Subway Tokens Ride Into the New York City Sunset
The subway token slipped toward retirement Saturday, its 50-year career as the currency of city life ended by technology and fiscal problems.
Tokens were being rationed two to a customer, with sales scheduled to end a minute after midnight.
“It’s part of New York, just like Yankee Stadium is part of New York,” Albert Morales said. “I grew up on tokens.”
For 44 years, until 1948, subway fare was a nickel. Then for five years, it was a dime. With fares set to rise to 15 cents in 1953, the token came into existence because turnstiles couldn’t accept two coins at once.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is eliminating the token to save the $6 million in annual costs to manufacture and retrieve them.
With swipe cards first introduced in the late 1990s and now in wide use, tokens fell to just 9% of all fares.
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