Re: What's This Telephone Related Item?

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> I was cleaning out a desk drawer last night and ran across this > item. It's about .007" wider and thicker than a US quarter. I > can't remember where I got it, but the Princess phone on the back > leads me to believe it's payphone related.

It's not payphone related at least not for the US. I've seen and used such a token when I was at a gym with a pay metered tanning booth. The token looked exactly as the one you have illustrated.

That said many countries did use tokens in their public pay telephones. In Israel for years they used tokens. Part of the reason for keeping on using tokens is if your currency is unstable all you have to do is to raise the price of tokens (typically obtained at the "post office" or at kiosks.) During times of inflation it's almost impossible to find tokens since people hord them knowing that because inflation is so rapid it's a "hedge" against inflation since tokens will increase in price as inflation happens. With that system in place it's not even necessary for the telephone company to increase debiting for calls since the cost of tokens has increased.

Reply to
Mr Joseph Singer
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