new york transit token earrings
new york transit token earrings
new york transit token earrings
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new york transit token earrings
new york transit token earrings
new york transit token earrings

New York Transit Token Earrings

These earrings have been carefully crafted from authentic 1950's era dime-sized New York transit tokens which were in use from 1987-2006.  

$195.00
Sold out

Product Details

Tokens conceived of using the NY token in a variety of jewelry way back in 1980.  It took 11 years to become the first licensee of the New York Transit Authority in 1991. These 70's era tokens are set in sterling swivel findings, and hallmarked "NYCT" on the back. Each Pair comes in a New York subway map-themed gift box with a Certificate of Authenticity.

 

Measures 3/4" in diameter

Authenticity

Officially licensed by the New York MTA. For more than 20 years now, the NYCTA, now known as the MTA, provided Tokens & Icons with thousands of transit tokens directly from its depository. Receipts and documents for each purchase of tokens are kept on file at Tokens & Icons' headquarters.  Tokens has also worked with subway maps, marble from the floor at Grand Central Station and even collaborated on a mini Metrocard for use as an accessory.  All items created have gone through a stringent approval process by the MTA. The entire collection is also offered for sale in the two NY Transit Museum Stores in New York. Given this longstanding relationship, you can be 100% confident with the authenticity of your purchase.

 

Periodic cleaning with a silver cloth is recommended.

How Tokens & Icons Came to Be

Tokens & Icons was founded in 1991 when Ward Wallau was approved for a license with the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA). This occurred eleven years after he first approached them in 1980 when they filled in the "Y" of the quarter-sized "Y-cut" subway token.

After collecting a hundred of the "Y-cut" tokens, Ward thought they might be a logical way to reincorporate the tokens into New York's daily life and celebrate them as an icon of the city's rich transit history. With his first fifty pairs of authentic New York Subway Tokens, he received positive feedback and thus began his decade-plus endeavor to secure a license.

During the eleven years, Ward had intermittent contact with the NYCTA, and finally secured permissions from the NYCTA and the authentic tokens. He and Bulova Watch were the charter licenses. Bulova chose to replicate the tokens, yet Tokens & Coins (the original name of Tokens & Icons) was able to embark with the long sought after "authentic" token.

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