Transportation Tokens a Lesson in History
Editor’s Note: For nearly 70 years, the feature-rich pages of Coins magazine, Numismatic News’ venerable sister publication, have tracked the history, fun and the growth of this great hobby, while also attracting new collectors to pursue what was once deemed the “hobby of kings.” Dusting off these time-aged issues, from the early 1960s and beyond, each installment of “Past Times with Coins,” written by its former longtime editor, explores what nuggets of interest they contain.
The May 1963 issue of Coins magazine saw the introduction of a regular column, “The Bus Stop,” by transportation token authority John M. Coffee, Jr. The first installment was titled “Pictures on Tokens Give Transportation History.”
“A picture is not really always worth a thousand words,” Coffee wrote. “Certainly some pictures I’ve seen aren’t worth a thousand of the words spoken by Winston
