Thanks for your comments, Tim. I've posted this to a couple of the 
international coin-collector lists, and everyone there seemed to concur 
that it's NOT meant to represent any coin (that any of them have ever 
seen ... and that would be MOST of the ones in existence worldwide), so 
they concur with you that the word "fake" should not be used.

I'm thinking now that it may be some sort of religious healing 
medal/charm/talisman (maybe a Protestant copying of the Catholic saints' 
medals ? does anyone know if such ever existed?) ... especially thinking 
about the "gamboling calf" motif and harkening-back over a 
half-century-ago to a verse from Malachi I once heard a fire-breathing 
evangelical preacher invoke as the text for a sermon on healing ... viz 
[and, no, I didn't remember this verbatim ... I hadda google-it-up using 
only two of the keywords I did remember ... gambol+calves *hee*hee*):

Malachi 4:2 "But unto you who revere and worshipfully fear My name shall 
the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings and His beams, 
and you shall go forth and gambol like calves [released] from the stall 
and leap for joy."

A friend suggested the "arcane" symbols (on the reverse) kinda look like 
"Wicca witchcraft" symbols ... especially the central element which he 
says looks like the yin/yang symbol that is commonly used by Wiccans 
(and also appears in a LOT of oriental cultures). Whaddaya think? Is 
either of these possibilities viable?

I probably shouldn't even mention this, but another friend said he 
thought it's probably a dog-tag used at Disneyland (because the creature 
looks more like a Disney-esque goofy dog than a calf/bullock) ... 
several people have mentioned the Disney-like (comical) appearance of 
the creature.

Best regards,

Bob


On 12/12/2016 9:09 PM, Timothy James Scarlett wrote:
> I would agree with Jim Gibb, but place it slightly earlier. I think in looks to me like a pendant inspired by the primitivism of artists like Picasso. Not his drawings, but his work on ceramic inspired by Don Quixote. I'd ask an art historian interested in design history of the past century. Either way, I wouldn't use the work 'fake' to describe it. It's a real pendant.
> Best,
> Tim
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Dec 12, 2016, at 6:49 PM, geoff carver <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> Really looks fake.
>> Stylistically it doesn’t look like anything I've ever seen, and the difference in quality between the front and the back seems out of keeping with a real coin or... anything else.