Token - Telephone Test Token - Post Office HPK (5 Cents) ND

Reverse

Blank with rim.

Edge

Plain

Comment

These pieces were issued by the South African Post office for use by employees in testing public telephones and making emergency calls. There are several variants of these pieces spanning multiple denominations of both pre-decimal and decimal currency. Each variant was the same size, shape and material as its equivalent circulation coin so denominations can be attributed reliably to these pieces.

The HPK on this piece is an abbreviation for the Afrikaans "Hoof Poskantoor", or "General Post Office". This piece is listed as #442o in Hern's Handbook on South African Tokens (Second Edition 2009) on page 106.

Hern goes on to say that these can often be found painted in pale lime green, dark green, blue, red or brown. In an interview, a former post office worker explained that the paint was applied in order to separate these more easily from the circulation coins when emptying the cash boxes of public telephones.