Monetiform

Coca Cola vending machine tab.

Yucateca hacienda.

Phone.

Casino cards.

arcade.

The monetiformes or tokens, called “tokens” in English, “jetons” in French and “gettone” in Italian, are pieces of metal (copper, nickel, brass, aluminum, zinc, etc.), Bakelite or plastic, which, unlike coins, have no legal tender value, because They have been coined by individuals, companies, institutions or non-official organizations.

We can establish two large sections: those that represent a monetary value and those that do not. To the first group belong, among others, the "chapas" of Cooperatives, the casino chips, the "tax" tokens, etc. The tokens of the second group do not have their value expressed in the equivalence in legal tender, but, in any case, in the product for which they are used ("vale para un consumo"; telephone, parking, subway transport, etc).

When classifying the tokens, we can establish, among others, the following categories:

• Data with the specified economic value:
  • Bank cards.
  • Trade and business cards.
  • Personal records.
  • Cooperative cards.
  • Borne Market Cards.
  • Casino cards.
  • Tax cards.
  • Patriotic cards.

• Data without specification of economic value:
  • Transport cards.
  • Phone records.
  • Cards of drinks and meals.
  • Parking and washing trains.
  • Laundries.
  • Showers.
  • Game machines tabs.
  • arcade cards.
  • Memory cards.
  • Propaganda records.

There are very old tokens and other current ones. In some countries its use continues to be frequent. Thus, for example, in Italy drink tokens are very common, in the United States many public transports work with tokens as well as in Germany or the United Kingdom, laundromats tend to operate washers and dryers with tokens instead of coins.

As far as collecting is concerned, the country where there is the greatest interest is the United States, where there are societies, specialized shops and an extensive bibliography on the subject.