THE WORDS "TOKEN" AND "JETON" by Jørgen Sømod of Denmark.
Formerly a token in Danish was called TEGN, in medieval language Thegen and in German Zeichen. It seems to be the same word as token. On older Flemish tokens are used the words Teeken, Teeckn and Teecken. In Denmark the word disappeared 100 years ago. After then were used many words including Værdi-Mærke, translated from the German Werth-Marke. The word pollett is known in Sweden since 1623, where it was spelled bollet and it is told the word comes from the French poulet, which means little letter. The word polet with different spelling for each country is now accepted in Norwegian, Icelandic and Finnish. It is not known, why in Costa Rica they are using the word boleto. In Estonia they use the word koduraha, which can be translated as home money.
Jeton is used in Denmark only for small medals, casino chips and counters for card play
in private homes. Jeton as token is known in Turkey. Italy uses the name gettone, also in Russia,
Serbia and Poland. The French word méreau, used since 12th century seems not used in other languages
and it means from church Latin merallus. In Latin is normally used tessera, which may be taken from
Greek. The German Marke (Wert-Marke etc.) is seen in Russian Marka and in Polish Marka
Kredytowa. In Norway betalingsmærke or betalingsmerke, of which betaling means payment.
From the October 6, 2002 issue of The E-Sylum, an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
Peridromophily: Street car transfer collecting LINK
Other words: Numismatography, numismatology, numismate, numismatiste, enningen, draagmedailles.
Mexican term for token: tlacos.
Cotton Mill term for tokens: Looney, Looneys
Bonistics: the study of paper money
Lignadenarics: the collecting of wooden money (from "Lignus", wood, and "Denarious",
Sede Vacante medals ("vacant seat") those are the Vatican medals issued between each pope, when there is no pope.
In Uruguay they use the name of tokens: "fichas". Also Mines or mining tokens (Canteras
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