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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.
Anyone want it for their collection (Patrick has first right of refusal)?
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A long time ago, pay telephones did not accept money as such; they were operated with 'telephone slugs'; at least the ones in Chicago were. I know if you wanted to use the pay phone at Walgreens for example, Walgreens sold the slugs for five cents each; Illinois Bell redeemed the slugs for four cents each, which is how the merchant made his commission on pay phones in the 1920's. You bought one or more slugs, depending on your needs, and used them in the pay phones. When the collector came around each week or two, he would open the box, dump out the slugs and resell them to the Walgreens clerk at the discounted rate. Since that time (in the 1920's) there have been other occassions where merchants sold slugs for the payphones and telco redeemed them to the merchants. Since you say your example has a 'Princess phone' stamped on it and since it is approximatly the size of a 25-cent coin, my hunch is it may have been used for the phones at one of the world's fair's such as New York back in the 1970's. If you are offering to give it away, yes, I will take it. PAT]