ASIMON: A token (from Greek: ἄσημον ("ἀ-σεμον"),
"without a sign", in the language of the Sages) is a means of payment
that was used for using a public telephone. The token is a non-negotiable
currency, and its price was updated from time to time. The token was inserted
into an appropriate slot in the public telephone to make a call from the device.
There is an expression in Hebrew, “the ASIMON finally fell.”
It means a major realization had finally illuminated one’s consciousness. {הָאֲסִימוֹן
נָפַל}
This expression harks back to the clinging sound of the
metal token falling into the slot the moment someone answered the phone on the
other end. If no one answered, you weren’t charged and the token would eject
and be returned to you to use the next time you made a call from a public
phone.
Time was when regular coins were used to make calls. Rapid
inflation made it impractical, and pay phones were re-fitted to accept special
tokens, “ASIMONs” only. You could buy them at the post office and use them no
matter how much the charges increased, similar to the “Forever” first class stamps
of today for physical mail.
Most young Israelis have no idea what an ASIMON is. They’ve
never seen one. Goodness, they’ve never used or seen a public pay phone. Whole
articles in Hebrew exist on the interwebs to explain the expression’s origins. Once
the young’uns read these articles, their ASIMON would also fall, or cling, and
they’d realize why this odd expression exists.
A time will come when postal stamps and perhaps postal
service will also have to be explained. Denmark has just ended their postal
services for physical letters, and Sweden no longer has cash money. The
physical reminders of what once was continue to exist as collectibles, perhaps
to be sold on eBay or some such.
When I cleared up my mother’s belongings, I found that years
after their demise, she had held on to a bagful of ASIMONs. I kept a few because the tangible, touchable,
handleable still matters. In the same way we may keep a hairbrush of someone
who has left this world, even keeping their strands of hair still in it, I hold
on to these ASIMONs.
Why?
I will not sell them on eBay. I don’t need them to explain
the Hebrew expression regarding an important realization, as the digital virtual
net does a fine job of that.
I need these physical metallic objects in my life to testify
that I didn’t imagine what was. It really was part of the world, my world, just
like all the other things both inanimate and living that have left it and exist
as memories and legends.
ASIMON= Israeli token for pay phones
{The Hebrew date on them corresponds to 1966}
