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.
Read more about this topic: Token Coin
Famous quotes containing the words currency and/or tokens:
“There is no legislation—I care not what it is—tariff, railroads, corporations, or of a general political character, that all equals in importance the putting of our banking and currency system on the sound basis proposed in the National Monetary Commission plan.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“It is the part of men to fear and tremble
When the most mighty gods by tokens send
Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)