The SF Municipal Railway token. Smaller than a dime, and made of brass. Designed in 1945 and sold continuously until 2004. You drop a token into the fare box, and retrieve a transfer good for about 2 hours. The goal over the years was convenience -- no more searching for the right coinage or paper dollars -- and holding up the bus or streetcar while you looked. Muni sold packages of tokens at various outlets across the city. And they functioned like "forever stamps." Even if the price went up in the future, your token would be good for a ride. And that was the problem.
When an upcoming Muni fare hike was announced, people would rush out and buy up all the tokens. In a word, hoarding. The world today is moving rapidly toward e-payments, including Muni. They stopped selling tokens 15 years ago, and only provide them to social service programs that serve audiences like the poor and homeless. At some point, Muni will stop accepting them all together. If you come across one, hang onto it. It will be a collectible.
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