Early aluminum spiel-marke

Dia: 24.05 mm

Thick: 1.27 mm

Wt: 3.38 g

I believe this to be among the earliest aluminum-based tokens ever minted. The best I can figure, it was produced in Germany for an American issuer 1890-1915.

I haven't found any published references for these spiel-markes, and hope someone has a suggestion. 

From the catalogue, it somewhat resembles N#24297 . 

I really hope for advice and observations.

Could not find it in https://archive.org/details/toycoinsmadeingermany, though that catalogue does mainly focus on the smaller (13mm) type of play money. Sorry I can't be of more help.

There are several varieties HERE

And some on sale at ridiculous high prices even though they dont get “S” in star.

This is interesting. There were obviously quite a few variations of this basic design. I have a small one (15.5 mm) in copper.

The white token came from an early 20th century collector, and I had assumed he added it because aluminum was a brand new metal in 1890.

But is it aluminum? I'm still not sure. I did a rough density measurement and found it was too heavy for aluminum, but too light for zinc.

My best guess is that it's an aluminum/zinc alloy with perhaps antimony added for hardness. If true, earliest mint date is 1890's.

Thanks for the information. This is one of a few tokens to update to the catalogue.

I have a little trouble listing Germany as the issuer, even though it was likely made there. This group was probably ordered by an unknown American company as gaming or play money tokens. I think the gold plated one on eBay is novelty.

We do the best we can, and amend when new information comes to light.

I think not german but US.