exonumia

Jun. 25th, 2021 07:51 am
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[personal profile] prettygoodword
exonumia (ek-suh-NOO-mee-uh, ek-suh-NYOO-mee-uh) - pl. n., items, such as tokens or medals, that resemble money but are not intended to circulate as money.


Subway tokens, poker chips, arcade tokens, hobo nickels, company script, Monopoly money, and so on. This is the American term -- Brits seem to prefer calling this stuff paranumismatica. Why this is a plural instead of collective noun, I don't quite understand, but that's English for ya. Coined in 1962 from Ancient Greek root éxō, outside/without + Latin nomisma, coin/medal (from Ancient Greek nómisma, established usage/custom/current coin) + -ia, plural noun suffix.

---L.

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