Those tokens are referred to as chips. They are presented ceremoniously to a member of Alcoholics Anonymous by that member's sponsor upon the anniversary of his/her sobriety date. As for dating them or pinning down the company that made them, I'm not sure. They seem to be pretty widely manufactured. The chip system might also be use for other recovery groups like Narcotics Anonymous and the multitude of other spinoffs.

The "recovery tokens" that you featured are some of the first tokens that I ever saw as a child: Both of my parents were in Alcoholics Anonymous, and they were awarded these tokens for their first few months of sobriety and subsequent anniversaries of their sobriety. My parents also "twelve-stepped" other people going through treatment/sober life and awarded these medals to those they sponsored.

Recovery tokens are probably the hardest medal there ever was to earn. They’re given to Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous members to celebrate months and years of sobriety.

I once took in a drunk and these tokens became his most prized possessions. They symbolized his freedom and celebrated his accomplishment.

I don’t know what the Gay Lesbian one is about. I’ve seen recovery tokens in supply house catalogs, but never in a public auction.

My gut would say that they'd are simply chips made for meeting groups that are exclusively gay and lesbian. For the same reason that there are men's meetings and women's meetings ....because there are just some things that require the most accepting environment, whether that be restricting by gender or sexual orientation.