Does anybody have a friggan' clue what this is???

MadMarty · July 18, 2004 8:38AM

Beats the hell out of me???

trozau · July 18, 2004 8:55AM

a token

MadMarty · July 18, 2004 8:56AM

For What???

trozau · July 18, 2004 8:57AM

Not sure but I believe they are transit tokens. They come up every now and then on eBay.

MadMarty · July 18, 2004 9:08AM

From where???

tbirde56 · July 18, 2004 9:15AM

An Italian 10 Lire token? The cutout is coincidentally in the shape of a guitar? Perhaps a music machine or music store, by the name of Goetz, token?

cosmicdebris · July 18, 2004 9:49AM

Goetz Telephone tokens???????

Askari · July 18, 2004 10:08AM

Looks almost like it was the frontispiece off of an old lock. First one I've ever seen.

AuldFartte · July 18, 2004 10:29AM

Anything on the reverse, Marty?

Placid · July 18, 2004 10:31AM

A L-10

trozau · July 18, 2004 10:32AM

<< <i>Goetz Telephone tokens??????? >>

I think Bill is right. I remember seeing them on eBay listed as Goetz telephone tokens.

cacheman · July 18, 2004 10:34AM

" Goetz Telephone tokens??????? "

Not "THE" Goetz cosmic....

MadMarty · July 18, 2004 10:35AM

The reverse is the same as the obverse...

cacheman · July 18, 2004 10:42AM

Do an internet search on "Goetz telephone tokens" and you'll find a lot of links. Unfortunately, none will point you to Karl X. Goetz as he never made telephone tokens.

MrEureka · July 18, 2004 11:03AM

Maybe they're subway tokens?

MadMarty · July 18, 2004 11:53AM

Looks like I have a Goetz Telephone token, seems they were popular here in Chicago from 1900-to the 1940s.

cladking · July 18, 2004 1:38PM

Yeah. It's a Chicago telephone token, and a slightly better one at that. I'd guess
there aren't more than a couple hundred of these in existence. It is probably a lat-
er issue but it's difficult to get info on these so a lot is supposition. The slots (and
grooves) are positioned differently on each token so only the proper token will fit
in the coin slot for the telephone. The telephones and their coin slots are extremely
rare and most are the tokens are scarce or rare. Despite being made in small numbers
there were many turned in for the WWII scrap drives (the tokens were obsolete by
this time).

These are actually cataloged with some 700 different. One of the most interesting
pieces is from the Chicago World's Fair. These tokens turn up at garage sales and
flea markets all around the Chicago area. They can generally be picked up for a quar-
ter and even dealers generally ask only $1.50 or so.

cladking · July 18, 2004 1:44PM

The early phones were plagued by people using slugs and the like which
cost the owner of the establishment which owned the phone. The most
common slugs were the amusement tokens of the time with a value as
low as 1 mil and often holed and the size of a nickel. People would hammer
a piece of lead into the center hole to plug it and gave rise to the expression
"not worth a plug nickel".

cosmicdebris · July 18, 2004 6:09PM

<<Not "THE" Goetz cosmic....>>

I know that!!!!!!!!!!

1jester · July 18, 2004 7:45PM

Neat token, and as usual, great info from Cladking.

tbirde56 · July 18, 2004 8:11PM

Well, my Wild-ass-guess was just blown out of the water!

ColinCMR · July 19, 2004 3:57AM

Cool, I want one now.

Thanks for the history lesson CladKing!

trozau · July 19, 2004 8:16AM

eBay auction listing

Askari · July 19, 2004 10:44AM

Now I know where the phrase "not worth a plug nickel came from"!!

cladking · July 19, 2004 12:29PM

Thanks for the link Trozau.

There was something familiar about his listing 78 types and 200 varieties.

I collected these for a couple years before I even knew what they were. Naturally I developed
by own cataloging system for these. My system uses many fewer types because when the collection
started there was no way to guess how many different shapes, sizes and compositions there would
be. So I limited the number of types by little trick like just counting the number of grooves per side
and ignoring their shapes and locations. The cut-outs were only counted as a new type if the shape
were entirely different. New letter combination and the like were counted as the same type. I found
the catalog of telephone tokens in the early eighties and it was extremely beneficial to me. Shortly af-
ter I got Frank Earl's (great guy) Slotted, Grooved, and Punched catalog. While it's OK, it is difficult to
use and of much less value to a more advanced collector. It wasn't until I saw those numbers in the link
that I remembered that this book even existed. I had read it when I got it and shoved it in a closet.

While it lists 200 varieties, I have 387 US tokens in my collection according to my records. Many of these
are just die varieties but there are tokens listed in neither reference. The collection is actually much larger
than this since it also includes darkside telephone tokens from many countries. I buy virtually every one
of these tokens which I see, often for a quarter or fifty cents and trade them to collectors all over the US
and world.

In the old days (pre-internet) I did this much more avidly but still do extensive trading. Since I collect
everything by die variety even common items can be needed in a collection.

It's great to be reminded of this great old (1979) reference.

Does anybody have a friggan' clue what this is???

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