History mystery solved - "1952" Garden State Parkway toll token is 1980s vintage

Toll tokens minted for the New Jersey Highway Authority (NJHA) for use on its Garden State Parkway in the 1980s all had the year "1952" stamped on them, 1952 being the year the NJHA was established. With coins the convention is that they are stamped with the year of minting, but that convention wasn't applied to Garden State Parkway toll tokens. (see picture) We've been wrestling with this after we carried an advertisement for a 1952 token.

The mystery was solved by Denise deSante, now manager, constituent services at the New Jersey Turnpike Authority who worked at the New Jersey Highway Authority before its staff and the State Parkway were merged into the Turnpike Authority a few years back. deSante who has a personal library of Parkway materials and annual reports going back to the beginning is described as the go-to person on historical issues.

deSante said simply that the '1952' refers not to the minting date but to the founding date of the Highway Authority.

We also contacted the former executive director of the NJ Highway Authority George Zillochi  who told us that the first tokens were sold on the Garden State Parkway June 15, 1981.

However early on there wasn't much use made of them, he says, because  the main toll rate at the barrier plazas was 25c and they were simply a substitute for using a quarter in the coin machines. Demand for the nickel plated tokens took off in early 1989 when plans were announced for an increase in the toll from 25c to 35c. Plans provided for the token to be valid despite the higher toll.

The authority was concerned that if most motorists went from throwing a quarter to throwing the quarter and a dime or a quarter and two nickels into the coin machine baskets throughput would drop seriously and queues would become unmanageable.

They needed to promote use of the token. As a promotion the token was to be sold for 25c for several months.

"It was a disaster," Zillochi says.

"We kept the price of the tokens at 25c from April when the cash toll went up and the plan was to go to 33 1/3c for tokens from July 1. Demand (at 25c) was huge. We couldn't keep up with it. We couldn't supply enough (tokens) to meet demand. We had to limit sales to three days a week. Even then motorists were lining up at midnight (before token sale days) to buy tokens. They were hoarding them. We had toll collectors being threatened (for limiting sale of tokens, or running out of tokens). It was ugly."

Charles McManus, a former chief engineer of the Highway Authority also remembers the 1980s all-nickel plated tokens as becoming a problem because they were sufficiently similar to arcade tokens that counterfeiting started to emerge.

To combat counterfeits or substitutes the Authority went to a more expensive bimetallic token with a brass center or 'bullseye.' That started in the late 1989 and the all nickel alloy tokens of 1981 vintage (pictured) were phased out.

New coin machine mechanisms deployed a magnetic field to sense the bimetallic tokens and separate them from counterfeits.

Tokens could be paid to toll collectors but most, of course, were used in the automatic coin machine lanes which provided fastest passage prior to E-ZPass. Zillochi says that over 70% of vehicles used the automatic coin lanes when the alternative was paying a toll collector.

They stopped selling tokens completely after 20 years in 2001, a couple of years after the advent of electronic tolling (E-ZPass). Then began a long process of reducing the number of automatic coin machine lanes, converting them to E-ZPass electronic tolling.

But for seven years tokens kept turning up as payment from hoarded stocks.

The authority announced last fall it would cease accepting tokens on Dec 31 2008.

Through the month of December there was a 'redemption' or buy-back offer in effect - for the bimetallic tokens that had been sold from 1989 onward.

BACKGROUND: Jerry Stutts who lives near the Garden State Parkway and who has driven it for years sent us pictures of what seemed to be a Garden State Parkway toll token dated 1952. He'd had the token for many years and told us he wondered if it was of any value to a collector. We ran a free ad for him thinking that like a coin the date was the year of minting. Wrong!

If anyone wants a 1980s token marked "1952" contact him at

bearcat1737@verizon.net

Previous writings on this:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/3988

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/4057

HISTORY

A 37-page official history of the first five years of the Garden State Parkway published by the New Jersey Highway Authority in about 1959 or 1960 provides the following timeline using our preferred yyyy-mm-dd format:

1945: enabling legislation passed for construction of the Parkway, NJ state highway department to build as a tax-funded road

1950 Spring: first short section of Parkway opened, tax-funded, Cranford to Woodbridge

1952: state highway department in six years had built only 20 miles of the Parkway and it was apparent reliance on tax funding would stretch construction over decades

1952-04-14: state legislation passed to construct the Parkway from Cape May to NJ17 in Paramus (164 miles) as a self-funded toll road under a new state agency to be called New Jersey Highway Authority (NJHA)

1952-06-26: first members of NJHA board appointed

1952-08-07 first loans obtained by MJHA

1952-08-21: first construction contracts let by NJHA

1952-11-04: voters of New Jersey overwhelmingly support the toll plan and a state pledge guarantee Highway Authority bonds

1952 December: challenge to constitutionality of state guarantees mounted and caused activity to be put on hold

1953 first half of year NJHA's fate lay with the courts

1953 June court challenges to NJHA and state guarantees finally rejected by state high court

1953-07-08 first longterm bonds sold

pre-1954: three segments opened by NJ state highway department: 13 miles Woodbridge to NJ22 Union, 3 miles Toms River, 4 miles at Cape May courthouse

1954-01-12: first section built by NJHA

1954-07-01 Governor Robert B Meyner in a smalll ceremony cut a ribbon near the northern terminus and paid the first toll at the Bergen toll plaza

1954 summer on several openings per month through the third quarter of 1954

1954 July opening of 17mi, 1.5mi, 22mi for a total of 38.5 miles in that month

1954 August: 22mi, 11mi, 18mi, 12mi, 6mi, 4mi for a total of 73 miles in that month

1954-September: 4mi, 4mi total of 8 miles opened

1954 October: 6 miles opened

1954-10-23: formal official opening celebration at Telegraph Hill with Governor Robert Meyner, ex-Gov Alfred Driscoll and 3,000 guests at which time a continuous 143 miles was in operation

1955-07-01: "full operation" declared of 164 miles (except for Great egg Harbor Bay crossing)

1956-05-26: Greeat Egg Harbor Bay crossing opened and continuous operation cape May to NJ17 Paramus.

1957-07-03: nine miles added in the north, NJ17 to NY state line, bringing total length in operation to 173 miles

Copy of pdf of "The First Five Years of the Garden State Parkway"

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/GSPFirst5Yrs.pdf

TOLLROADSnews 2009-03-18