Token vs Medal

Hello,
Looking here at the exonumia section I'm at a loss understanding the difference between the two. It was my understanding that tokens can be used for purchase of goods or services, but I find here a lot of "tokens" that have no such value/purpose.
Can anyone try to sort this out for me?

I would think a medal is akin to an award for some achievement whereas a token is a non-official currency, in some manner, ie used for playing games or redeeming for prizes.

When I look at the definition of token I find multiple meanings, many of which aren't related to commerce. For example:

• A keepsake.
  
• A small physical object, often designed to give the appearance of a common thing, used to represent a person or character in a board game or other situation.
  

Similarly, looking at the classifications in the Exonumia catalog I find multiple uses of "token" that aren't for commerce. For example the three categories of tokens under Promotional items.

That said, the entries in Exonumia are added by a large number of people with different internal classifications of items so there are certainly many cases of inconsistent application of the categories. (Some of that came about when an item was added, and then a better category for the item was added later.)

It would be useful to see some examples of the incorrect categorization you have noticed so we can discuss how the categories should be defined (or possibly add new categories). Or just make change requests to put things where you think you belong to start a discussion with the referees.

Yes - the problem starts and ends with the ambiguity of language. A word that may be interpreted in many ways, some almost opposite, is useless on its own.
Therefore we should agree here on a singular meaning of words like "token", "medal" and maybe just add a "souvenir" (or remove such from here altogether, cause if not, beer-mats, refrigerator magnets, vehicle stickers and the like should also be considered) 😝

How about these simple definitions:

1- Token - coin-like object granting a right
2- Medal - coin-like object received for achievement
3- coin-like souvenir/advertising/fantasy

Verweis : "Dejan"​How about these simple definitions:
​
​1- Token - coin-like object granting a right
​2- Medal - coin-like object received for achievement
​3- coin-like souvenir/advertising/fantasy

Numista Exonumia about a hundred current categories in nineteen categories . ​For a proposal to be useful you need to have an outcome for each of them. Which stay the same, which are renamed (and to what), which are merged, and which are split (with names). And then you need to convince the people who like the current arrangement to agree to the change.

Verweis : "bjherbison"​Numista Exonumia about a hundred current categories in nineteen categories . ​For a proposal to be useful you need to have an outcome for each of them.

​It's actually much simpler than that: everything stays as it is - each piece of exo just gets additional (searchable) descriptor (T, M, S). Those that for any reason cannot be categorised get the U(nknown).

The definitions can vary so that makes it difficult.
I hope my below examples can give a broad understanting between the two.

In general yes a token is a coin like object which can be used for a purchase or a service, that can even include a shopping cart token.
There are still exceptions tough and it depends also on the different definitions.
In the past the name token was mostly used for gaming pieces of a coin-like-shape or also for Counter Tokens used for counting when making transactions and other measurements.

A medal can be for an award but also for other usages such as a coin-shaped object about an event, historical or not (Life, Death, Anniversary, Peace Treaty etc.) or simply about important personalities, companies, clubs etc.
There are plenty of other types of medals which even include art medals which are coin like but as an object are closer to a sculpture than a coin.

Some are on the boarder such as Tourist pieces which are often clasified as tokens but in the general concensus are closer to medals and can simply be regarded as exonumia.

a lot are misused on here.
This for example is a commemorative medal with a anniversary date range but bears Token in the title.
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/exonumia29476.html

This then for example is a pice used for a service so would count as a token.
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/exonumia272463.html

Shopping cart objects are neither medal nor token. They don't get exchanged for anything they are a stand-in for a coin that functions as a deposit which itself is at the most basic just an object that pries open a mechanism to release a latch.

I still think that it is a kind of a service.

There are plenty of different deposit tokens some being from the 19th century.

Shopping cart tokens are super simple and I definitly do not like them as a collectable, still collectors exist and there are even reference books for this piece of tokens.
I respect all collectors, no matter what they want to collect

I don't say that people can't collect them, people also collect stamps, bottles and rocks ... they are just out of bounds of Numista's focus in my opinion.

I think the Numista sorting of exonumia is perfect, any change will be to worse

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/index.php?ct=exonumia

Mostly the prefixes "Token - " and "Medal - " and so on are from "the old days". This could be work for a robot to amend all Exonumia names in a way to take out these words. Due to the new Exonumia grouping, there is no more need for these words in names.
LP