You Can Count on Me

There was a time, feasibly during the prehistoric era, when early humans began to estimate the extent of space, objects, people, and amounts. This revolutionary critical thinking is what separates humans from animals. Finding ways to make more intricate calculations progressed slowly from the time when people could simply use their memory or fingers to envision small amounts or to record such information by scratches or notches on wood and rocks. This era is far removed from today’s tech-filled world in which anyone can quickly compute even the most complicated math equations.

Making It Count for Collectors

Exploring how people learned to count­—and its impact on the use of coins and money­—is an area most collectors sadly overlook. In reality, it’s foundational to understanding the various denominations, names, divisions, and usage for coins. 

Does it matter if a collector really appreciates the differences between things like coins, tokens, jetons (a type of token originally used as a piece on a counting board), or counters? Probably not, even though they are all collectable items well worth exploring. What makes each important is their use and how they relate to various counting procedures.

I remember one dedicated coin collector who could not get his son interested in the hobby. However, when the son learned about the abacus as a counting device, he became enthralled. In time, he formed a significant collection of antique devices for weighing and counting all types of money. It was an insightful joining of two important fundamentals of currency.

The Abacus & the Ancient Counting Board

Many people today are not familiar with the abacus as a counting device, which could be more trustworthy than mental calculations. Even less known is its much older precursor, the counting board. 

The ancient counting board is closely connected to the field of money collecting due to its association with  tokens and other counters, as well as the influence it has had on the creation of many words related to the device. The 16th-century counting table, or “counter,” for instance, was used by merchants and bankers for many years to do complicated mathematics that often involved the use of Roman numerals. It eventually became the modern computers of today. Similarly, the checkerboard game we all know so well is an offspring of the 8 x 8 squares used in the ancient European reckoning board.

A specialist who used reckoning boards was called the exchequer. This term is still used in England for the governmental department responsible for receiving and dispersing public revenue. The word derives from the Latin scaccarium (or “chessboard”). The word “calculus” originally applied to a token used for computing purposes.

A Complicated System

The early counting board did not include a zero. That came later with the introduction of the so-called Arabic (actually Hindu) numerals in the 15th century. It primarily used Roman numerals to calculate. In that system, the markers represented the bases of 10 or 20, and the spaces represented a base of 5. As an example of how complicated the system was, try adding DCXXXVII (637) and CCLIIII (254) to get DCCCXCI (891)!

Yes, all of the various tokens, counters, jetons, and markers used for computing have a place in numismatic history. And they are an enjoyable, educational, challenging, and inexpensive series to collect. The only serious obstacle to obtaining them is that they are difficult to find—but that is what makes them so rewarding to acquire.