox and Anglican Churches....
- Location arithmetic
Location arithmetic is a technique to do binary arithmetic using a chessboard-like grid. John Napier termed the technique in his treatise Rabdology, from the way that positions of counters on the board represented numbers....
- Telephone token
Telephone tokens were once widespread medium of exchange for people wanting to talk on public phones with someone before there were telephone cards to collect and use. These tokens were once widely used in Europe, Israel, Japan, and South America, and are still used today in Turkey.Phone tokens...