Token of the Past?

More odds and ends found cleaning out drawers.  Why on earth would I have had this?
It's a token good for a bus ride....circa 1950.  I'm old, sure, but I was not even born then.

Its a small token, smaller than a dime.  And its had a bit of wear.  So I had to look close and come up with the name.  HARVEL MOTOR COACH COMPANY.   

On the other hand there is no doubt what it was worth.  One ride on a bus shaped like a loaf of bread.  The Harvel company was a small line in Arlington Heights, a suburb of Chicago.

Transit tokens are not rare.  You find them from all over.  They served on bus, train, subway and tram lines.  They were useful because the driver's primary job was to, well, drive.  Time spent making change, or scrutinizing fares was time wasted.  So as soon as fares were no longer something convenient like a dime....you needed an alternative.  The interesting cut out shapes were also designed to let the driver identify the correct token with a simple glance.

When I was a younger lad I went to high school across town.  I took the bus.  And I remember a few of the old style "breadloaf" buses still being on the streets of Minneapolis circa 1970.  I guess they were later sold off to Mexico City. 

When you entered the bus there was a little stand up station, like a podium.  It stood next to the driver and you dumped your fare in.  It fell down into an area about four inches square that had a conveyor belt on the bottom.  The driver could have a look at what you'd dropped in before it rattled downwards.   

And this is a Minneapolis token, probably from the days when there were still streetcars.  I vaguely recall that an updated token was still in service in the 1970's but I never used them.  

I figured tokens were extinct in 2019.  This is after all the 21st century and almost anything can be accomplished by waving your phone at things.  But surprisingly the Metro Transit site still lists tokens as an option.  Apparently they are mostly used by social service agencies to give to their clients.  I suspect the tokens are sold at a significant discount so that these people can get around town.  And having no retail value it is a better idea than giving sometimes unreliable folks handfuls of cash.