Russian expeditionary force in France, 1916-1918

[FosseWay]

I have the token shown below (cupro-nickel, 22.3 mm, 5,19 g), with the French text BON POUR 25 EN CONSOMMATION on one side and the equivalent in (old, pre-reform) Russian, ДѢЙСТВИТЕЛЬНО НА 25 К. ПОТРЕБИТЕЛЬНОСТЕЙ on the other.

There is no indication of who issued the token, but the Russian text (pre-Bolshevik spelling reform) and the fact that France and Russia were allies in the First World War led me to investigate that period in particular. 

I then found that there was a specific entity in the Russian military that served in France in 1916-1918: Le corps expéditionnaire russe en France, or Экспедиционный корпус Русской армии во Франции. See Wikipedia. 

Of course, cultural exchange between Russia and France dates back a lot longer than the First World War; the first few pages of War and Peace are written more in French than Russian, reflecting the preferred language of the Russian aristocracy in the early 19th century. 

Does anyone know anything that can conclusively connect this token to the expeditionary force, or anything that points to another issuer or period?

[Figleaf]

The denomination is in kopecks on the Russian side. There is no indication of the unit of account on the French side, which is quite unusual.

I checked the military tokens in Elie (yours is not in Elie). None had a side that looked closely like the French side. The best likeness was the 15th regiment infantry, but they served in the South of France, far from the front line.

Are you sure it's cu-ni? Very few if any tokens of the period 1916-1923 are in cu-ni. The early ones are usually steel bracteates, zinc or aluminium, the later ones in aluminium and brass with a smattering of copper and copper-nickel-zinc (maillechort). It looks like maillechort to me, which is cu-ni without the shine like aluminium with the weight of cu-ni.

All in all, this looks more like a token for a French unit in Russian speaking territory. The Baltics, perhaps?

Would it be OK to consult our French friends?

Peter

[FosseWay]

Yes, please do consult our French colleagues

As to the metal: I have no way that I know of to tell what it is apart from magnetism (not magnetic), colour (as you see in the picture), and approximate density (not aluminium and not gold (wrong colour anyway for both, of course), but somewhere in between).

I tend to use "cupro-nickel" as a catch-all for all silver-coloured metal that I can't identify using the characteristics above. This token doesn't have the characteristic yellowish colour of CuNiZn (typically seen in Soviet and Yugoslav "silver"), but that doesn't mean it doesn't have any Zn in it. I'm not sure it makes a great deal of difference to attribution anyway.

I did wonder whether it might belong to a French group in Russia rather than vice versa. My first port of call was the other way round simply because a reasonable feasible option came easily to hand, in the form of the above-named expeditionary force, while I've drawn a blank on French organisations in pre-Soviet Russia.

The British military had some limited involvement on the White side in the Russian civil war. Did the French get involved as well? And if so, could this be a relic of that operation?

[Figleaf]

Maillechort is white, not yellow. As the French version of Wikipedia explains: Si la proportion de Cu dépasse 65 %, l'alliage prend une couleur dorée ; l'appellation maillechort devient alors abusive et il est préférable d'employer le terme laiton de nickel. Par exemple, la couronne des pièces de 1 euro et le centre des pièces de 2 euros ont une composition Cu75Zn20Ni5.

I would recommend to use "white metal", rather than cu-ni if you don't know what it is. There were times when a white metal coin was usually cu-ni but today, cu-ni is no longer a mintage metal, presumably because it looks dirty when tarnished.

The British army was extensively involved in the Russian civil war, as the UK was keen to keep access to Russian oil ports. While playing "neutral", the involvement usually favoured the Whites (source: Frederick Bailey Mission to Tashkent). The French played the same game:

User
Was there a French military involvement in the Russian civil war (whites against reds)?

ChatGPT
Yes, there was French military involvement in the Russian Civil War, primarily in support of the White Army (anti-Bolshevik forces) against the Red Army (Bolshevik forces). France was one of several Western powers that intervened in the Russian Civil War following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

The French intervention in Russia was part of a broader allied intervention aimed at supporting the White forces and preventing the spread of communism. French forces, along with troops from other allied nations such as Britain, the United States, Japan, and others, were deployed to various parts of Russia between 1918 and 1920.

The French intervention included military operations in regions such as Ukraine, Crimea, and the Caucasus. However, the intervention was ultimately unsuccessful in its goal of overthrowing the Bolshevik government. The Red Army emerged victorious, consolidating Bolshevik control over Russia and leading to the establishment of the Soviet Union.

Peter

[FosseWay]

I have to admit to an allergy towards the term "white metal", because without exception, none of the metals that attract that description are white! They are mostly varying degrees of silver in colour. Also, in practice, most coin/token alloys that (a) don't include silver, (b) aren't magnetic, (c) are dense enough to obviously not be aluminium, and (d) are broadly "silver-coloured" do indeed contain copper and nickel. They may also contain other things, but it's pretty rare in my experience for the difference between "simple" Cu + Ni and other alloys of Cu + Ni + XYZ to be the sole distinguishing feature between two types, and even rarer for it to be distinguishable by a casual observer without some way of chemically or physically analysing the metal.

[Guillaume Hermann]

Hi,
What do HA and K. mean? And what was/were the coin(s) for the same amount? My aim is to understand if it was a "normal" "jeton de consommation" or something for a bigger amount.

[FosseWay]

HA in Cyrillic is NA in Latin, and means literally "on", or in this context "for".

K is an abbreviation of "kopeika/kopeiki/kopeek", or kopek(s).

As Figleaf was pondering above, it's not clear whether this is a token for use in France, in centimes, with the Russian text using "kopek" in a general sense meaning "small units", or the other way round - a token for use in Russia, with the French side left free of units.

The silver Russian 20 kopek coin of the WW1 period was 22 mm and 3.6 g. Compare the French 50 centimes and British 6 pence, which were both 18-19 mm and around 2.5 g. So at a rough guess, 25 kopek would be equivalent to say 75 centimes or 9 pence sterling.

[Figleaf]

There are generic tokens à consommer with a face value of 75 centimes. The amount seems too high for a beer to me, but it could have covered a main course or a simple two course meal.

Peter