Token Coin - Currency Tokens

Currency Tokens

In their purest form, currency tokens issued by a company crossed the boundary of merely being "trade" tokens when they were sanctioned by the local government authority. This was sometimes a measure resulting from a severe shortage of money or the government's inability to issue its own coinage. In effect, the organization behind the tokens became the regional bank.

A classic example of this is the Strachan and Co trade tokens of East Griqualand in South Africa which were used as currency by the indigenous people in the region for nearly sixty years. Their initial success resulted from the scarcity of small change in this remote region in the 1800s.

Similarly, in times of high inflation, tokens have sometimes taken on a currency role. An example of this is Italian or Israeli telephone tokens, which were always good for the same service (i.e., one phone call) even as prices increased. New York City subway tokens were also accepted sometimes in trade, or even in parking meters, since they had a set value.