Phone tokens started in
Chicago, in the
United States, where public phones would accept only tokens. Tokens were used in the U.S. until 1944, when they were eliminated and most of the tokens were melted down to make
shell casings. The earliest-known telephone token dates from 1885, when it was produced for the PAN
Telephone Company in
St. Louis, Missouri. Rather than being deposited in the phone, the token was sometimes given to an attendant or placed in a
coin box to gain access to the phone booth. The practice of using tokens and allowing their specific value to float with the going rate for a phone call eventually became the standard world-wide practice. This came in especially handy in European countries where currencies changed as one crossed national borders, but a token could still be used. It was also the practice for some restaurants to have their own tokens so that those bought at a different place could not be used at that business. In some countries, such as with Italian
gettone, they were used informally as cash equivalents. Most telephone tokens are round and many have grooves. ==See also==