When it comes to collecting medals and their cousins, medallions and medalets, size really is everything.

Medal collecting is an area where exacting terminology identifies the items. Knowing that what distinguishes the types of medals from each other is their size is necessary to engage in knowledgeable collecting.

Medals are usually pieces of metal, marked with a design or inscription, made to honor a person, place or event.

Medals are not intended to circulate as money. Medals may not be considered tokens, which have a stated or implied value (being “good for” a certain amount or a service, such as a bus fare) and are used as money substitutes.

A medal’s intended purpose is what makes it different from a coin or token, writes D. Wayne Johnson at a Frequently Asked Questions portion of the Medal Collectors of America Web site www.medalcollectors.org/Questions/index.html.