Jettons

[scook17]

A couple of badges I bought recently, I've seen refered to as JETTONs. Where does this word come from and what does it mean? What's the history behind this type of award. The two I have are both engraved with the person's name. Were these every awared with documents or the like? Anyone care to share some examples with the forum?

Kind Regards,
Shane Cook.

[rboomsma]

Hello Shane

When I was in Russia the first time, jettons were (tokens), they were used for telephones and the metro. They were made of metal or plastic in various sizes depending on what city you were in. They have basically been done away with now.

I never heard of any badges being called a jetton.

Can you post a photo?

Originally Posted by scook17

A couple of badges I bought recently, I've seen refered to as JETTONs. Where does this word come from and what does it mean? What's the history behind this type of award. The two I have are both engraved with the person's name. Were these every awared with documents or the like? Anyone care to share some examples with the forum?

Kind Regards,
Shane Cook.

[desantnik]

Originally Posted by rboomsma

Hello Shane

When I was in Russia the first time, jettons were (tokens), they were used for telephones and the metro. They were made of metal or plastic in various sizes depending on what city you were in. They have basically been done away with now.

I never heard of any badges being called a jetton.

Can you post a photo?

A zheton is often translated as token. I've heard army dog tags referred to as zheton, although I the technical term is lichnii znak. The most common phaleristic use of the zheton term I've heard is for tsarist badges, namely the academy and unit badges.

[Lapa]

Ron,

They are still using jettons today for the metro, at least in St Petersburg and in Moscow that is.

Marc

[rboomsma]

Did they switch back to jettons? as when I was in Moscow in 2001 they had already done away with jettons and had gone to the paper card (size of a credit card) that they use in most places now. You just bought for one ride or ten or a month etc.

Originally Posted by Lapa

Ron,

They are still using jettons today for the metro, at least in St Petersburg and in Moscow that is.

Marc

[kameli]

The word "jetton" comes in 1500 century from the French verb "jeter" (= drop or something like that in English). Originally the jettons were somekind of "drop coin" which were given to the people in special events. That kind of events were for example the coronation days, royal weddings etc. Later jetton means a medal which was given to civil servants in every year. With the years jeton became to mean a gambling counter and so on.

In Russia the jetton means little jewel pendant. Often these were personal gifts. These were very popular in late 19th century to the beginning of 20th century and also in a little scale after the revolution.

My opinion is that a jetton is a very different thing than a token. Tokens are use in metros, telephones etc. and mainly use for them is to pay something. But just my thought...

Regards,
Jussi-Pekka

[scook17]

The medals/badges I'm referring to can be seen in this thread

http://www.soviet-awards.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=4367

They appear to be awared as one off awards to individuals. Yet the craftmanship of these awards suggest that there must have been a number of these minted and then they were engraved for particular individuals.

I'm interested in understanding how this came about and why and to see some more examples of what were issued. I find these particular type of medals very interesting.

Kind Regards,
Shane Cook.

[kameli]

Originally Posted by scook17

The medals/badges I'm referring to can be seen in this thread.

In thread Your mentioned: #1 the right one and #4 the left one are what I mean jettons. The others are badges and medals.


Jussi-Pekka