| Name | Tongya Type 101 coin-operated telephone |
| Date | C. 1968 |
| Manufacturer | Manufactured by Tongya Telephone Co., Ltd. for the Directorate General of Telecommunications (DGT). Made under licence from Tamura Japan. Very interesting phone. |
| Link | Same model as used in Greece |
| Credit | Special thanks to the Taiwan National Science and Technology Museum |
Development of the Taiwan Type 101 coin-operated telephone
The Tongya Type 101 coin-operated telephone represented the first generation of conventional coin-operated public telephones installed across Taiwan.
The Type 101 coin-operated telephone, introduced in Taiwan in January 1968, was made by Tongya, the local representative of Japan’s Tamura. Its red cabinet contains a rotary dial, side-mounted handset, top coin entry and a separate lower cash compartment. The Type 101 shares its design with the grey Tamura payphone widely used in Greece, demonstrating the international reach of this Japanese telephone design.
According to Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Museum, the introduction of a small five-cent coin caused problems when it was inserted into public telephones and jammed their mechanisms. The Taipei Telephone Bureau improved the coin sorter, completing the modification in March 1968.
The phone appeared during a period of rapid change in Taiwan. The island was governed by the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek, with martial law in force. Its economy was shifting from a reliance on agriculture towards manufacturing and exports, while investment in telecommunications expanded access to telephone services. www.cambridge.org
In Greece, the corresponding Tamura design was adapted for local coins and remained in use from the late 1960s into the 1990s. The Taiwanese and Greek examples show how the same practical payphone design could be adapted for different networks and currencies.
Below- on the left is the Taiwanese version, on the right is the Greek version that was deployed in 1968.
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