new york transit token & metrocard necklace
new york transit token & metrocard necklace
new york transit token & metrocard necklace
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new york transit token & metrocard necklace
new york transit token & metrocard necklace
new york transit token & metrocard necklace

New York Transit Token & MetroCard Necklace

This necklace celebrates the two recognized forms of currency for getting around New York. An authentic dime-sized Y-cut New York transit token circulated since the 1950's and a mini MetroCard. The Token was phased out in 1999 and the MetroCard is meeting a similar fate, due to be discontinued by 2023. The mini MetroCard was printed at the same MTA press where the standard versions are produced.

$68.00
In stock

Product Details

Ships with 18" antique brass chain. Officially licensed by the MTA, each item comes in a New York subway map-themed gift boxed with a Certificate of Authenticity.

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.

 

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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