Yesterday evening I was going through the motions of day to day life, while in a supermarket I decided to check a CoinStar reject tray. To my excitement their were contents within and I began picking through to see if I'd stumbled upon anything worth keeping. 12 cent sandwich with dirt and grime condiment... trash. Namco token.... trash. Washer....trash. But, I did find one piece of local exonumia that was well worth saving. As they say, "one man's trash is another man's treasure." Before I reveal what I found, let's go into a little backstory. I was born in 1990 on the south shore of Boston, when traveling to Fenway or the FleetCenter to take in a ballgame as a youth back in the 90s, or heading 'into town' for some mature (use of that word to be taken lightly) entertainment in my teenage years, there was one way to travel.... The T. And there was one form of currency... The T Token. Coming up in the 90s, this has always been my image of a T Token. Released in 1988, this was by far the most common token in circulation in Boston's underground at the turn of the century. Quite frankly, as far as I was aware it was the ONLY token in use. Come 2006, the advancement in technology ruled these pieces obsolete. Though they were still redeemable until 2012. Now the CharlieCard has taken over in the nation's oldest active subway system, which dates back to 1897. Back to the story, I'm rummaging through these round metal objects, all of which I condemned to a nearby landfill... except for one. (Same design on obv. and rev.) I was intrigued by this piece of exonumia and decided to hold onto it for further research. As of yesterday afternoon I wouldn't have known where this token was from or when it was issued. Following a couple of Google searches I came to realize this as the predecessor to the T Token of my youth. Originally minted in 1951 it was the token that bought a generation of Bostonians before me a ride on the green.. red... orange line, until it's successor with that trademark T design replaced it 37 years later. Known at the time as the Metropolitan Transit Authority, in 1964 Boston's subways were now controlled by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Though the name changed the token remained the same for 24 more years. I figured I'd share this story as it is an example of what numismatics can teach us. I wouldn't have thought I'd learn a bit more about some local history by finding a neglected token in a coin return tray, but it's these types of little finds that make this hobby so enjoyable to me. If any of you have read this far- I know, quite a long story- you're more than welcome to share your old subway tokens here. I know we have a long running, highly popular exonumia thread on the site, but I wanted to give this piece it's own little space. Any stories or subway tokens welcome. Good day CT, -Tony
30 or so years ago a fellow toll collector would vacation in Boston, he would always bring me a T token from Boston, When my 2nd son went away to collage he got accepted at Boston University. I gave him a token to see if they were any good. They were, Thanks to Richie, my son Zachary had a good supply. I still have about 10 or so tokens from Boston, Great City.
That is fantastic! The T is a great subway system. Thank you for sharing and hit Mike's on the North End.
When the MTA stopped using the tokens, they collected up al the ones being used at the end and wound up with a collection of 3.4 million of them, stored in plastic bags of 5000 each. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2012/07...e-take-them/9FpVkfz27FDaP8wbeCfTsO/story.html
And now Taxachusetts is flipping those tokens into yet more revenue... haha smh https://www.mbtagifts.com/collections/decommissioned-signs-maps/Token
Hey, why not? They'll get more for them that way than be scrapping them, but they do seem a tad overpriced.
