Exonumia

Meaning "Exo" (out-of) "Nummus" (coin)

Exonumia is a blanket term to cover all other areas that are somehow loosely associated, or share some similarity with, coinage and currency. A common example of this is a commercial token that is very much like a coin. Like a coin a token is minted with imagry and often with a face value. It is a privately minted coin with a value set to the national currency that can be spent in one specific place. It is NOT, however, legal tender.

Other examples of exonumia would be items that utilize aspects of coining or currency in how they are produced or what they were produced with but are made for some purpose other than use as a medium of exchange such as hobo nickels, elongated coins, medallions, encapsulated coins, stamp coins, privately issued coins like hard times tokens and artistic fantasy or replica coins.

Just like coins, exonumia are little peices of human history, they are more localized, specific to the time, place and pupose and often times more personal. Exonumia can be the most finely crafted royal commomorative or the cheapest mass produced beer token.

Condor Tokens are semi-official currency issued by local governments and business and as such are good examples of exonumia. Hell Bank Notes are intended for use in he afterlife. These examples are further discussed in their respective sections on this site.