Metal tokens, the so-called “tavern tokens,” appeared in the second half of the 19th century and served a purely administrative, accounting function. They were intended for internal settlement among waiters, the cashier’s desk, and guests in taverns and restaurants, and played the role of modern cash register receipts.
The writer Gilyarovsky, describing restaurants and taverns in his book “Moscow and Muscovites,” recalls: “Each of the floor waiters received 25 rubles’ worth of copper tokens from the cashier in the morning, ranging from 3 rubles to 5 kopecks each, and, passing on a guest’s order, paid them in for the dishes, and then exchanged the tokens for the money received from the guest.”