Brazil Sistema Telebras FONTAMAC token {1980-1995}

FEATURING
front: 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.

Lettering:
1988
LOCAL
FONTAMAC

back: 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.

Lettering:
SISTEMA
TELEBRÁS

Translation:
TELEBRÁS
SYSTEM

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.

• quantity 1
• demonetized {no longer in mintage} polished Zinc coin
• diameter: 23 mm
• weight: 4.2 g

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1980 1995 Brazil Brasil Sistema Telebras FONTAMAC public phone locals call telephone token coin pendant necklace Brazilian jewelry Rio de Janeiro São Paulo Recife Belo Horizonte Brasília Porto Alegre Salvador Copacabana Ipanema Fortaleza Curitiba Goiânia Carioca Belém Pelourinho Pernambuco Minas Gerais Ouro Preto Bahia Manaus Amazonas Campinas Vitória Espírito Santo Paraná Goiás Rio Grande do Sul Baixada Santista São José dos Campos São Luís Maranhão Natal Maceió Alagoas João Pessoa Paraíba Ceará Cruzeiro do Sul Leblon Guanabara Gávea Barra da Tijuca Lagoa samba Sancho Bay beach Fernando de Noronha Florianópolis Foz do Iguaçu Gramado