2005 Card (with disc)

Author: Shanghai Telecommunications Co., Ltd. / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features:
1. A Brief History of the World Tractor Collecting activity is very similar to stamp collecting. When telephone cards were first introduced, people with a passion for collecting quickly recognized them as a brand-new collectible in modern society. The invention of telephone cards was initially intended to solve the problem of payphones without attendants. From Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone in 1876 to 1976, unattended payphones had been the dominant type for over a century. However, the problems with coin-operated phones were obvious. First, someone had to collect coins from the coin boxes at regular intervals. Second, the technology for making change had long been poorly resolved. Third, counting coins and exchanging them at banks consumed a lot of manpower. Additionally, due to the general quality of people in society, vandalism of coin-operated phones was a common occurrence in every country. This was a technical challenge that had puzzled telecom departments worldwide for a hundred years.
With the development of computer technology, especially the miniaturization of integrated circuit chips, unattended card-operated phones emerged. If you've ever used a tape recorder, you know that when a tape with recorded music is placed in the recorder, the tape heads "read" the music information from the tape. The working principle of a card-operated phone is somewhat similar to this, but it is far more complex. Because the area code information and face value information on the card are written into the magnetic stripe as "0" or "1" data, the card-operated phone not only needs to determine whether the card is valid but also needs to identify the stored value on the card. More importantly, the card-operated phone can deduct the appropriate charges based on the distance to the called number, which varies the rates. This is made possible by the high storage capacity and strong control capabilities of the central processing unit (CPU) inside the card-operated phone.
The public use of telephone cards began in late 1976 and early 1977, while experimental use started as early as 1975. The earliest magnetic card and optical card phones appeared in countries like Italy, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Therefore, Europe was the first region to use telephone cards and also the first to start collecting them. Due to the large number of collectors, early-issue telephone cards saw a significant increase in market prices, which in turn encouraged more people to join the collecting community. By the mid-1980s, collecting telephone cards had become extremely popular in European countries, especially in the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. In 1983, a 50-mark telephone card issued by Germany sold for as high as 5,000 marks in the collector's market. To meet the needs of collectors, the UK published the "Telephone Card Collecting Guide" in 1988. This book not only introduced collecting knowledge but also included telephone cards issued by 362 countries and regions around the world.
Europe, particularly the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands, frequently held telephone card exhibitions and exchange meetings. In early October 2004, the 13th International Telephone Card Exhibition was held in the UK, and in November 2004, an international telephone card exhibition was also held in Barcelona, Spain. In Asia, countries like Japan, New Zealand, and Australia also had active collecting communities. Japanese telephone cards, known for their variety, high-quality printing, and beautiful designs, were widely popular among collectors worldwide. Japan even published the magazine "Telephone Card Collection."
Besides the regular international telephone card exhibitions held in some European countries, Japan has also hosted competition-level international telephone card exhibitions. However, the exhibition rules and evaluation criteria, when viewed in the end, seem to lack standardization. The reason for this is closely related to the absence of a formal international collecting association. The rise of collecting activities in various countries and the exchange of card items among collectors worldwide have led to the emergence of internationally renowned telephone card collectors. Mr. Xu Wei from Suzhou, China, and Mr. Yang Xiaodong from Guangdong, China, are both internationally famous telephone card collectors.
P92-93