Re discussion on tokens. I thought folks might be interested in the following
section on "primary" token use from my wife's PHD (Yolanda Courtney, British
Pub Tokens c.1830-1920: material culture in the Industrial Age, Cardiff Univ.
1996). Its based on  a review of the British evidence but should also be
relevant to US.
Tokens were pierced for attachment to doors or walls and to make toys (eg.
spinning tops) as well as for wear. They may also have been "counter-marked"
by piercing to end or change their function. Certainly countermarking of
coins and tokens with professionally or home-made stamps is common.
Paul Courtney [log in to unmask]
 
"Some clear factors prompt token issue through history.  Firstly shortages of
regal small change, which become especially acute at times of expansion in
commercial activity.  Secondly, across the span of human working and
commercial activity there have always been needs for durable objects for
restricted purposes.  In many, but not all, of the latter cases, the tokens
act in some sense as receipts.  It seems clear that use of tokens, either as
small change or as symbols of receipt for goods or services, has been a
continuous or frequently revived practice since at least the 12th century.
 The use of metal discs for other purposes such as commemoratives and
memoranda may be equally long-lived.  However, the earlier the period, the
more difficult it is to establish evidence for different kinds of token usage
or to distinguish between tokens used for different purposes.
 
There is an underlying pattern of locally-made, customer-led, token
production from medieval times onward.  Superimposed on this are producer-led
token series including Royal Licence farthings, the brass/copper 1648-72
series, the late 18th and early 19th century tokens, and standard
Birmingham-made checks, tickets and passes from around 1820.  Such "standard"
tokens are more likely to form coherent series which are readily recognised
and collected.  In contrast "home-made", non-standard tokens are
heterogeneous and often lack information on provenance.  They may be poorly
recognised and are less desirable as collector's items.  Techniques such as
use of punches became more widely available as industrialisation progressed
and from the earlier 18th century counterstamped pieces gradually superseded
the cast lead alloy pieces.  Engraved and countermarked commemoratives over
the period 1700-1850 were superseded by commemorative medals produced by the
Birmingham die-sinkers.  It is also important to remember that many in-house
accounting arrangements no doubt used methods other than metal discs.
 Evidence for these practices rarely survives.
 
Systematic nomenclature and classification embracing all tokens is difficult
if not impossible to establish.  The following framework is based on function
and the definitions offered here are used throughout this thesis.  However,
it must be accepted that it cannot be applied to all tokens due to our lack
of knowledge of how each token was used.
 
Tokens sensu stricto are unofficial, non-regal, currencies in general
circulation, usually as substitutes for small change when official supplies
were inadequate.  This is consistent with OED (Oxford English Dictionary)
definition of currency "that which is current as a medium of exchange" and
obviously includes the well-known and documented general token series of the
17th century, late 18th century and early 19th century.  These had a general
circulation in the sense that they were accepted in more than one
establishment, though that circulation was sometimes very localised.  The
definition also embraces some medieval and 16th/17th century lead/lead alloy
tokens, though it is not usually possible to determine which particular
pieces were so used.
 
The other main category of tokens did not form currency in the usually
accepted sense, but had restricted purposes.  The numerous types of metal
disc produced by the post-c.1820 die-sinking industry, including public house
tokens or checks belong to this second category as do some earlier types such
as ecclesiastical tokens and hop tallies.  This second category of tokens can
be further subdivided by function into checks, tickets (or passes) and
tallies.  Counters such as jettons and card counters,  were not receipts for
goods/services but it is convenient to include them here.
 
Checks are "receipts" and thus "in-house" tokens, but they may only be
regarded as a kind of token if they have a nominal or understood value in
money or goods.  This applies to public house checks and co-operative society
dividend checks, but not, for example, to lamp-checks, baggage- and
umbrella-checks which are memoranda, or to advertising pieces/metallic trade
cards.
 
The term ticket is sometimes used as a general one for all kinds of metal
discs, but in the strict sense it means a piece granting entrance.  OED has
"a slip, usually of paper or cardboard, bearing the evidence of the holder's
title to some service or privilege to which it admits him, as a
theatre-ticket,...communion ticket, member's ticket, luncheon ticket, soup
ticket".  Theatre tickets made of metal and other durable materials have been
in use since the late 16th century, but paper or card tickets become
increasingly common in the 18th century with improvements in printing
methods.  In modern times plastic is increasingly employed for all manner of
items and the terms ticket or card are used randomly.  In this thesis the
term ticket is used for metal items used in an admission process.  A further
refinement is that tickets admit on one occasion, whilst passes admit on a
regular basis.
 
Tallies are functionally akin to checks in that they are "in-house" receipts,
but receipts used for batches of a crop or market produce.  Related to
tallies are counters which may be used literally as a means with which to
count (as in the jetton series) or to represent regal coinage in card games
or keep tally of scores in such games."