Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone Co. Token

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Author	Replies: 5 / Views: 1,356
Lucky Cuss Pillar of the Community United States 4883 Posts	Posted 04/19/2023 11:27 am The Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone Company was founded in 1883 for the purpose of combining the existing telephone systems in Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. Some communitiies in this region relied upon switchboards run by live operators for their service well up into the 1950's. Colligo ergo sum Report this Post to the Staff

HondoB Bedrock of the Community United States 24992 Posts	Posted 04/19/2023 11:59 am Very interesting token with great history, Lucky Cuss! I do wonder what "one local switch" is, and how these tokens were redeemed. From Wiki: Rocky Mountain Bell The Denver Dispatch Company was less than two years old when the Rocky Mountain Telephone Company began in Salt Lake City, Utah, with fewer than 100 subscribers. With the financial backing of American Bell, The Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone Company replaced Rocky Mountain Telephone in 1883. Rocky Mountain Bell immediately began an aggressive campaign to buy nearly every small telephone company in the region, and their operating territory soon covered nearly all of Utah, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. A combination of overspending, careless management, and the logistical difficulties of covering an extremely large, sparsely populated territory would eventually put Rocky Mountain Bell in financial trouble. These business practices stopped in 1911 when Colorado Telephone, Tri-State Telephone, and Rocky Mountain Bell merged to form The Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwest_Corporation Inordinately fascinated by bits of metal with strange markings and figures Edited by HondoB 04/19/2023 12:01 pm Report this Post to the Staff
erafjel Pillar of the Community Sweden 2124 Posts	Posted 04/19/2023 1:20 pm Yes, interesting token indeed! Quote: I do wonder what "one local switch" is, and how these tokens were redeemed. I would guess that means the token is valid for one local call, that is, a call within the local exchange. In those early days the token was probably given to an attendant at the public telephone office, rather than inserted into the phone. Payphones appeared around 1900, but perhaps not so soon in more remote areas. Report this Post to the Staff
jbuck Moderator United States 187702 Posts	Posted 04/19/2023 2:00 pm Very nice! Coin Collector Since 1978 Avatar Old Avatar 7070 Eisenhower Australia Canada World CCF Members on eBay CCF eBay Search Engine Report this Post to the Staff
Coinfrog Bedrock of the Community United States 94367 Posts	Posted 04/19/2023 5:32 pm Interesting, wonder what "switch" refers to as well. Report this Post to the Staff
jbuck Moderator United States 187702 Posts	Posted 04/20/2023 09:02 am Quote: Interesting, wonder what "switch" refers to as well. In this context, one switch is one call on the public switched telephone network using communications equipment, the telephone switch. Coin Collector Since 1978 Avatar Old Avatar 7070 Eisenhower Australia Canada World CCF Members on eBay CCF eBay Search Engine Report this Post to the Staff
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