Hungary Telephone tokens
Hungary has a special place in the history of the telephone, because it was the birthplace of Tivadar Puskás, who first had the idea of a telephone exchange. Upon emigrating to the US, he contacted Thomas Edison and convinced him to build a telephone exchange. In 1877, the Bell Telephone Company created the first experimental telephone exchange in Boston, based on the plans of Puskás. The first Hungarian telephone exchange was built in 1881 on 10 Fürdő Street (now József Attila Street). Photo: Metropolitan Szabó Ervin Library, Budapest Collection. Building on this invention, Puskás introduced “Hírmondó” (telephone Herald) in Hungary in 1893. The service operated as a radio station before radio had been invented. By that time, all telephone exchanges in Hungary were networked.
As the Hungarian government and military did not show interest in the telephone, the network developed along commercial imperatives. The system worked fine in Budapest and was largely absent in agricultural centres. Domestic long distance calls started to take off only in 1903.
The situation changed radically under communism, as the government took a monopolist position through Magyar Posta, but developed government and military connections as a priority. The result was that the Hungarian telephone network outside Budapest was and remained one of the worst in Europe until Magyar Posta became an independent government agency in 1983. In 1990, while there were still manual exchanges, digitalisation of the network started as the telephone service was spun off into the Hungarian Telecommunications Company (Magyar Távközlési - Matáv), now majority owned by Deutsche Telekom.
| National telephone tokens | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Filename | THU1 | |
| Side 1 | MAGYAR POSTA (Hungarian Post) and post horn with olive branch | |
| Side 2 | TELEFON ÉRME (telephone coin) | |
| Manufacture | copper-nickel | |
| Size (mm) | 21.0 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | ||
| Source | Groenendijk | |
| ||
| Filename | THU2 | |
| Side 1 | MAGYAR POSTA (Hungarian Post) and post horn with olive branch | |
| Side 2 | TELEFON ÉRME (telephone coin) | |
| Manufacture | copper | |
| Size (mm) | 21.0 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | ||
| Source | Groenendijk | |
| ||
| Filename | THU3 | |
| Side 1 | MAGYAR POSTA (Hungarian Post) and post horn with olive branch | |
| Side 2 | TELEFON ÉRME (telephone coin) | |
| Manufacture | brass | |
| Size (mm) | 21.0 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | ||
| Source | Groenendijk | |
| ||
| Filename | THU4 | |
| Side 1 | Dial / TELEFON AUTOMATA | |
| Side 2 | XV M or number | |
| Manufacture | copper-nickel | |
| Size (mm) | 21.0 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | ||
| Source | Groenendijk | |
| File:THU5.jpg | ||
| Filename | THU5 | |
| Side 1 | Dial / TELEFON AUTOMATA | |
| Side 2 | number | |
| Manufacture | brass clad iron | |
| Size (mm) | 21.0 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | holed | |
| Source | Groenendijk | |
| File:THU6.jpg | ||
| Filename | THU6 | |
| Side 1 | Δ L15 | |
| Side 2 | Δ L15 | |
| Manufacture | copper-nickel | |
| Size (mm) | 21.0 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | holed | |
| Source | Groenendijk | |
| File:THU7.jpg | ||
| Filename | THU7 | |
| Side 1 | Δ | |
| Side 2 | Δ / number | |
| Manufacture | Brass | |
| Size (mm) | 21.0 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | ||
| Source | Groenendijk | |
| File:THU8.jpg | ||
| Filename | THU8 | |
| Side 1 | Δ BM 1 | |
| Side 2 | Δ Bm 1 | |
| Manufacture | Brass | |
| Size (mm) | 21.0 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | holed | |
| Source | Groenendijk | |
| Budapest telephone tokens | ||
|---|---|---|
| File:THB1.jpg | ||
| Filename | THB1 | |
| Side 1 | FONCIÈRE / *BUDAPEST* / BIZTOSÍTÓ (insurance) | |
| Side 2 | TELEFON ÉREM (telephone token) | |
| Manufacture | Copper-nickel | |
| Size (mm) | 21.0 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | ||
| Source | Groenendijk | |
| ||
| Filename | THB2 | |
| Side 1 | SZT•ROKUS•KÓRHÁZCSOPORT•1936 (holy rock house group) | |
| Side 2 | arms and + | |
| Manufacture | Copper-nickel | |
| Size (mm) | 21.0 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | ||
| Source | Groenendijk | |
| File:THB3.jpg | ||
| Filename | THB3 | |
| Side 1 | SZENT JÁNOS•KÓRHÁZ (Saint John's House) | |
| Side 2 | TELEFON ÉRME (telephone coin) | |
| Manufacture | Copper-nickel | |
| Size (mm) | 21.0 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | ||
| Source | Groenendijk | |
| File:THB4.jpg | ||
| Filename | THB4 | |
| Side 1 | * VICTÓRIA HARISNYAGNÁR BUDAPEST (Victoria tights) | |
| Side 2 | TELEFON ÉREM (telephone token) | |
| Manufacture | Copper-nickel | |
| Size (mm) | 21.0 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | ||
| Source | Groenendijk | |
| File:THB5.jpg | ||
| Filename | THB5 | |
| Side 1 | IRGALMASREND KÓRHÁZA • BUDAPEST (House of Ireland) | |
| Side 2 | TELEFON ÉREM (telephone token) | |
| Manufacture | Brass | |
| Size (mm) | 21.0 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | ||
| Source | Groenendijk | |
| Pécs telephone tokens | ||
|---|---|---|
| File:THP1.jpg | ||
| Filename | THP1 | |
| Side 1 | number | |
| Side 2 | blank | |
| Manufacture | red painted steel | |
| Size (mm) | 28.0 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | ||
| Source | Groenendijk | |
| File:THP2.jpg | ||
| Filename | THP2 | |
| Side 1 | number | |
| Side 2 | blank | |
| Manufacture | green painted steel | |
| Size (mm) | 23.5 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | ||
| Source | Groenendijk | |
