Terminus [ Wertzeichen ]

Kontext 1
Wertzeichen aus Messing, Blei, Zinn, Kupfer, aber auch aus Glas, Leder, Holz und Pappe waren im Umlauf.

Definition 1
(1) In programming languages, a single element of a programming language. For example, a token could be a keyword, an operator, or a punctuation mark. (2) In networking, a token is a special series of bits that travels around a token-ring network. As the token circulates, computers attached to the network can capture it. The token acts like a ticket, enabling its owner to send a message across the network. There is only one token for each network, so there is no possibility that two computers will attempt to transmit messages at the same time. (3) In security systems, a small device the size of a credit card that displays a constantly changing ID code. A user first enters a password and then the card displays an ID that can be used to log into a network. Typically, the IDs change every 5 minutes or so.
http://webopedia.lycos.com/TERM/t/token.html

Definition 2
Any piece of money whose nominal value is greater than its intrinsic value is, strictly speaking, a token or promise. Thus most of the coins issued since 1964 can be regarded in this light, but numismatists reserve the term for a piece of limited validity and circulation, produced by tradesmen, chambers of commerce and other organisations during times of a shortage of government coinage. The term is also loosely applied to metal tickets of admission, such as communion tokens, or jetons and counters intended for games of chance. Tokens with a nominal value may be produced for security reasons to lessen the possibility of theft from milk bottles, vending machines, telephones, parking meters and transport facilities.
http://www.royalmint.com/talk/glossary.asp

Kontext 1
Tokens of brass, lead, tin, copper and even glass, leather, wood and cardboard were circulated.

Definition 1
Popular name for the $50 gold pieces produced by private mints in California in the mid-nineteenth century. The term is also applied nowadays to tokens intended for use in gaming machines.
http://www.royalmint.com/talk/glossary.asp

Definition 1
Alternative term for counter, and used originally on the chequer board employed by medieval accountants. Nuremberg was the most important centre for the production of medieval jetons, often issued in lengthy portrait series. In modern parlance the term is often synonymous with token, though more specifically confined to pieces used in vending equipment, parking meters, laundromats, telephones and urban transport systems in many European countries. Apart from security, removing the temptation of vandals to break into the receptacles, the main advantage of such pieces is that they can be retariffed as charges increase, without any alteration in their design or composition, a method that is far cheaper than altering costly equipment to take larger coins.
http://www.royalmint.com/talk/glossary.asp