Help with pictures badly needed.
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Thanks for showing !)I think the mintmark decides where the coin is minted, until otherwise proven. I have no evidence to present outside of what I gave you above, noting that Krakow has mint officials at least until the end of the century. I know nothing about the evidence numista has.
The definition of "token" is really "whatever you want it to mean"
We had this discussion in the token group of Gothenburg Numismatic Society when we were preparing the book on the city's tokens, and decided to be as inclusive as possible. Not only is there a continuum of uses, but also it's not always clear how a particular piece was used, or indeed whether it was used in some way not envisaged or intended by its issuer or maker.
Advertising tokens are a case in point; we included all those we came across. Our argumentation was that (a) they form an important aspect of study of the city's businesses, so are clearly related to the wider topic of commerce and currency regardless of how they were used, and (b) it is far from unlikely that they were indeed used as some form of currency substitute. If you were given an advertising token from a business, what were you expected to do with it? Sure, it tells you the business exists and that its products are the best money can buy. So do adverts on billboards and in the newspaper. But this token you have with you. That must mean something. You must be expected to do something with it. You're not going to keep it as a memento (as you might do with, say, a medallion celebrating a jubilee or a sporting event), so what remains? Take it to the shop that issued it, of course, and say to the staff that you heard about their product on the token. What shopkeeper won't then accept the token against a discount on the product?
Tool checks we also included in some cases, mainly when they fulfilled criterion (a) above - where they add to the commercial history of the city. So we included non-trade-related items from e.g. Volvo, SKF and other known businesses but not anonymous ones.
