What Are Those Flat Round Discs?
You've dug a flat, round metal disc that looks like it could be a coin but doesn't match any coin you recognize. This is a common situation, and there are quite a few things it could be. The key is examining the material, size, thickness, and any markings.
Trade and Merchant Tokens
Trade tokens were issued by businesses, towns, and organizations as local currency or advertising pieces. They were especially common in the U.S. from the 1830s through the early 1900s. Most are brass or copper and bear the name of the issuing business, often with a denomination ("Good For 5 Cents In Trade"). The TokenCatalog.com database is useful for identifying specific tokens.
Gaming Counters and Jettons
Small brass discs with crude designs — often imitating coins — were used as gaming counters, mathematical aids, and accounting tokens from the medieval period through the 1800s. German-made Nuremberg jettons are common finds at colonial sites. They typically show a coat of arms on one side and a pattern of dots, a ship, or a crude portrait on the other.
Coin Weights
Merchants used standardized weights to verify coins weren't clipped or counterfeit. These are usually brass, flat, and stamped with the denomination they were designed to check (for example, a crown stamp for checking crown coins). Finding coin weights suggests commercial activity at a site.
Tax and Dog Tags
Stamped metal tax tokens, dog license tags, and similar municipal tags are common finds from the late 1800s onward. They're usually stamped with a year and jurisdiction, making them easy to identify and useful for dating a site.
Other Possibilities
- Buttons without shanks: The back with the loop may have broken away, leaving just a flat disc. Look for traces of solder or a broken attachment point.
- Washers and spacers: Modern hardware. Usually uniform, machine-made, and undecorated.
- Religious medals (worn flat): Some religious medals wear smooth enough to be unrecognizable. See religious medal identification.
- Amusement tokens: Arcade, parking meter, and transit tokens from the 20th century.