What do you call the prisoners' counting numerals?

[nq:1]Well, they're not exlusive to prisoners, but you see them often in (tales) of prisoners using them in solitary confinement ... 4 vertical scratches on the wall, and a fifth scratch across them, and so on.. What do you call them?[/nq]
Tally marks.

Mark Brader, Toronto "Constrain your data early and often." (Email Removed) C. M. Sperberg-McQueen

[nq:2]Well, they're not exlusive to prisoners, but you see them ... wall, and a fifth scratch across them, and so on.[/nq]
[nq:2]What do you call them?[/nq]
[nq:1]Tally marks.[/nq]
Hopefully, our Laura is elsewhere. I don't think she does calypso.

Tony Cooper
Orlando FL

[nq:2]Tally marks.[/nq]
[nq:1]Hopefully, our Laura is elsewhere. I don't think she does calypso.[/nq]
I didn't have a-spira-tions to a response like that!

Let's see, there's Mark Brader, Mark Barratt, Mark Odegard, Mark Israel...
Mark Brader, Toronto "Do people confuse me with Mark Brader?" (Email Removed) Mark Barratt

spake thusly:
[nq:1]Well, they're not exlusive to prisoners, but you see them often in tails of prisoners using them in solitary confinement ... not the only means of making them, ink and paper seem to do just fine. What do you call them?[/nq]
I've always called them "gate ". Gate marks? Gate charts? Gate counts? Anyway, the five lines look like a five-bar gate. I strongly suspect I got th

[nq:1]Well, they're not exlusive to prisoners, but you see them often in tails of prisoners using them in solitary confinement ... not the only means of making them, ink and paper seem to do just fine. What do you call them?[/nq]
In the Brit Civil Service we always called it the five-bar gate system because a completed tally of five items looks like a gate with four horizontal bars and one dia

[nq:1]In the Brit Civil Service we always called it the five-bar gate system because a completed tally of five items looks like a gate with four horizontal bars and one diagonal.[/nq]
A five bar gate has five horizontal bars. The tally has four bars, not five, and they're vertical, not horizontal.
But it's close enough for government work, I'd say.

Mike Barnes
Cheshire, Englan

[nq:1]Well, they're not exlusive to prisoners, but you see them often in tails of prisoners using them in solitary confinement to count the days; 1, 2, 3, 4 vertical scratches on the wall, and a fifth scratch across them, and so on.[/nq]
That's also the method of scoring in cricket.
Mike

Tony Cooper filted:
[nq:2]... Tally marks.[/nq]
[nq:1]Hopefully, our Laura is elsewhere. I don't think she does calypso.[/nq]
Hiding from the deadly black tarant'la, I suppose..

I've also heard of the scratches being called "counting in base one"..r

[nq:1]Well, they're not exlusive to prisoners, but you see them often in tails of prisoners using them in solitary confinement ... not the only means of making them, ink and paper seem to do just fine. What do you call them?[/nq]
Tally marks. Here are some other people make them:

SML

[nq:2]Well, they're not exlusive to prisoners, but you see them ... seem to do just fine. What do you call them?[/nq]
[nq:1]Tally marks. Here are some other people make them: [/nq]
Firstly, the example "from Europe" has the diagonal going the wrong way. But more interestingly, these are of course tally marks, as they are keeping count, but any other type of marks keeping count would also b