Norway telephone tokens
Until 1905, Norway was dependent of Sweden. The Swedish company Konglige Elecktriska Telegraf Werket (Royal Electrical Telegraph Works) worked in Norway from 1855. Its successor companies were known as Televerket (Telecommunication works) or just Tele. The first telephone service in Norway was offered in 1878. The first public telephone dates from 1885. International telephone calls became possible in 1893. Automation of the telephone system was started in 1920 and completed in 1985. Televerket opened its first manual mobile telephone system in 1966. In 1969, the company adopted Televerket as its official name. In 1994, the company became a state Aksjeselskap (limited liability company) called Telenor AS. Telenor lost its telephone monopoly in 1998. In 2000 it was privatised. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwide.
There are test tokens in Swedish style for testing and calibrating the mechanism for accepting 50 öre and i Krone coins in public telephone equipment. They were struck by the Oslo mint.
A second group consists of tokens for use in public telephone booths installed by Narvesens Kioskkompagni, originally a Norwegian chain of newspaper kiosks that had a monopoly on Norwegian train stations. They also acquired the rights to install telephone booths in Oslo, at first in their newspaper kiosks, later as standalone booths that could be operated by tokens sold in the kiosks during business hours. The dies for this group were first completed on August 22, 1931 by Sporrong, a Swedish token producer. The denomination 10 öre and the single coin slot suggest that the Narvesen installations could only make local calls. When Narvesen’s concession ran out on 31 December 1934 Telegrafverket and Oslo Telefonanlegg took over the public phones in Oslo. Photo: Telenor.
| Norway telephone tokens | ||
|---|---|---|
| File:TNT1.jpg | ||
| Filename | TNT1 | |
| Side 1 | O D / 9 | |
| Side 2 | O D / 9 | |
| Manufacture | Brass with 2.5mm centre hole | |
| Size (mm) | 17 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | 25 öre test token | |
| Source | Øverland | |
| File:TNT2.jpg | ||
| Filename | TNT2 | |
| Side 1 | TELEVERKET/number/Oslo mintmark | |
| Side 2 | blank | |
| Manufacture | Bronze clad copper-nickel | |
| Size (mm) | 22 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | 50 öre test token TNT2 Varieties
Number between 0 - 9 | |
| Source | Øverland | |
| ||
| Filename | TNT3 | |
| Side 1 | TELEVERKET/number/Oslo mintmark | |
| Side 2 | blank | |
| Manufacture | Bronze clad copper-nickel | |
| Size (mm) | 25 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | 1 Krone test token TNT3 Varieties
Number between 0 - 9 | |
| Source | Øverland | |
| File:TNT4.jpg | ||
| Filename | TNT4 | |
| Side 1 | TELEVERKET/number/Oslo mintmark | |
| Side 2 | blank | |
| Manufacture | Bronze clad copper-nickel | |
| Size (mm) | 29.5 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | 5 Kroner test token TNT4 Varieties
Number between 0 - 9 | |
| Source | Øverland | |
| File:TNK1.jpg | ||
| Filename | TNK1 | |
| Side 1 | -*- / TELEFONKIOSKERNE | |
| Side 2 | 10 / C.C. SPORRONG & Co / STOCKHOLM | |
| Manufacture | Brass | |
| Size (mm) | 19.5-20 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | ||
| Source | Øverland | |
| ||
| Filename | TNK2 | |
| Side 1 | -*- / TELEFONKIOSKERNE | |
| Side 2 | 10 / C.C. SPORRONG & Co / STOCKHOLM | |
| Manufacture | Aluminium | |
| Size (mm) | 19.5-20 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | ||
| Source | Groenendijk | |
| ||
| Filename | TNK3 | |
| Side 1 | -*- / TELEFONKIOSKERNE | |
| Side 2 | -*- / TELEFONKIOSKERNE | |
| Manufacture | Aluminium | |
| Size (mm) | 20 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | ||
| Source | Øverland | |
References
Groenendijk, Henk A.: A Catalog of Telephone and Telegraph Tokens of the World. Leiden 1989.
Øverland, Magnar : Norske Poletter og akkordmerker. 2003