Singapore telephone tokens
Singapore's history of telecommunications starts with the Scottish telecom baron John Pender. He owned China Submarine Telegraph company, that wanted to link Singapore with London. Another Pender company, Telcon, supplied the cable. Pender's Oriental Telephone and Electric Company (OTEC) set up telephone lines connecting local businesses of that era. The bell on their token is a reminder that in those days, it was necessary to operate a crank on the phone, that would reveal the telephone number to the operator and ring a bell. The client would ask for the number to be connected with and the operator would establish the connection by hand. OTEC was succeeded by the local government in 1907.
Singapore was occupied by Japanese forces in 1942. The token marked DENWA KYOKU dates from this period. The occupation was ended after a formal surrender in 1945 with a spree of destruction, murder, looting and arson. Besides its many human victims, the Japanese destroyed a significant amount of infrastructure, including the telephone network. It took 5 years just to return to pre-war service.
In 1955, the Singapore Telephone Board (STB) was given responsibility for local calls. In 1974, it merged with the Telecommunications Authority of Singapore (TAS), that organised international calls, to form Telecommunications Equipment. This organisation was incorporated as SingTel in 1992, being floated on the Singapore stock exchange in 1993. However, the Singapore government kept a decisive voice through its sovereign wealth fund, Temasek. SingTel lost its domestic monopoly in 2000. It is now a global telecommunications player.
| Singapore telephone tokens | ||
|---|---|---|
| File:TSI1.jpg | ||
| Filename | TSI1 | |
| Side 1 | Bell with OTEC, ORIENTAL TELEPHONE & ELECTRIC COMPANY LTD. | |
| Side 2 | ONE CALL, 10 CENTS | |
| Manufacture | bronze | |
| Size (mm) | 21 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | Grooved | |
| Source | Groenendijk | |
| ||
| Filename | TSI2 | |
| Side 1 | DENWA KYOKU - telephone department | |
| Side 2 | blank | |
| Manufacture | steel | |
| Size (mm) | 18.5 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | ||
| Source | Noble Numismatics PTY | |
