Old Muni tokens
Photo by Joe Moore
When I moved to San Francisco in 2000, I lived on a cable car line and immediately began using it and the Van Ness bus lines. (Remember the 42-Downtown Loop? I sure do, and fondly.) Aside from riding wide-eyed around my new city, learning the ropes of the public transit system, I recall using tokens like the ones pictured above. They seem like such relics nowadays, what with the present-day move toward Clipper and electronic payment/proof-of-payment.
I’m pretty sure I saved one of these away in my little keepsake box at home.
Do you have any tokens left? Have you used any to ride Muni lately?
Related stories:
- Akit on the demise of the Muni token
- On Muni’s Wikipedia page, the earliest mention of tokens is 1947
No related posts.
December 3rd, 2010 in
Muni historical ephemera | tags: 1940s
Yes, I have a couple of brass “SF” tokens and a couple of aluminum “Market St. Ry.” tokens (Muni bought out Market St. Ry. in 1944).
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jeff Reply:
December 18th, 2010 at 10:46 am
Hi Dexter, do you have photos of the MSR tokens you could share with Muni Time Capsule readers?
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My remaining tokens are from the early ’90s, when Muni briefly handed them out when buses were late. I know that sounds strange to modern ears, but it is true.
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I have an old brass Muni token, if anyone wants it. It’s from the early ’90s, just as the poster noted above.
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Do you know where I can get the old tokens from? My friend wants to use them as part of her wedding theme as she is getting married in the city
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