EZZACARDS PHONECARDS

GERMAN HISTORY

BAMBERG - SEL

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In January 1980 the SEL company began the testing of systems of telephone prepayment cards on behalf of Deutsche Bundespost. The first trials involved the microchip cards manufactured in Turin, Italy. These trials were abandoned in a few months because of high cost per unit and lack of security features. USED AVAILABLE

During this time, it seems that at least one chip card was handmade, out of two pieces, in a similar style, but with different style of notch. It is with pleasure that I show you the first German chip card. SHOWN SEPARATED:

AND AS ONE UNIT:

In November 1980, SEL began testing with COPYTEX. The first cards had to be trimmed because the reader was set too small. The cards were hand-numbered in red, and E12 at the bottom. (for einheiten 12 units?) The cards were very cheap, and using "LICHTDURCHLASSIGKEIT" (a small portion of the card was of a different type of paper, letting special light through in a secret place on the card) the security of the card was very high. The row of 8 holes is 21mm long (exactly 3mm between holes). They are called "Volumen karten". AVAILABLE

Later the readers were adjusted correctly, and the cards are hand numbered in pencil, very small, at the bottom, under "bereich". Other hand written comments are on some of the cards. AVAILABLE

Only one "diagnosekarte" is known.

The last of the "volumen karten" were made using orange color for the first time, and are called now "COPYCHECK". The holes are now from this time, exactly 4 mm between. (28mm for the 8 holes) AVAILABLE

SEL must have requested a more durable material for multiple usage, and PVC was used to test durability. So now, around late 1981/early 1982, two types of materials are being tested. Here is shown the first PVC Copycheck, it is bare plastic, not like the Bamberg PVC (1984-5) cards which are thinner, with a paper coating.

Later PVC cards show the DM value on the cards. Here are the ones I know from around 1982. The first one is plain PVC. This example of the 20dm PVC card is hadwritten "Zweischicht-PVC" next to the value. AVAILABLE -1 COPY

The 1.15dm, and 10dm PVC cards are different in that they are now coated with a layer of paper material. The 10dm card is hand written "einschicht-PVC". The values 1.15, 10, and 20 marks correspond to the unit values 5, 40, and 80 einheiten used in the later Bamberg trials. AVAILABLE only 1.15 DM card

"Papier" prototypes were used at the same time as the PVC. I have seen 2 different 10 DM, and only one 20 DM. I don't know if the 1.15 DM was also made, MORE INFORMATION ??

The test cards used before the beginning of the Bamberg field trials show the decision to show the unit value of the cards, and not the DM value. So these are the last prototypes before the cards were designed for the Bamberg trials.

Here are also some generic copytex cards used by SEL. These cards are genuine phonecards, but similar cards may also exist for Photocopy machines in the universities.

The Bamberg trials are covered on page 2

 

 

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