BRASILE GETTONE TELEFONICO - LOCAL FONTAMAC anno 1990 Telebras scritta stretta

Location Brazil

Type Automatic tokens › Telecommunication token

Years 1980-1995

Composition Zamak

Weight 4.2 g

Diameter 23 mm

Thickness 1.9 mm

Shape Round with groove(s)

Technique Milled

Orientation Medal alignment ↑↑

Demonetized 1994

Number N#139451Help

References Port# 384-596, Groe# B1, Groe# B4, Groe# B10-B11, Groe# B13-B14-B15, Groe# B19-B20

Obverse

Two parallel horizontal slots, between them the term LOCAL, coined in low relief.

Above the first groove the date of the coinage (in this case 1988).

At the exergo, the mint mark FONTAMAC.

Script: Latin

Lettering:

1988

LOCAL

FONTAMAC

Reverse

Horizontal groove in the center.

Above the groove there is a square-shaped recess, followed below by the phrase read from top to bottom, with the words SISTEMA TELEBRÁS.

Below the groove is the logo of the Telebrás System, formed by a square with the peak of a sine wave in the center.

Script: Latin

Lettering:

SISTEMA

TELEBRÁS

Translation:

TELEBRÁS

SYSTEM

Edge

Smooth

Telephone Token - Telebrás (Local call - Fontamac) - obverse

© Renato Lima (CC BY-NC)

Mint

Indústria Metalúrgica Fontamac, São Paulo, Brazil

Comments

Telephone tokens, are tokens used to make public phone calls.

They appeared in Brazil in the 60's. Their diameter ranged from 20 mm to 30 mm and were made of iron, brass, copper, zamac, among others. They carried the name of their company and region on the reverse and each of them worked on a specific type of public telephone. Due to this problem, in 1970, CTB made the tokens have a unique pattern for each service area. The following year two different types of tokens were established for the whole Brazilian territory: those of long-distance calls that only operated on blue public telephones, and those of local calls that operated only on red public telephones.

In mid-1992, due to the high costs for maintenance, collection of the tokens in the telephones and also the vandalism, the company Telebrás next to its research center instituted the use of the famous Calling Cards. This greatly reduced the costs of maintenance and repair of the devices and provided greater convenience to service users. Five years later, on July 16, 1997, the General Telecommunications Law (Law No. 9472) was instituted, which was a plan to expand and modernize the public telephone system in Brazil, a fact that occurred one year before the privatization of Telebrás. With that the old tokens became obsolete and were taken from the streets, becoming hence the object of fans and collectors.

This type of plug was used for local calls, used in public phones, initially, red, installed in open booths with ear format, popularly called "big ear".