Definition

• The name given to certain jetons originally intended for purposes of computation, the earliest specimens of which can be traced to France in the thirteenth century. They appeared in Brabant under Philip the Good (1430-1467) and in Germany about a hundred years later. Large quantities were issued at Nuremberg, and 121 the Low Countries they were circulated under the name of Legpenninge.

  Later they were employed as counters at games, and are consequently now chiefly known as Spielpfennige or Spielmarken. For an exhaustive paper on the subject see Forrer, in Spink, Numismatic Circular. (i. 5).

Source

• Frey's Dictionary (American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. 50, 1916)

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