Taxiphone

[Figleaf]

My token is 4.2 grams and 23.9 mm, cornucopia on both sides. Your list in the first post says it should be brass. It's Cu-Ni. Now what?

Peter

[malj1]

Could it be the 4th one on the list?

[Figleaf]

Weighed it again. My wonderfully precise Japanese scales stubbornly refuse to change the answer.

Peter

[malj1]

My lousy Chinese scales say of my six Cupro-nickel:

Cornucopia with dots in legend on both sides

3@ 24mm = 3.8g 3.9g 4.0g

2@ 23.9 mm = 3.9g 4.0g

Cornucopia without dots in legend on both sides

23.9 mm = 3.9g

My conclusions  the 23.9mm ones have had more use than the 24mm 

[Figleaf]

I don't think the difference between 23.9 mm and 24 mm is particularly important. It could even be a rounding error.

Peter

[malj1]

Dahomey. D.T.  P.T.T.

This page gives the answer we need:

Google translate:
If the special token DT PTT with honors: in 1947 was issued a rare payphone token, modeled on the token 1937. Instead of cupro-nickel, it is yellow alloy, bronze or brass type and has instead the words "PUBLIC" letters "DT" which means Telecommunications Directorate.

JetonDT2

Two hypotheses explaining the existence, which seems to have been brief, are possible, and we can not represent that is closest to the truth.

1) it was envisaged by the government for 1947 to replace definitively on PTT token 1937 by the new model, then, that for one reason or another this token (for example by the fact that during 1946, the Department of Telecommunications was renamed General Telecommunications Directorate, and thus the token prepared during 1946 for a release in 1947 was found outdated barely hit) was returned directly in the foundry, and very little copies have escaped of the redesign, so that you only see one or two for sale and at prohibitive prices,

2) that this restricted token strikes was reserved to certain executives of the telecommunications administration so they can call for free, as I read on a website, but I have more trouble believing in this second hypothesis.

[redwine]

He forgot hypothesis 3!  Dahomey 

[Afrasi]

 

Indeed I once bought this token as telephone token from Dahomey (today: Benin). Then I read in the net DT should be read as "Directorate de Telecommunication" or similar. (My French is even worse than my English ...)
Of course I was a little bit disappointed, but meanwhile I have considerable doubts about this reading. The arguments (its scarcity for example) are all in the text of Mal.

[Figleaf]

The section on WoT is almost ready, but practically all pictures are still missing on the Taxiphone page. That's my fault. There are plenty of perfectly good pictures in this thread. However, I would like to hold out for pairs of pictures of both sides, even when they are the same, but in particular for the counterstamped pieces. Please help me be a perfectionist.

Also, I would be quite interested in confirmation of metal, magnetism, weight and diameter of the token in reply #15. It seems to be a discovery token.

Peter

[malj1]

Also, I would be quite interested in confirmation of metal, magnetism, weight and diameter of the token in reply #15. It seems to be a discovery token.

Peter

It has been listed in the French catalogue with attribution to redwine.

[Figleaf]

Thanks to malj1 we are down to 7 missing pictures now. Let's try to complete that page!

Peter

[malj1]

Here is an interesting page giving the history of Dahomey telecommunications.