JETON \JET.un\ n. a coin-like token often used to represent money in casino games, dispensing machines etc; also JETTON
Hopefully you recall that numismatics is generally used to refer to the study or collection of coins. Strictly speaking, though, this word covers a great deal more than coins; it encompasses tokens, medals, bank notes, and pretty much anything related to currency.
Now if you just want to refer to the non-coin part of numismatics (especially the study of tokens, medals, and other coin-like objects), the correct word is EXONUMIA (literally ‘without/outside coins’). A person who collects these sorts of items is called an EXONUMIST.
So it is the exonumist, rather than the numismatist, who is likely to have the most impressive jeton collection.
Chiefly in France: a metal disc used instead of a coin for insertion in a public telephone.
1942 E. Paul Narrow St. xi. 82 In order for a client to use the phone he had to buy from her a metal disc or jeton.
1962 A. Williams Long Run Southvi. ii. 193 An old crone sold him a jeton and he dialled the number of the house in the Viale Piemonte.
1972 Times 4 Jan. 14/8 (heading) Use the nickel sixpence as a jeton [for telephone coin boxes].
2007 Spectator (Nexis) 15 Dec. 67, I asked the waiter (a surly fellow) for some jetons for the telephone.
The
word jeton for counter comes from the French verb “jeter,” used in the sense of “to push,” because the counters were pushed over the abacus during the calculation.
jetton separate meaning
1. A disc of metal, ivory, etc., bearing an inscription or device, originally made to function as a counter in reckoning accounts, and later used in card-playing. Now hist.