Probably 1952... That's what I see anyway and that's likely when those tokens were made and used at fairs and carnivals and like you said, drive in theatersIt will have the persons name on it and other information... Neat find!!
Ok here's my guess! It is not from 1852. So, my guess is....It's someones name, age of 70, and date of birth with month (A) after date. Using that it would put it at the time period of the token. 1920 something. that would make more sense to me. or something along those lines. Or maybe a 70 year anniversary of something even.
Not sure when the start of these were. I have some I made at a PA rest stop along the turnpike in the late 90's . So it could be anything.
You walked up, put your quarters in the machine and printed whatever you wanted on the aluminum disk. I think mine has a horse shoe in the center. Can't remember if you could change the center or not. I would post a pic, but being young at the time we printed dirty sayings and made "good for" tokens!
I've found a lot of these over the years. As several people have said, they are from a machine, typically at arcades, that you put in a coin and it drops the aluminum disk down and lets you stamp whatever you want on it. It was "invented" in Jamestown, NY (my home town) in the early 1920s (1923 is what I'm seeing online) and the earliest ones have "PAT. NO. 1455289 HARVARD AUT. MACH. Co JAMESTOWN N.Y." in the center on one side. I've found them with "Good Luck" and a horseshoe, flags, "1939 Worlds Fair NY", and other devices in the center. Apparently some of these machines are still around, although I haven't seen one since the late 1970's.